“Advance HE helps higher education organisations be the best they can be, by unlocking the potential of their people. 2023 has been no different as we continue to focus our work across Leadership, Governance, Teaching and Learning and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
“The rich variety, breadth and depth of our work in support of this and reflected in this review, demonstrates the enormous commitment of everyone involved, and particularly our members, in development and enhancement work at both team and individual level. Their commitment and contribution helps to make the higher education sector world-leading and underpins the work to make HE providers and systems that are inclusive, sustainable and high-performing in all they do.
“We are grateful to our members, partners and individuals who have contributed to this rich variety of work and look forward to working with you all in 2024.”
Alison Johns, Advance HE Chief Executive
January
On behalf of the sector, we launched the revised Professional Standards Framework (PSF) 2023, widely used to develop the skills and attributes of those who teach or support learning in higher education.
“This sector-led and evidenced-based review of the PSF, to which we committed in our 2021-24 Strategy, builds on the strengths of the current PSF while placing much more overt emphasis on the effectiveness and impact of teaching; the context in which the teaching takes place; and inclusivity – both from the perspective of those staff who are now able to engage with the PSF, and in how more inclusive approaches to teaching are now embedded in the PSF to accommodate better the needs and outcomes for all students.”
We published the fourth annual case study series on employability, ‘Contemporary Practices and Initiatives in Employability’.
We announced our first-ever Sustainability Conference to bring together senior leaders with responsibility for sustainability strategy to discuss how institutions can take an holistic approach to aligning their strategy and practice.
We began working with Universities UK and GuildHE to deliver the ‘Academic Governance project’, a collaboration to bring the sector together to explore good practice in academic governance and to disseminate the findings.
“Through a series of roundtables...we will explore the areas which are increasing the requirement for governors to understand and effectively receive evidence-based assurance about ‘student outcomes’ in the context of their national regulatory requirements.
“We are delighted to be working with GuildHE and Universities UK to deliver this important work.”
Daniel Sheratte, Advance HE International Partnerships Manager, attended the QS Asia Pacific Higher Education Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia.
February
We designed and delivered a contextualised programme of support, using the Professional Standards Framework (PSF 2023) as part of a British Council funded project to support transformation and change across the HE sector in Jordan.
“The aim of this project is to deliver a real-world change in teaching and learning for the benefit of Jordanian students.
“While for many projects, change can be elusive, we are delighted by the scale of the transformation these participants are already achieving in their institutions.
“It’s also been impressive to see the way the academics taking part have formed networking communities which are a fantastic source of support for those in their institutions and beyond to enhance their thinking and practice.”
As part of our review and refresh of the Student Success Framework series, we published 'Student engagement through partnership: a literature review', by authors at Northumbria University.
The UK Engagement Survey shows students’ engagement with their studies has largely bounced back to pre-pandemic levels and that undergraduates are now interacting more often with staff, although they face increased pressures due to caring responsibilities and the cost of living crisis.
“The survey indicates a welcome recovery in students’ engagement after a difficult period during the height of the pandemic.
“This bounce-back is largely due to the efforts the sector has made to understand students’ changing needs and adapt the ways it enables students to access their learning.”
A top-level delegation of 20 vice-chancellors from universities across Pakistan joined experts from Advance HE to discuss the future of higher education.
We partnered with Edtech start-up GoodCourse to co-create micro-learning courses promoting freedom of speech and academic freedom to improve the student experience on campus.
March
We marked five years since Advance HE was established by reflecting on our achievements and pledging our commitment to continue as the sector’s development partner as it navigates the challenges and opportunities ahead.
“We have worked in close partnership with the sector and our members from the start, listening closely to their needs in order to provide targeted support and services specifically designed to make a real impact to individual institutions, their staff and students.”
We published our second case study collection on enterprise and entrepreneurship in higher education.
Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, became Advance HE’s 100th international member.
Dr Panagiota Sotiropoulou, Mixed Methods Researcher in Advance HE’s Insights Team presents some highlight findings from a recent Aurora alumnae evaluation as evidence for the programme’s individual-level impact.
We launched ‘International Higher Education’ a new member project for 2022-23 to support members in developing forward-looking international education strategies, building partnerships and how to consider sustainability from a range of perspectives.
