Each year we consult with our global membership on where and how we can support them in meeting current challenges and building capability for the future.
The Collaborative Development Fund is a yearly scheme that offers all Advance HE members the opportunity to apply for grant funding to undertake work on important sector needs and goals. In 2024-2025 we are offering grants of between £10,000 and £15,000 (inclusive of VAT) across four broad themes.
By tackling important sector challenges collectively, the funding awarded by Advance HE helps our members to find new solutions and benefit from the shared learning of what works in a diverse range of teaching and research settings. Our global membership base of over 440 institutions of every shape and size means that the project outputs and findings will be reflective of how challenges can be overcome in many different contexts.
This year's Collaborative Development Fund focuses on four broad strategic themes, aligned with our member benefit global themes.
Applications for the 2024-25 Collaborative Development Fund are now closed.
Application for 2025-26 Collaborative Development Fund are now open. Please follow the link below for more information.
Securing Student Outcomes
Student success remains at the heart of higher education. As student needs and regulatory expectations change, institutions need to be able to adapt to secure the best outcomes for their learners and provide a transformational learning experience. This includes anticipating and responding to increasingly complex and challenging demands for student support and effects on student wellbeing.
Collaborative Development Fund 2024-25 Awardee under this global theme is listed below. Further details will be shared as the project progresses.
Curtin University Australia, Murdoch University (Western Australia), Curtin Dubai, Lund University (Sweden), and Aschaffenburg Hospital (Germany)
Tapping the Talent: Securing Student Well-Being Outcomes Through Evaluation of Global University Campuses
Designing Education for the Future
We want our members to feel inspired and supported as they consider future strategies, enhancement planning, and the delivery of education change and have ready access to contemporary examples of institutional change.
As the higher education landscape evolves, institutions must adapt their offerings to meet changing student needs, employer demands, and societal challenges. This theme explores innovative approaches to curriculum design, pedagogy, and institutional models for the future of higher education.
Collaborative Development Fund 2024-25 Awardees under this global theme are listed below. Further details will be shared as the projects progresses.
De Montfort University, University of South Wales (USW), and Southern Cross University (SCU) Australia
From Imagining Block to Enacting Block: Insights into Design and Delivery of Educational Change
University of Chester, University of Hull, Southern Cross University (Australia), and University of South Wales (UK)
Reimagining Curriculum Across a Whole Institution: A Strategic Toolkit and Practical Recommendations
Protecting inclusion in times of change
Many of Advance HE’s members are grappling with the challenge of managing a wide range of EDI priorities amidst a tightening financial situation. These issues are further complicated by global and societal events, such as international conflicts and the growing backlash against EDI, fuelled by political, social, and economic tensions.
What's concerning is that these priorities are often tackled in isolation, leading to unnecessary complexity and placing more strain on already limited resources. There’s a real missed opportunity here to create more integrated, intersectional approaches that could reduce duplication of effort and make better use of resources.
Collaborative Development Fund 2024-25 Awardees under this global theme are listed below. Further details will be shared as the projects progress.
University of Chester and University of Hertfordshire
Developing a Framework for Meaningful Equality Impact Assessments Underpinned by Co-Production Principles for Holistic Use Across the HE Sector
Curtin University Malaysia and Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak
Towards a More Inclusive Future: Is Sarawak Ready for the Free Tertiary Education that Embraces Indigenous Diversity? A Case Study in Southeast Asia
Member Benefit Global Themes 2024-25
Each of the Collaborative Development Fund projects aligns to our 2024-25 global member benefit themes.
In the early part of 2024, we consulted across our membership to understand the major challenges facing institutions. We’ve heard clearly that our members are facing significant pressures and demands – from delivering and maintaining excellence in the student experience, to securing long-term financial sustainability. We also know that many of our members are, or will be, implementing major transformation programmes across their operations.
As a sector, you have you have asked that we focus on the following areas of challenge over the 2024-25 academic year:
- Governing and Leading Transformation
- Securing Student Outcomes
- Designing Education for the Future
- Protecting Inclusion in Times of Change
We have designed four member projects themed around these areas of challenge. Each project will feature a series of sub-themes generating outputs including events, reports, publications and podcasts.
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