. 4E*J• j7UKAT AnnuaL Report 2024 - 2025
Students at the Heart
UKAT is a member-led organisation supporting personal tutoring and advising in the UK, with 48 institutional members from all mission groups and a growing community of colleagues supporting each other in their roles as personal tutors or academic advisors.
Contact us
UK Advising and Tutoring 🌐: ukat.ac.uk ✉: hello@ukat.ac.uk
Registered address: York St John University, Lord Mayors Walk, YORK YO31 7EX
UKAT is a charity registered in England and Wales. Charity Registration Number: 1185020
Message from the Chair
UKAT Turns Ten!
2025 marks the 10-year anniversary of UKAT. That’s 10 years of helping to shape the future of personal tutoring and academic advising in higher education, 10 years of building community, fostering collaboration, enhancing practice and advancing scholarship. We, the Board of Trustees, are grateful to our entire community of member institutions, committed volunteers, partners, supporters and the UKAT staff team for their collective effort in making UKAT a success. We look forward to building on that momentum over the next decade. This annual report outlines our main activities and contributions to the sector over the past year.
Amidst a year marked by considerable challenges and uncertainty across the higher education sector, our organisation has not only persevered but continued to make meaningful progress, reflecting the resilience and commitment of our community. We have focused on ensuring we offer value for money and remain dedicated to enhancing student support and academic advising. The institutions participating in the pilot program for accredited membership have completed their first full academic year, benefiting from its numerous advantages. Additionally, we successfully hosted another conference and published the inaugural issue of the new Waypoint Journal. These initiatives reflect our ongoing pursuit of advising and tutoring excellence, even in the face of adversity.
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So, as we embark on the next 10 years of commitment to innovation, community building and the continual enhancement of advising and tutoring, we look back with gratitude for what we have achieved and look forward to exciting times to come.
Neil Bangs, UKAT Chair
Structure, Governance and Management
UKAT is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, governed by a constitution, with a Board of Trustees elected by members of the charity.
Board of Trustees
Neil Bangs Chair
Susan Smith Finance Committee Chair
Dionne Barton
Ann Bingham Vice-Chair (Community Engagement)
Abigail Moriarty
Oscar van den Wijngaard Scholarship
Sarah Bosch Vice-Chair (Professional Development) Michael Talbot Publicity and Advocacy
Josephine Gabi Equity and Inclusion
Chief Executive Officer
David Grey
UKAT has followed National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO guidance, and adopted and adopted NCVO sample policies and procedures in defining its organisational structure and procedures.
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Vision, Mission and Values
The UK Advising and Tutoring association (UKAT) is a charitable trust and learned society representing scholars and practitioners of personal tutoring and academic advising in the UK higher education sector.
Our vision
UKAT’s vision is for every higher education student to experience effective personal tutoring and academic advising which personalises their learning and enables them to flourish.
Our mission
UKAT mission is to advance effective personal tutoring and academic advising, transforming advising practice so that every higher education student can experience inclusiveness, wellbeing and personal growth, leading them to flourish and succeed. We support the development of staff and students throughout the learning journey by sharing resources, practicing scholarly inquiry, promoting partnership, fostering community, and espousing excellence in personal tutoring and academic advising practice.
Objectives
The objects of the charity are to advance the education and success of Higher Education students through the provision of effective personal tutoring and academic advising.
Our values
Inclusive: UKAT is open, welcoming and accessible to all involved in supporting student success, including students themselves.
Collaborative: UKAT promotes partnerships across the higher sector, within institutions and with students, for the benefit of students, and for the benefit of the personal and professional development of advisors/tutors.
Listening: UKAT actively seeks the voice of students, advisors/ tutors and institutions to inform thinking on current issues and to help our members in supporting their students and institutional missions.
Enabling: the UKAT community encourages and motivates advisors to improve their practice and work effectively with the diverse range of students they support.
Scholarly: UKAT seeks to advance advisor/tutor skills and practices through engagement with evidence-informed approaches.
Professional: UKAT seeks to recognise the importance of the advising/tutoring role, and to define the standards and values which underpin it, for the greater good of students, colleagues, institutions and higher education in general.
Student-Centred: Students are the reason why UKAT exists and are at the heart of everything that UKAT does.
