Fit for the Future: Enhancing and adapting practice for new paradigms of higher education

The knowledge, skills and values learners need to cultivate to thrive in the changing workplace, characterised by shifting market demands, evolving technologies, and changing organisational needs, are undergoing significant changes. To ensure ongoing career progression, professionals must now be creative, complex problem solvers, self-aware, and cognitively agile lifelong learners. Our learning, teaching and assessment instruments must develop and measure the outcomes students and employers want and need.

Following the Modes of Learning practice guide published in 2022, we will produce two more guides: A Modes of assessment practice guide designed to support colleagues in developing authentic assessment instruments that promote academic integrity and desired learning behaviours and a guide to multi-modal learning, teaching and assessment.  

To enable students and staff to operate effectively in online environments, they need opportunities to develop their digital competencies alongside access to reliable IT infrastructure. This requires investment in people and technology. Educational leaders at senior levels—such as Heads of Schools or Faculty—are frequently tasked with integrating digital strategies into their sphere of influence. However, they are not always equipped with the necessary expertise to effectively guide this process.

In collaboration with JISC, Advance HE will facilitate establishing and developing a network dedicated to assisting colleagues in exploring and disseminating leading practices related to driving digital transformation. Thought leaders will be invited to share their expertise with the network through podcasts or panel discussions to stimulate debate and discussion. The Advance HE Connect platform will share artefacts and sustain the community.  

In a world saturated with information, educators must prioritise not merely the transfer of knowledge but the comprehensive development of learners. Increasingly, educators will focus on empowering students to foster confidence and evolve into self-reliant learners and professionals. Educators who can guide learners in cultivating self-awareness and self-reflection play a pivotal role in enabling them to critically evaluate their beliefs, values, and actions – prerequisites toward achieving transformative learning and becoming sustainable citizens.

This member benefit will support educators to reflect on how they can guide students through their own academic and personal/professional journeys, emphasising growth and self-empowerment necessary for agency. It is hoped that colleagues who engage in these activities will be interested in developing a cross-sector community of practice.