The principal aim of this network is to co-create spaces for leaders of college-based higher education across the UK to come together and share practices, devise solutions to meet their challenges and opportunities and build stronger links with the Advance HE community.
From the outset, there were recurring themes being explored by network members, which included:
- Developing HE ethos (culturally and physically), and creating an HE community within FE contexts.
- Collaboration opportunities for CPD, research and scholarly activity, and sharing best practice.
- Marketing of the CBHE distinctiveness, graduate attributes, and currency of skills.
- Collective campaigns.
- Regulatory bodies and changes, and learning from other national bodies.
Advance HE CBHE Network Collection on the National Teaching Repository
CBHE Network Festival of Scholarly Activity and Research
Following the launch of the Advance HE College-Based HE (CBHE) Network group in March 2022, it is clear there is much effort towards creating a HE culture in FE settings and the development of research and scholarly activity. This Festival aims to celebrate the excellent work being undertaken by CBHE practitioners and provide an opportunity to share practice, collaborate, and develop as a collective group.
Festival 2023
The CBHE Network curated an event centered around College-Based Higher Education (CBHE) with themes including widening participation, teaching and learning methods, mental health, research engagement, artificial intelligence (AI), precarious employment, and HEI-SME alliances.
The event commenced with a welcome keynote by Dr. Nena Skrbic, followed by presentations from various experts. Topics covered encompassed the role of higher education in widening participation, staff experiences in teaching methods, the impact of mental health on teaching and learning, research engagement, the effects of remote teaching on student skills, and the potential of AI in research support.
Attendees had the opportunity to select from breakout sessions on confidence building, writing practices, addressing precarious employment, and utilising AI in college contexts. Networking and discussions on HEI-SME alliances, modernising education, and understanding group diversity were also part of the program.
The event culminated with presentations on enhancing student persistence, research and scholarship journeys, raising student achievement, and a talk on Fellowship and the Professional Standards Framework by Raj Dhimar, Senior Advisor from Advance HE.
Members can use the link below to access the resources from the event.
It's a great opportunity to meet colleagues and knowing their work. Hoping to collaborate with colleagues to carryout some interesting research."Mahruf Shohel, The Bedford College Group, Research and Development Manager
Festival 2024
This year our one-day event took place on Monday 8th July at University Centre Peterborough and the theme simply be ''Celebrating College-based Higher Education”
The CBHE Festival was informative and inspirational, it was lovely to see in some of the talks how passionate people were about their subject areas and students, it also provided an opportunity to share good practice. It was clear to see that we all want the best for our HE students, for them to achieve beyond their expectations, and to be there to support them throughout their educational paths, after all, learning is a journey to help them reach their destination.''Angharad Morgan, Senior Officer: HE Quality & Standards, University Campus - NPTC Group of Colleges
Really great opportunity to connect with others in CBHE. Especially where we don’t traditionally get the opportunity to be as well represented at other conferences. Great to meet people with the same challenges and aspirations for their learners."Toni Phillips, Academic coach, Newcastle College University Centre
CBHE Scholarly Activity & Research Toolkit
This toolkit has been devised through collaboration among the Advance HE College-based HE (CBHE) Network Group. It is a positioning resource to help providers and practitioners understand what they already have in place regarding their research culture, with advice and guidance to take the next steps. The toolkit provides guidance and links to helpful resources to support CBHE providers in developing scholarly activity and research within their institutions and as part of an HE culture. Practitioners will be able to dip in and out of the toolkit as they need without a need to start at the beginning of the toolkit. Read the news story.
Advance HE CBHE Network Collection on the National Teaching Repository
This collection, which sits within the National Teaching Repository, is designed to be a one-stop shop of resources geared towards helping academics, lecturers, researchers and other staff working in college-based higher education to understand, access, use and share scholarly activity. The collection has been convened by the Advance HE’s College-Based HE Network.
The CBHE Repository provides a platform for researchers to share their ideas with others on a dedicated open-access searchable resource database. This helps your work reach a much wider audience and prevents repetition of work across academics. You can share your ideas, download others’, and apply them immediately in your practice.
You can access and explore The Collection here.
Further details and resources on how to submit to The Collection can be found in the resources section of the CBHE Network's Connect page.
Network Outputs
Besides the creation of the network itself, other key deliverables of this network include:
Insights report
This report on the CBHE network for Advance HE college-based members across the UK summarises the current network and provides recommendations for future outputs.
Online Discussion Space
A curated online space on Advance HE Connect for discussion to continue outside of allotted meetings and sharing of key resources.
Meet the team