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Objectives and Activities
UKAT seeks to achieve its objectives by advancing the field of academic advising and personal tutoring and working with key stakeholders, including members, higher education institutions, their staff, and students, to enhance academic advising and personal tutoring practice. UKAT supports the sharing and dissemination of good practices through conferences, webinars, professional development activities, professional recognition, research, resources, articles, and networking.
UKAT views itself as a learning association and promotes a scholarly-informed approach to personal tutoring/academic advising to its members, as well as the adoption of highimpact, evidence-informed practices by individual educators and their institutions to enhance student outcomes. UKAT encourages all personal tutors/academic advisors to engage with and contribute to the scholarship of the field to enhance their own practice and develop more effective practice across the whole higher education community. UKAT also supports, promotes, and facilitates the dissemination of research into personal tutoring and academic advising to enhance the publicly available evidence base of effective practices and encourage all practitioners to adopt a scholarly-informed approach.
UKAT provides a range of consultancy, professional development and training for personal tutors and academic advisors
through webinars, online courses, networking opportunities and practice-sharing events.
The two primary professional development activities offered by UKAT are a freely available monthly webinar series open to anyone and the UKAT Annual conference. UKAT partners with LVSA, the Dutch study advising association, to provide two events each year that are freely available to members of the UK and European higher education communities.
UKAT offers advice and guidance to higher education institutions seeking to improve the provision of personal tutoring and academic advising processes for their students. It does this through:
• Publications and guidance documents, including a professional standards framework
• Freely available educational resources for higher education providers and individual personal tutors/academic advisors to use in supporting their students
• A structured Curriculum of online professional development courses and in-person workshops which available to both members and non-members
• Consulting directly with individual higher
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education institutions
Improvements in Governance
Committed to our charitable mission, UKAT has made several improvements to its governance this year. This has included introducing a number of new policies from the list recommended by the Charity Commission. Additionally, to protect our long-term future, we have introduced a risk management approach and actively taken steps to mitigate our risks to ensure that we can meet our mission and strategic goals. The Board of Trustees regularly monitor and review our risk register, and the risk mitigation strategies that we adopt.
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Main Achievements
UKAT Grows!
Despite turbulent times in the sector, UKAT continues to grow. Our membership has remained steady, demonstrating the value that institutions put on the value of advising and tutoring and the value of the support that UKAT gives them. The Professional Recognition scheme has seen the largest number of applicants register in a given year. We are thrilled to have granted 61 individuals Professional Recognition awards, acknowledging their incredible work in supporting students.
The UKAT Professional Development Curriculum has added three new online modules, bringing the total to 15 and covering a range of topics. Engagement with these modules has continued to be high, with more than 479 module registrations across the curriculum. We even have several individuals who have completed all of the modules! Even more thrilling, we’re gearing up to launch an expanded suite of facilitated workshops and offering our UKAT community opportunities to get involved with development and facilitation, highlighting our continued spirit of collaboration.
Now a mainstay in our calendar, our webinar series Tutoring Matters continues to prove popular with our membership. This year, we have added to our already extensive archive of webinar recordings with another 11 delivered by experts from across the sector. In the live sessions alone, we reached 737 participants from across the 141 institutions, representing more than 700 hours of CPD and knowledge exchange provided to our community.
We are delighted to announce that we have grown our staff team by introducing a Chief Operating Officer role. This allows UKAT to provide more support to more institutions in more ways, which we believe will continue to enable us to meet our mission. The momentum is building, and our community’s appetite for growth and innovation has never been more vibrant.
Influencing Policy
UKAT is proud to contribute to the wider higher education sector and has been involved in several collaborative projects again this year. January saw the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce publish a Competency Framework for Responding to Students in Distress, which UKAT was involved in developing. Recognising the important work personal tutors do to support students, we made the publication available at the annual conference. UKAT is also actively engaged in another of Professor Edward Peck’s key initiatives, the Student Support Redesign project, in collaboration with Advance HE. This work reflects our ongoing commitment to enhancing the student experience and shaping innovative, inclusive support structures across the sector. We were also delighted to
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contribute to Professor Peck’s recent Roundtable event on Personal Academic Tutoring, sharing sector-wide insights and championing the vital role of academic advising in student success. Additionally, UKAT is working closely with national stakeholders on the development of the Disabled Students Commitment, reinforcing our dedication to equity and accessibility in higher education.
Enhancing Scholarship: The First Edition of WayPoint is Published
Following last year’s announcement of the new reflective journal of student advising and development in tertiary education, WayPoint, we are delighted to report that the first edition was published in March 2025. WayPoint encourages submissions that link research to practice, highlight innovative pedagogic approaches, and promote community collaboration. Comprising editorials, opinion pieces, case studies, synthesis and application articles, research papers, and reviews, WayPoint is redefining the dissemination of knowledge and best practices within our field throughout Europe. The inaugural edition consisted of nine articles, which were contributed to by 14 authors in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, and the USA. Of global interest, these articles have already been accessed more than 2700 times, with readers from 34 countries on six continents! We are already accepting submissions for the next issue and look forward to publishing on an ongoing basis.
Where Past Meets Future: Our Annual Conference Celebrates a Decade of Shaping Futures
Our fantastic community gathered at University College London in April to celebrate a decade of UKAT and consider how personal tutoring can create joyful learning and life experiences for staff and students. Our opening keynote, styled as a TV panel show and moderated by Column Cronin, brought together UKAT Board members and guests to reflect on UKAT’s evolution, the development of academic advising over the past decade, and strategies for addressing future challenges and supporting both students and the sector In the closing keynote, Jenny Shaw from Unite Students asked delegates to consider compassion in advising and discussed the Advance HE Competency Framework for Responding to Students in Distress developed by the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. Both of these documents were made available to delegates. The gathering of over 200 delegates representing six nations became a vibrant tapestry of ideas and inspiration, forging new connections and sparking innovative collaborations. Energised by this success, we are setting our sights on the
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Main Achievements
2026 conference at Manchester Metropolitan University, where we aim to surpass all expectations and welcome our most diverse and international cohort yet!
New Resource to Aid Personal Tutoring Enhancement
As an organisation that embodies collaboration and the sharing of ideas, we know that there is much to learn from others. Across the sector, several institutions are reviewing their advising and tutoring approaches and looking to other institutions for inspiration. That is why we have developed a library of advising and tutoring policies published by UK Universities. UKAT Members can access this from our resources site. We’ve done the searching, so they don’t have to!
Collaborative Consultancy: Advancing Personal Tutoring Excellence
We are proud of our collaborative approach to supporting institutions to meet their goals; between our institutional accreditation scheme and other consultancy services, we have worked with several institutions to provide tailored support. This has included tailored training sessions, advice on designing personal tutoring frameworks, review of policies and sharing sector-wide insights. These institutions have shown a strong commitment to enhancing and achieving excellence in personal tutoring, and it is a privilege to support them along their journey.
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Main Achievements
Special Interest Groups
Our Special Interest Groups (SIGs) remain a cornerstone of our vibrant community, continuing to be a highly valued member benefit. These dynamic groups gather at least twice a year, bringing together professionals who share passions and expertise in specific aspects of personal tutoring. Through lively discussions and collaborative initiatives, SIGs champion UKAT’s strategic priorities, exchange best practices, and actively enrich our collective resources and professional development offerings.
This year, we’re thrilled to welcome two inspiring additions: the Senior Leaders Network — inviting sector leaders from within and beyond the UKAT membership — and the Mental Health and Wellbeing SIG. Each new community brings fresh perspectives, energy, and expertise, and we eagerly anticipate their positive contributions to the UKAT community. Together, our SIGs continue to foster innovation, connection, and excellence throughout our field.
Looking to the future, we’re excited to share that we’ve answered the call to explore a brand-new Special Interest Group (SIG) focusing on advising medical students. Medical students face a formidable array of challenges: from immense cognitive pressure and persistent mental health concerns like anxiety, depression, and burnout, to spending extended periods on clinical placements far from familiar campus support networks. Advising these students requires an intricate understanding of their specific needs and often involves a web of advisors—some inside and some outside the university, not all of whom are versed in the nuances of academic regulations or available resources. Our conversations have revealed that these challenges aren’t limited to medicine alone. Students in allied health professions like nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, and veterinary and dental programmes face similar hurdles stemming from the existence of clinical placements. Fuelled by curiosity and a drive for impact, we hosted a scoping meeting to discuss whether a singular SIG for medical students or a
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Main Achievements
broader community for all clinically focused disciplines would best serve our members. The enthusiasm and innovative ideas shared at this session were incredibly valuable. As we sift through suggestions and chart our course, we’re energised by the prospect of launching a dynamic new SIG focused on the tutors’ and students’ unique voices and experiences in these fields.