Winners of the Athena Swan and Race Equality Charters were honoured at a special awards event at our two-day Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Conference.
Following a pilot scheme to open up Athena Swan to professional, technical and operational (PTO) directorates, the Technical Services department at the University of Reading achieved Silver in the first-ever PTO award.
“Universities and research institutes are not only made up of academic and research staff. They are supported by skilled people in professional, technical and operational roles for whom gender equality matters too.
“The transformed Charter now encourages institutions to consider both academic and PTO staff in their submissions and for the first time PTO directorates can apply for their own Athena Swan award.”
Sustainable Institutions, a new project supported by our Collaborative Development Fund and managed by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), launched to critically explore how whole-institution approaches to sustainability are developed and implemented.
On International Women’s Day, Advance HE Chief Executive Alison Johns said that giving HE institutions the tools they need to address gender inequality is part of our mission to help higher education and research across the world to be the best it can be.
We’re supporting the UK Institute of Technical Skills and Strategy (ITSS), funded by Research England and hosted by the University of Nottingham in partnership with a network of organisations and institutions across UK higher education and research, including Advance HE.
We launched Student Outcomes, a member project for 2022-23 on what success looks like for different stakeholders.
April
We opened a consultation to explore how freedom of speech and academic freedom can be more explicitly embedded in the Athena Swan and Race Equality Charters.
“Freedom of speech and academic freedom are core values in higher education. Equality Charters complement these values as they help promote the voices of all, including those who may have previously lacked the opportunity to engage. It’s really important that this mutually supporting relationship is explicit and reinforced in the EDI Charters.”
Calls for the HE sector to make the step-change required to create a more inclusive environment were set out in the Disabled Student Commitment developed by the Disabled Students’ Commission, to secure an enhanced and improved experience for disabled students within higher education.
De Montfort University became the first higher education institution in the UK to achieve a Silver Award through the Race Equality Charter.
“It is a fantastic milestone that an institution has attained a Silver Award for the very first time and it shows the extent to which the Charter is becoming embedded across UK higher education.
“The Race Equality Charter is all about creating inclusive environments in which everyone can thrive.”
We hosted a series of round table events focusing on the challenges facing higher education in Ireland.
University of Limerick became the first institution in Ireland to receive an Athena Swan Silver Award for its commitment to promoting gender equality.
We appointed Professor Osama Khan as Chair of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategic Advisory Group and as a member of our EDI Committee.
May
We developed a framework on behalf of the British Council to help shape Peru’s approach to greater internationalisation within its higher education sector.
The College-Based HE Network, funded through our Collaborative Development Fund, announced its inaugural Festival of Scholarly Activity and Research.
Advance HE's Director of EDI, David Bass, and Adam Dawkins from the University of York, discuss the challenges around freedom of speech, academic freedom and EDI in this podcast.
Our fourth annual Gender in HE Conference addressed how gender equality has been affected in the hybrid age of higher education.
More than 120 academics and higher education professionals met in Manchester to discuss the latest theory and practice at the Mental Wellbeing in HE Conference 2023.
We welcomed the findings and recommendations in the Research concordats and agreements review report - Phase 2, which includes Athena Swan and the Race Equality Charter, published by Universities UK, UK Research and Innovation and the Wellcome Trust.
“Over the past two years, we have worked with the sector and with our respective Athena Swan and Race Equality Charter governance committees to streamline processes, embrace flexibility and reduce the administrative commitments to the charters while promoting inclusive cultures.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the sector to achieve the vision set out in this report and to ensure our support for HEIs and Research Institutes continues to meet their needs in enhancing research culture.”
We launched our reshaped strategic consultancy and insights services drawing together experts and skills into a new group with an enhanced offer, and appointed Dr Colette Fletcher to the new role of Head of Governance and Consulting.
“Our group will help support institutions deliver strategic change in an inclusive and effective way, building on our extensive experience and deep insight into the sector.”
Alumni of our Top Management Programme for Higher Education (TMP HE) joined the current 50th cohort at a special event convened to celebrate the programme which has supported over 1,000 executive leaders from the UK and around the globe since 2001.
We published the results of our Leadership Survey, part of our work exploring, ‘what works for leadership in higher education?’.
“We are committed to running the survey again, expanding its reach and efficacy as an important landmark for developing leaders and a barometer of leadership in higher education, and we will continue this important work to explore ‘what works’ in higher education leadership.”
Fifteen institutions from seven different countries were awarded one of our Global Impact Grants to develop initiatives that show innovative or interesting approaches to global challenges in higher education.
June
We shared the final annual report from the Disabled Students’ Commission, the independent group formed to challenge, inform and advise universities and colleges in England to improve support for disabled students.
We hosted an event in Perth, Australia, to explore ways of supporting progression for women leaders.
The number of Fellowships topped 170,000, evidencing of the growing impact of the globally-recognised professional recognition scheme.
“Surpassing 170,000 fellows is a huge tribute to the sector globally.
“We know from independent research carried out by the University of Plymouth the impact that fellowship has on both individuals and institutions who embrace it.
“Not only does it improve the profile of teaching and learning across institutions, it stimulates the focus on professional development, encourages collaboration within and between institutions and increases research into teaching and learning.”
The Student Academic Experience Survey (SAES) 2023 showed an improving academic experience overshadowed by the cost of living crisis.
A new project established our saw Advance HE collaboration with University of Liverpool and AHRC to develop a new model for more inclusive and diverse team-based working in research.
Academics at Taiwan’s National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) welcomed the updated Professional Standards Framework (PSF) after taking part in webinars led by Advance HE.
Senior and strategic leaders in higher education attended our first-ever Sustainability Conference.
We published our new ‘responsive and agile’ programmes and events portfolio for 2023-24. A new feature this year is the digital Development Planner, designed for those looking to enhance their practice, share insights or identify the next step in their professional development.
We set out our unequivocal support for academic freedom and freedom of speech, highlighting our work to support the sector to promote freedom of speech while concurrently creating the inclusive institution where all voices are heard without fear or favour.
“Advance HE’s role is to support and contextualise good practice and innovation in EDI, enabling members to improve long-term outcomes while navigating the risks and opportunities inherent to sensitive and contested topics.
“Our frameworks and recommendations are flexible and adaptable rather than directive. This approach to equality ensures that diversity, and different individuals, ideas and perspectives are valued, and therefore complements our sector’s fundamental commitment to the autonomy of institutions and academic freedom and individuals.”
Professor Liz Johnson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic & Alfred Deakin Professor at Deakin University, was appointed as the new Chair of Advance HE’s Australasian Strategic Advisory Board. Professor Shaun Ewen, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), Griffith University, joined the Board.
July
We updated the Race Equality Charter following a member-led review which simplifies the application and renewal process and reduces the administrative workload, while maintaining the rigour to support members in their work to create inclusive institutions.
“Everyone in higher education – students and staff – should have the opportunity to thrive in an inclusive learning, working and research environment and in turn, the sector benefits from the full talents from every community.
“This upgrade, although routinely scheduled, is important in ensuring that the REC does its job effectively in supporting institutions as they map out their plans and actions for inclusive cultures and to tackle racism.”
More than 60 higher education professionals attended a women’s leadership event in Australia organised hosted in collaboration with Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE), highlighting the hurdles facing women as they develop as leaders, and identifying their signature strengths that could drive change.
Ulster University in Northern Ireland becomes the first higher education institution in the world to be accredited to award fellowships aligned to the Professional Standards Framework (PSF) 2023.
Participants on our Top Management Programme visited Edith Cowan University in Perth to learn from its Vice-Chancellor what the future holds for the sector in Australia.
“The Top Management Programme exists to prepare the next generation of higher education leaders with the thinking and practice they need to respond as members of their executive teams to current and emerging challenges wherever they are in the world.
“Those who secure a place on the programme may go on to become future institutional leaders or progress further in their current executive roles so need to be prepared to have the insight, networks and thinking needed to lead global higher education institutions in an ever changing environment.”
Our 170,000th fellow, Judy Clayton from Monash University in Australia, shares why she applied for Senior Fellowship and what she would say to others thinking of fellowship.
The College-Based HE Network (CBHE), created through our Collaborative Development Fund, launched the Scholarly Activity & Research Toolkit provides guidance for staff working in UK college-based higher education institutions who wish to participate in scholarly activity and enhance the learning experience for students within the HE sector from a college-based perspective.
