Connect Benefit Series

The Connect Benefit Series is a ‘what works’ suite of member-only events, publications and resources, focusing on individual monthly themes.

Connect Benefit Series

The Connect Benefit Series is open to all colleagues at Advance HE member institutions. The Series focusses on monthly themes designed to help our members develop resilience, to help institutions adapt to a new way of ‘business as usual’ within the transformed environment.

Each month there will be a suite of multiple benefit outputs including formats such as webinars, blogs/vlogs, Tweet chats, tool kits and guidance documents. 
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Monthly themes

Each month, the Connect Benefit Series focusses on specific themes. The themes and outputs have been specifically designed to help our members to:

  1. Design sustainable and flexible educational programmes that enable student success under varying degrees of social distancing requirements
  2. Strengthen the leadership and governance capacity to support effective strategic development and the successful management of transformation
  3. Mitigate the impact on equalities of the current crisis and continue to enhance the inclusivity of higher education in a rapidly changing environment.

Details on the monthly themes covered over the 2020-21 benefit year can be found below. 

October: Diversity and inclusion – the critical governance role

How do boards help their institutions make further progress to address equality, diversity and inclusion?

We know that institutions need to drive diversity and inclusion in all that they do. Governance has a critical role to play in this. Both by modelling diversity and inclusion in the make-up and function of the board, but also through enabling and challenging their institutions to make progress with and for their staff and students
Find out more

November: Exceptional student retention

The wide-ranging impacts of COVID-19 have increased the risk of student non-continuation. Students’ accounts of their experience during lockdown and of their isolation on return to university and college remind us of the extraordinary challenges they face, and of how little we know of the consequences for students' successful transition to and through higher education.

November's Connect Benefit Series will explore how student retention practices are adapting and changing to meet the needs of this exceptional cohort.
Find out more
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December - Engaging learners: Any time? Any place? Anyhow?

December’s Connect Benefit Series follows the theme of student engagement. Students’ sense of belonging is developed through engaging and socially constructed learning experiences; this is a challenge that is further emphasised on a physically distanced campus.

We will explore a variety of pedagogic approaches required for quality inclusive and equitable higher education. Under this theme we will explore practical solutions to promote active learning and engagement for all students - whether online or face-to-face and ways in which teaching teams and their leadership can be supported.
Find out more

January- Re-thinking delivery models for quality higher education for all

Strategies and practice for delivering quality education in these challenging times.

January’s Connect Benefit Series theme will look at the key issues of quality, flexibility and accessibility from the perspectives of the HEI and the student to understand the tensions around what is best for student success and how HEIs can meet changing needs of society and employer and what is best for the sustainability of the institution.
Find out more

February - How has Covid-19 impacted on gender equality in HE?

February’s Connect Benefit Series theme will examine the impact of Covid-19 on gender equality in HE. As the sector has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and continues to deal with the on-going challenges, there is a risk that insufficient time to take stock and reflect has been allowed and the knock on effect on equality in particular may mean a slowdown in progress made to date, or even worse a regression.
Find out more

March - Sustainability for everyone: here and now

For March, our Connect Benefit Series theme “Sustainability for Everyone: Here and Now” will be based on the premise (and need) that sustainability is for everyone, both in higher education and beyond. We will address key challenges including Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and climate change, and consider how sustainability can be prioritised.
Find out more

April and May - Transforming Organisations: from student to board

For April and May, our Connect Benefit Series theme 'Transforming Organisations: from student to board' will be looking at transforming organisations from the perspective of different stakeholder groups, and consider how our HEI’s can bring about authentic strategic and cultural change.
Find out more

June - The future of the student voice? Policy, principles, practice.

The Connect Benefit Series throughout the month of June 2021 will focus on the student voice – how higher education institutions value and represent the student voice and commit to using it to drive positive change.
Find out more

July - Celebrating success and addressing challenges in assessment

The Connect Benefit Series throughout the month of July 2021 will be a celebration of ingenuity, resilience and generosity in adapting to changes in teaching, learning, assessment and feedback.
Find out more

A brilliant webinar with the leading experts across three continents and multiple time-zones has enabled me to stay abreast of the latest developments in the field globally, all from the comfort of my desk!”

Pavel Ovseiko Senior Research Fellow in Health Policy and Management, University of Oxford.
 

Advance HE Connect Member Benefits Group 

If you are unable to attend an event or join a webinar, you can still join the discussion in the Advance HE Member Benefits group on Advance HE Connect, our online network exclusively for higher education. Share, connect and collaborate with your over 22,000 HE peers around the world. All webinars in the series are also recorded and available to view in the group.

 Join or login here
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Previous webinars in 2020-21

Below are the webinars which have taken place during the 2020-21 academic year:

Developing Sustainable Resilience in Higher Education

Date: 24 September 2020
Venue: Online
Access the recording

‘On Your Marks’: Vignette Presentations on Learner-Focused Feedback Practices and Feedback Literacy

Date: 25 August 2020
Venue: Online
Access the recording

2019-20 member benefits

Recordings from all webinars in the 2019-20 Connect Event Series can be found in the Advance HE member benefits group on Advance HE Connect.

 Access 2019-20 webinars

Covid-19 update

Advance HE Connect and Community Support for Members

  • Advance HE Connect will continue to be the home of communities of practice and networks of staff within member institutions across the globe. There are now 164 groups across this platform supporting people to share challenges and solutions across a broad spectrum of professional and academic specialisms.
  • We will support emerging priorities such as online assessment, supporting staff and student wellbeing at a distance and leading in times of crisis through Advance HE Connect in the first instance.
  • The Advance HE Connect ‘Facing the Future’ and ‘Global Perspectives’ webinar series will continue as planned

Covid-19 response webinars

Our Covid-19 response webinars are designed to provide support and guidance as the HE sector adapts to the new 'normal' during the current climate. 

Recordings from all webinars in the Covid-19 series are available to watch in the Advance HE Connect member benefits group.

 

 Covid-19 response webinar recordings