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Financial Review
The UK Advising and Tutoring association (UKAT) is a charitable trust and learned society representing scholars and practitioners of personal tutoring and academic advising in the UK higher education sector.
At the heart of our financial health are the membership fees, which are predominantly sourced from our partnerships with higher education institutions. This pivotal revenue stream is bolstered by the income generated through our comprehensive training programs and the accreditation of individual practitioners. Moreover, the annual conference emerges not just as a beacon of shared knowledge and innovation but also as a significant contributor to our financial surplus.
As a digitally-forward organization, UKAT prides itself on its strategic focus in developing cuttingedge digital infrastructure and automation. This commitment ensures that we provide an array of indispensable services with efficiency, powered by a lean yet highly specialized team. Our investment in people is profound, with a significant portion of our expenses dedicated to staff salaries. We’ve built our team with a deliberate emphasis on diversity in expertise, paying competitive salaries commensurate with the high standards of the UK higher education sector to attract and retain top talent.
In a strategic move this year, UKAT has ventured into the realm of financial investment by opening an interest-paying deposit account. This marks a significant step in our endeavour to enhance the management of our financial resources, aiming to secure and grow our funds wisely. Upholding our values, our financial assets, including our current and deposit accounts, are held by the Cooperative Bank. This choice reflects our commitment to supporting organisations that share our ethical views and offer exceptional services to small charities like ours.
This financial synopsis highlights UKAT’s sound financial management and initiatives and underscores our continual growth and dedication to supporting the higher education sector. Our strategic financial decisions are integral to fostering a sustainable future for UKAT, enabling us to soar to new heights in training, accreditation, and beyond.
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Financial Review
Receipts
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2024-25 2023-24
Membership £ 35,055 £ 31,960
Conference £ 33,376 £ 45,983
Consultancy £ 791 £ 4,092
Sponsorship £ 5,000 £ 3,700
Education and Training £ 49,220 £ 43,080
Merchandise and Sales £ 350 £ 320
Interest Earned £ 828 £ 35
Sub total (Gross income for AR) £ 124,620 £ 129,237
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Payments
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2024-25 2023-24
Salaries £ 81,423 £ 64,765
Pensions £ 19,893 £ 12,791
Conference £ 20,835 £ 18,951
Consulting £ 650 £ 300
Travel £ 1,697 £ 4,220
Insurance £ 429 £ 208
IT & Software £ 9,134 £ 4,631
Publicity and Marketing £ 1,256 £ -
Subscriptions £ - £ 188
General Expenses £ 1,545 £ 2,579
Exchange rate Adjustments £ 39 £ -
Bank Fees £ 41 £ 22
Payment Processing Fees £ 766 £ 824
Total Payments £ £137,707 £ 109,794
Net of receipts/(payments) £ 13,087 £ 19,443
Transfer between funds - -
Cash funds last year end £ 124,571 £ 105,128
Cash funds this year end £ 111,484 £ 124,571
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Financial Review
Assets and liabilities at the end of the period
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2024-25 2023-24
Current Account £ 70,278 £ 84,067
Deposit Account (Reserves) £ 40,863 £ 40,035-
PayPal Account £ 345 £ 411
Stripe Account £ £ 594
Total cash funds £ 111,486 £ 124,572
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Reserves Policy
The Charity Commission recognises that it is important for a charity to keep funds in reserve to strengthen the charity’s resilience against drops in income or the demands of new initiatives.
UKAT is primarily funded by higher education institutions and receives most of its annual income in July – August and January – March. To ensure the sustainability of its operations and activities in a market sector facing significant financial challenges, UKAT’s policy is to hold the equivalent of nine month’s operating costs (75% of annual operating costs) in reserve. Operating costs include staff salaries, IT infrastructure costs, and general running costs. Reserves are held in a 35-day notice, interest-paying deposit account.
UKAT undertakes to fully comply with this reserve target over any three-year period. The financial reserves held by UKAT will be used to:
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maintain essential services and activities for UKAT’s members and beneficiaries
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manage unforeseen financial difficulties
The Board of Trustees will review this policy at least annually to ensure its effectiveness in light of the changing financial climate and other risks. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, the Finance Committee will review the required reserves quarterly to ensure that they are adequate to fulfil our continuing obligations and advise the Board of Trustees of any changes required to the Reserves Policy.
