From today, 10 January 2011, English language students wishing to attend exclusively English language courses will be able to apply for a student visitor visa allowing them to stay for up to 11 months - the Extended Student Visitor Visa. A Frequently Asked Questions document has been put together and can be downloaded here.

The latest edition of the British Council seminar programmme will be held on 18 January at Spring Gardens in London. The evening session will be led by David Baker and Keith Harding and will focus on building common ground between ESP and ESOL in the UK.

Learning Without Frontiers would like to invite English UK members interested in the business and learning potential of smartphones and tablets (i.e. iPad) to a fringe event of the LWF Conference next Tuesday in London.

The event, "Disruptive innovation, what impact will handheld learning have on language education and publishing?" will take place at the Cass Business School, City University London, 106 Bunhill Row London EC1Y 8TZ on 11 January 2011.

Please note that our office will be closed for the holidays from Friday 24 December 2010 until Tuesday 4 January 2011.

After many years of trial and error, Rod Sloane has finally come up with successful strategies for making marketing more systematic and successful. Rod is an authorised Duct Tape Marketing coach and will be speaking at the English UK Marketing Conference on 27^th January 2011. Here are Rod's seven handy steps for small business marketing success: