 Southampton University welcomes the fact that it is hosting the first UK Advising and Tutoring Conference and also welcoming delegates from all over the world, including the American Parent Organisation, the CARD. Academic Advising and Tutoring is so important today because the students we have today have many challenges to overcome as they go through higher education and if we are going to get the most out of the education for them and if we are going to support them and allow them to maximise their own potential, we need to help them on the path through that. I think that UKAT in itself is so important in connecting with people. I think we all work or a lot of us are working in this area and have no idea that actually things have happened in other parts of the world but also what else there is going on in the UK so it has been a great opportunity to hear what other people are doing and share experience. It was also very exciting to have two Vice-Chancellars talking about advising and having people at their level talking about the importance of personal tutoring for students. Great to be inspired by some good lectures this morning and some really great ideas coming out of the sessions. I attended the keynote speaker. This keynote was very interesting because I found out what is happening in the United States in terms of advising and tutoring and coaching and all the support model. It's the first time I've been to an event like this. I think UKAT is really capturing what we need to be doing as academics. We need to be looking at the journey that students take, not just standing out in front of them teaching them. UKAT has captured that and given us an opportunity to really learn a bit more about how to best support those students. I think it's very important to connect and build networking. Nacana, which UKAT is an allied association of, has been around there for 40 years and probably the key piece of what has made us so successful and I think UKAT will be just as successful as the idea of networking. The opportunity to talk to people who are doing the same thing that you're doing. I think looking at how it benefits the university, even at the most simple level, I think you're looking at the fact that if you can help students stay with the course and achieve, obviously, a better performance, it's going to reflect very positively on the university. More broadly though, if we look at this, obviously what you're doing is looking at how you understand the challenges that students face. It means you can deal with better courses, better support and in fact it might serve the broader issue of universities and society in a better way.