Delegates from 16 countries attended our three-day 2023 Teaching and Learning Conference.
We published Our impact on global higher education, an at-a-glance summary of where and how Advance HE operates in more than 100 countries worldwide.
August
Success on the Board, our development programme to support and encourage diversity in the boardroom is set to continue for another three years thanks to funding from Wellcome.
Trinity College Dublin becomes only the second higher education institution in Ireland to win an Athena Swan Silver Award, while the Economic and Social Research Institution (ESRI) has become the first research institute in the country to achieve a Bronze award for its progress on gender equality.
A new network is launched for Advance HE Senior Fellows in Malaysia, spearheading efforts to boost the number of higher education professionals in the country with Fellowship status.
We relaunched the NET Conference, the leading annual event for healthcare education professionals worldwide, as the NETworking & Innovation in Healthcare Education Conference to reflect its growing focus on the broader healthcare sector, while emphasising the two most fundamental areas of the conference ethos – networking and innovation.
We announced 55 new National Teaching Fellows (NTF) and 15 winning teams of the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE), taking the total number of awards to 1143 for NTFs since the scheme’s launch in 2000, and 119 for CATE since the first awards in 2016.
"It is with great pride that we run these awards for the UK higher education sector designed to celebrate these passionate people who make such a difference to students’ education and to the practice of their colleagues. We look forward to working with the new NTFs and CATE winners and sharing their excellent practice with colleagues around the sector.”
September
Our review of UKRI’s Terms and Conditions of Training Grant informs UKRI’s approach to ‘provide for groups of students who might face particular challenges, especially people with disabilities, who care for children, or who have other caring responsibilities’ as part of its New Deal for Postgraduate Research.
“Over the long term, the commitments to introduce or explore the feasibility of change should improve the support and wellbeing of individual students, particularly disabled students and students who are parents.
“They will also make a significant difference to equality, diversity and inclusion and the overall postgraduate research student experience within the sector for years to come.”
We launched ‘AI Garage’ a new Member Benefit project for 2023-24 designed to capture cutting-edge practice around the use of Generative AI in higher education.
We announced the next steps in supporting UK HE to develop more holistic and strategically aligned approaches to equality, diversity and inclusion.
“Advance HE is committed to ensuring that our support for EDI in higher education remains innovative and responsive to sector challenges... Bringing together systems, approaches, learning and effective practice across EDI strands can have a greater impact, more creativity, and focus on accelerating the pace of change.”
As part of our review and redesign of the Student Success Framework, we published a literature review on Education for Sustainable Development by authors at King's College London.
We published ‘Looking outward: the changing people needs of higher education in the years ahead’, a report produced by Wonkhe for Advance HE, which shines a light on the changing people needs in HE around the world, as universities grapple with myriad changes in public policy, regulation and technology advancement.
Student governors from across Wales’ universities connected with each other and their support networks at a Student Partnership in Governance event funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW).
Six higher education institutions in Cyprus committed to advancing gender equality by signing up to a pilot project based on the Athena Swan Charter and funded by The Cyprus Agency of Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education (CYQAA).
Phil McNaull, Strategic Finance Consultant, Executive Coach and former Finance Director at the University of Edinburgh, challenges leadership teams to consider their ways of working and the tools that might help.
October
Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Denmark became the first higher education institution to successfully apply to transition their accredited provision for fellowship from the 2011 version to the revised 2023 Professional Standards Framework (PSF).
We launched EnvisionED: where ‘becoming’ is at the heart of education, one of our global projects for 2023-24 to support educators to reflect on how they can guide students through their own academic and personal/professional journeys, emphasising growth and self-empowerment.
We developed updated guidance for the UK HE sector on supporting good relations on campus and setting institutional policies on EDI in relation to academic freedom and freedom of speech, on protected beliefs, and on fostering good relations.
In the first of our thought-leadership series on academic freedom, freedom of speech and EDI, Dr Robert Simpson, Associate Professor at UCL, writes that EDI and AF and FoS are fundamentally aligned and complementary as part of our series on academic freedom, freedom of speech and EDI.
Professor Naomi Waltham-Smith, University of Oxford, writes that championing a robust notion of academic freedom is essential to higher education’s civic mission and value, in the second part of our series on academic freedom, freedom of speech and EDI.
The Disabled Student Commitment opened for higher education providers, and other relevant sector bodies to sign up to enhance the disabled student experience across the student lifecycle.
We opened applications for the 2023-24 Collaborative Development Fund, the annual funding scheme offering Advance HE members grants to carry out project work on important sector challenges and concerns.
“The CDF allows us to use our reach, convening power and the breadth of expertise and experience from right across our global membership to support you in meeting the contemporary challenges in higher education. These challenges call for sector-wide thinking so the funding awarded by Advance HE helps members to find and amplify new solutions and benefit from the shared learning of what works.”
Projects by eight HE institutions from Australasia, four from Asia and two from Europe each won a Global Impact Grant and feature in a new case study series.
We launched AI Futures, a new member project for 2023-24 which focuses on 'what next' in higher education, supporting members in focusing on the challenges and opportunities offered by Generative AI in academia from delivery, leadership and strategic perspectives.
We were commissioned to work on a project which aims to tackle the ethnicity degree awarding gap.
“Working with TASO, Staffordshire University and these six individual HE providers aligns with Advance HE's unwavering commitment to addressing the ethnicity degree awarding gap and our dedication to fostering inclusive excellence in higher education.”
Professor Edward Peck, Higher Education Student Support Champion and Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University, reflects on developing the Student Needs Framework designed to help HE providers go ‘back to basics’ and rethink their approach to student support.
November
Professor Mark E. Smith, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, is appointed Chair of the Advance HE Board.
Our Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2023 shows overall satisfaction is continuing to recover post-pandemic with rates at their highest for eight years, and that satisfaction is greatest among overseas students.
We announced that the University of Nottingham is the first university in the UK to achieve an Athena Swan Gold award for its commitment to advance gender equality in higher education.
“To receive an institutional Gold award is a massive achievement and recognises the dedication and commitment of so many who have worked unstintingly to deliver on gender equality across the whole institution.”
In the final part in our series of thought-leadership pieces on academic freedom, freedom of speech and EDI, Professor David Ruebain, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Culture, Equality and Inclusion, University of Sussex, discusses the boundaries of 'free speech and its cousin, academic freedom'.
Julia Gillard, Chair of Wellcome, and former prime minister of Australia, delivered the first keynote at our Governance Conference 2023: Navigating policy, politics and people.
We published the 16th year of national staff and student equality data to highlight opportunities and challenges regarding the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion in UK higher education.
“We have the opportunity to draw insights from these statistics and use this information to reshape practice and ensure that everyone's journey is one of belonging and success.”
Athena Swan Ireland Bronze and Silver awards were presented to more than 30 institutions or departments at an event at University College Cork.
The University of Manchester became the second higher education institution in the UK to achieve Silver under the Race Equality Charter (REC).
We announced we are to work with TASO on a project to map the types of transition support and reasonable adjustments currently in place to support disabled students in the HE sector.
We celebrated 10 years of Aurora, our leadership development initiative for women in HE and announced plans to launch the programme in Australia.
“Women in higher education across the globe face gender-specific challenges as they develop as leaders.
“Specialised leadership development initiatives have an important role to play in giving women tools to overcome these as well as being effective resources that institutions can incorporate into their overarching strategies to promote EDI and to tackle gender inequality.”
We launched DVC Dialogues, a new video series bringing together Deputy Vice-Chancellors and other senior university leaders from across the globe to discuss the issues impacting their institutions, staff and students. Watch the first two episodes exploring Generative AI with Professor David Sadler, DVC, Education at the University of Western Australia and Professor Osama Khan, DVC Academic at Aston University.
December
We sponsored and presented the Most Innovative Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the THE Awards 2023.
We announced that Aurora, our women’s leadership initiative, will launch in Australia in April 2024 and introduced Professor Polly Parker and Jennifer Witheriff who will lead the pilot programme.
Dr Ruth Gilligan, Assistant Director for UK Equality Charters at Advance HE, offers an update on our ‘holistic approach to EDI’ project which is now entering a Discovery Phase.