In 2022 we have been focusing our work on the priorities of our members including ‘navigating uncertainty and unlocking potential in their institutions’ and ‘developing capability to lead and embed positive change across whole systems’, as well supporting them in creating inclusive places and experiences. These highlights reflect a rich range of work, particularly through the themes of Leadership, Governance, Teaching and Learning and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. We are grateful to our members, partners and individuals who have contributed to this work.
January
In the lead up to the sector consultation on the PSF, we published a brief history of the Professional Standards Framework.
Our third case study compendium on employability looked at solving wicked problems within employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship.
Kim Ansell, Senior Adviser in Governance, Leadership and Management at Advance HE, introduced Inclusive Institutions: enabling culture change, the second of our two six-month longitudinal projects as part of our member benefits for 2021-22.
We shared reflections from the team working on the Global Leadership Survey scoping study a project exploring ‘what works’ in HE leadership.
February
We published recommendations exploring the issues caused by automated captioning in teaching and learning on behalf the Disabled Students’ Commission.
In partnership with the University of Derby, King’s College London, Aston University and Student Minds we developed and published a toolkit for educators in HE to enhance students’ mental health and wellbeing, funded by the Office for Students.
Eleven projects, including the first awarded to an international member institution, were awarded funding through our Collaborative Development Fund 2022.
We announced plans for a sector-led review of the Professional Standards Framework.
We published the qualitative report to the Disabled Students’ Commission research investigating the impact of Covid-19 on disabled students’ experiences.
March
We published 'Tertiary Sector Evolution – envisioning the future and how we get there'.
111 National Teaching Fellows and 29 winning teams of the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence in 2020 and 2021 celebrated their achievements at the first in-person awards ceremony since 2019.
At Equalities Plus, a webinar hosted by Advance HE and HEPI, Professor Shitij Kapur, Kaushika Patel and Professor David Ruebain shared their thoughts on how higher education leaders can create inclusive institutions.
On International Women’s Day we published a collection of blogs on the theme of ‘Break the Bias’, sharing ways that Advance HE is helping to promote women’s equality in higher education and providing a space for others in the sector to address the challenges and propose solutions.
We commissioned a case for race equity that identifies the drivers and benefits of addressing racial inequity in the higher education sector.
As part of the Connect Benefit Series on Student Success we published a literature review on flexible learning by Professor Mark Loon from Northumbria University.
April
We established the College-based HE Network: a collaborative space for developing HE culture and practice.
We co-presented a workshop on sustainable transformation strategy with THE Consultancy at the Innovation and Impact Summit in Stockholm, part of the THE World Summit Series.
Dr Adeela ahmed Shafi MBE, Associate Professor in Education (University of Gloucestershire) presented her paper, Striving for Diversity of Leadership: Governance in Higher Education Institutions at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Conference in Minneapolis, USA. The presentation was based on the work funded by Advance HE and Perrett Laver on the development of the HE Board Diversity Toolkit.
Aga Khan University (AKU) won the inaugural edition of the Award of Excellence for Disruptive Education, Zairi International Award in Higher Education 2022, sponsored by Advance HE.
We shared how the Race Equality Charter is being updated by streamlining, supporting members, engaging the sector and being led by impact.
On behalf of the Disabled Students’ Commission we published its second annual report Enhancing the disabled student experience which reviews the outputs and impact from 2021-22 and sets out the Commission’s objectives for 2022-23.
May
The Project Team conducting the review of the UK Professional Standards Framework (PSF) provided a progress update ahead of the launch of an online consultation on the draft revised PSF in mid-June.
Newcastle University (NU) was awarded funding from our Collaborative Development Fund for Exploring a holistic approach to equality, diversity and inclusion, led by Professor Judith Rankin, Dean of EDI at NU, and project managed by Freya Douglas Oloyede.
Stuart Norton, Senior Advisor in Learning and Teaching at Advance HE, introduced a new literature review on assessment and feedback as part of our Connect Benefit Series for 2021-22 on Student Success.
We announced the launch of a second cohort of the fully-funded development programme ‘Success on the board: unlocking the power of underrepresented voices in research’ with Wellcome.
We convened a meeting of the DVC/PVC Network where our member community discussed blended learning, new Access and Participation policy and the Teaching Excellence Framework.
June
We welcomed three new members to the Australasian Strategic Advisory Board (ASAB).
Forming part of our member benefit theme focusing on Organisational Wellbeing and Inclusive Institutions, we hosted an event exploring how healthier and more compassionate institutions have been created as a result of Covid-19.
We published a new case study collection on adding value through enterprise and entrepreneurship education in higher education.
The Student Academic Experience Survey 2022 published by Advance HE and the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) showed encouraging signs of recovery from the impact of Covid-19 on the student academic experience
Dr Diana Piscitelli and Dr Arun Verma shared how work was undertaken to improve and streamline the Race Equality Charter peer-review award processes.
We published ‘Exploring the impact of Principal Fellowships on individuals and institutions’.
Dr Catrin Evans, a participant from this year's ‘Success on the board: unlocking the power of underrepresented voices in research’ programme, reflected on her experience.
We launched Global Impact Grants for our international member institutions to share success stories about higher education projects which demonstrate impact on their staff or students.
July
Doug Parkin, Principal Adviser for Leadership and Management at Advance HE and project leader for our Global Leadership Survey for Higher Education, reflected on the project so far.
As part of our Collaborative Development Fund 2021-22 project, Inclusive institutions: enabling and supporting culture change, we published a new report providing an evidence base of potential solutions, lessons learned and recommendations to inform future work.
We appointed two students from The University of Manchester to our Governance Strategic Advisory Group (SAG).
We delivered a ground-breaking She Leads+ programme to 60 participants from across the Middle East.
A new insights report on the CBHE network for our college-based members across the UK was published providing recommendations for future outputs.
More than 650 individuals joined us at our three-day Teaching and Learning Conference which included a special panel session with academics from Ukraine where they explained how they’ve continued to teach through the crisis.
Next Steps: What is the experience of disabled students in education? a new report by UCAS in partnership with Pearson, the leading digital media learning company, and the Disabled Students' Commission, was published on disabled student experiences.
August
'Balancing students’ identities as learners and consumers', a new toolkit was published providing a structure that facilitates a reflective and critical dialogue between educators and their students about the impact of learner and consumer identities on learning and teaching.
We prepared a digital report for HEFCW, 'Employability in the Curriculum', about assessing employability within the curricula of Welsh HE providers.
We revealed the 2022 winners of the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence and 54 new National Teaching Fellows.
September
Dr Kay Hack, Principal Adviser at Advance HE, introduced our latest member project as part of our Member Benefits for 2022-23, Beyond Flexible Learning.
We launched Building Belonging, a new collaborative project.
The 32nd annual NET Conference returned to an in-person format whilst also embracing virtual conference-goers, allowing the conference to be viewed all around the world.
We published Leadership in global higher education – findings from a scoping study, a report from a year-long scoping study commissioned to inform the development of a global leadership survey for higher education.
We launched the Global Leadership Survey, the inaugural survey open to all leaders in HE across the world, designed to determine 'what works' in higher education leadership.
Athena Swan Ireland surpassed 100 award holders.
October
A consultation launched by the Disabled Students’ Commission aims to ensure the Disabled Student Commitment is guided by evidence so that disabled students in UK higher education get a better deal.
Alison Johns, Advance HE Chief Executive, encouraged leaders in HE around the world to join the Global Leadership Survey and contribute to “a level of insight on leadership in HE that we've not had before.”
We announced that Aurora 2022-23 will include an in-person event at locations across the UK.
Liz Austen and Nathaniel Pickering shared the ‘ChangeBusters’ game, a new resource designed by a team from Sheffield Hallam University which constructs a ‘Theory of Change’ based on evidence from the literature review on access, retention, attainment and progression.
Applications opened for the first tranche of projects in the Collaborative Development Fund 2022-23.
As the number of Fellows around the world grew to over 163,000, we published the seventh annual review of accredited continued professional development schemes.
Professor Sarah Greer, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Winchester, was appointed to the Advance HE Board.
Our international members shared case studies of work with demonstrable impact on staff or students in higher education resulting from the Global Impact Grants 2022.
2022 winners of the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence and new National Teaching Fellows attended the awards ceremony at the home of Liverpool Football Club.
November
We published the 2022 results of the largest annual survey of the postgraduate research experience which saw a positive increase in satisfaction but evidenced that disabled students were being left behind.
Postgraduate taught students rate their overall satisfaction at 82%, according to our largest survey of the taught postgraduate student voice since 2018.
We published the 2022 Equality in higher education statistical reports which revealed that more staff and students are disclosing as disabled, the Black, Asian and minority ethnic awarding gap for Firsts and 2:1s is starting to close and that for the first time, there are more female postgraduates than male.
32 higher education institutions from across Ireland celebrated their Athena Swan awards at the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Mayo campus at the first in-person ceremony since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
A collection of reports on the future student experience examined the technological, social, environmental and economic factors that will drive or disrupt the sector.
We published Utilising the Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning for Strategic Change - a collection of case studies on the Professional Standards Framework as part of our Collaborative Development Fund 2021-22.
We published Diversity of governors in higher education 2022 a report that offers evidence that diverse and inclusive governing bodies can better support strategic decision-making which address the needs, interests and expectations of all stakeholders.
We co-signed a statement of commitment from the sector promoting and protecting academic freedom and free speech with Universities UK, Committee of University Chairs (CUC), GuildHE and NUS Charity.
We launched a range of services in collaboration with Times Higher Education Consultancy for institutions and governments to support the higher education sector to promote and utilise the UN Sustainable Development Goals to drive institutional change across research and culture, curricula and civic responsibility.
We launched our latest Member Benefit Project 22-23 Tertiary Education: Navigating Complexity to explore the big questions that transcend traditional borders to find the best practices within tertiary education ecosystems around the world.
We shared a roundtable with HEPI exploring ‘measuring what matters’.
We hosted our 2023 Governance Conference: Governing in the interest of students in London.
We convened a meeting of the DVC/PVC Network where our member community discussed the review of the PSF and the future of professional recognition, inclusive assessment post-pandemic, recent developments in regulation and guidance, developing TEF submissions and the Disabled Students’ Commission Survey.
We sponsored the THE awards for Most Innovative Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
December
Dr Jo Tyssen, Head of WP, Outreach and Projects, University Centre Leeds, shared an update on the activities of the College-based Higher Education Network group and the value of engagement in its membership.