At the end of the 2024-25 financial year, UKAT holds £41k in reserve, which represents 37% of the annual operating costs. It is the Board's intention to increase the reserves held over the next two years to enable UKAT to meet its reserve target of 75% of annual operating costs.
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Declarations
The Trustees have considered the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit to satisfy themselves that UKAT’s activities meet the public benefit requirements. The Board of Trustees takes account of the public benefit guidance in considering proposals for the introduction of new activities, and changes to existing ones..
The Trustees declare that they have approved this Annual Report
Signed on behalf of the UKAT Trustees
Neil Bangs Chair
Ann Bingham Vice-Chair (Community Engagement)
Date 16 October 2025
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UK Advising and Tutoring 🌐: ukat.ac.uk ✉: hello@ukat.ac.uk
UKAT is a charity registered in England and Wales. Charity Registration Number: 1185020
UK Advising and Tutoring
1185020
Receipts and payments accounts
CC16a
| For the period from |
5/1/2024 | To | 4/30/2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
Section A Receipts and payments
| Section A Receipts and payments | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts Membership 35,055 Conference 33,376 Consultancy 791 Sponsorship 5,000 Education and Training 49,220 Merchandise and Sales 350 Interest Earned 828 Overpayments Received 124,620 - - Sub total - Total receipts 124,620 A3 Payments Salaries 81,423 Pensions 19,893 Conference 20,835 Consulting 650 Travel 1,697 Insurance 429 IT & Software 9,134 Publicity& Marketing 1,256 Subscriptions General Expenses 1,545 FX Loss 39 Bank Fees 41 Payment ProcessingFees 766 Refunds Made Sub total 137,707 - - Sub total - Total payments 137,707 Net of receipts/(payments) - 13,087 A5 Transfers between funds - A6 Cash funds last year end 124,571 Cash funds this year end 111,484 Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ Sub total(Gross income for AR) A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Restricted funds |
to the nearest £ Endowment funds |
Total funds to the nearest £ 35,055 33,376 791 5,000 49,220 350 828 - 124,620 - - - 124,620 81,423 19,893 20,835 650 1,697 429 9,134 1,256 - 1,545 39 41 766 - 137,707 - - - 137,707 - 13,087 - 124,571 111,484 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
| - - - - - - - - |
31,960 45,983 4,092 3,700 43,080 320 35 67 129,237 |
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| - | 129,237 | |||
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64,765 12,791 18,951 300 4,220 208 4,631 - 188 2,579 - 22 824 315 109,794 |
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19,443 - 105,128 124,571 |
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B5 Liabilities B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
Details Current Account Deposit Account PayPal Account Stripe Account Details Details Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
to nearest £ 70,278 40,863 345 - 111,486 Agreement Error to nearest £ - - - - - - Unrestricted funds Unrestricted funds Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates |
to nearest £ - - - - OK to nearest £ - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Restricted funds Restricted funds Amount due (optional) |
to nearest £ Endowment funds |
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Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
Date of approval
Signature
Print Name
Neil Bangs 10/16/2025 Oscar van den Wijngaard 10/16/2025
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl membors of UK Admsing and Tutoring (UKAT) On accounts for the year ended 30th April 2025 Charlty no (if any) 1185020 Set out on pages l port to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (e Trusf) for the year end8d 30 10412025 Rosponsibllitios and As the chartty trustees of the Trust, you ara responsible for the preparation basis of report of lh8 accounts in accordance with the requirem6nts of the Charities Act 2011 {'the A¢r). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts Garried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applic*ble Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145{5Xb) of the Act. I have complet8d my examination. I confimi that no material matters have Come lo my attention in conneclion with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: accounting records were not kept in accordanGe with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do rtot accord wlh the accounting records Independent examIneS statement I hav8 no conGems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order lo ènable a proper understanding of Ihe accounts to be reached. Signed: Date: Name: Sarah Mcconnell Rolgvant professlonal qualification{s) or body (If any): Member of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) IER October 2018
Address: 56, Lewes Road Haywards Heath RH17 7SN Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concem {sea CC32, Independent examination of Charity accounts.. directions and guidance for examinars). IER October 2018
Give here brief detai15 of any Items that the examlnerwishes to disclose. IER October 2018