Advance HE has reshaped its strategic consultancy and insights services, drawing together experts and skills into a new group with an enhanced offer. As part of this development, Dr Colette Fletcher has been appointed to the important new role of Head of Governance and Consulting.
The Group – led by Victoria Holbrook, Assistant Director – comprises Dr Colette Fletcher as the new Head of Governance and Consulting, Jonathan Neves as Head of Surveys and Business Intelligence, and Amanda Aldercotte as Head of Research. Together with their teams and colleagues across Advance HE, they oversee a portfolio of work including our HE governance effectiveness support, strategic consultancy, surveys and wider insights and research support and have exciting plans for the future to deliver Advance HE’s strategy and commitments to the HE sector.
Victoria Holbrook, Advance HE’s Assistant Director – Consulting, Governance and Insight said, “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. Our mission is simple: to help HE be the best it can be.
“We will work with institutions to:
- Keep pace with—and think beyond— changing financial and regulatory contexts through effective strategy and approaches to access, teaching, research, student experience, leadership and governance
- Compete for and retain both students and staff by sustaining an inclusive culture, delivering support and enabling belonging in order to be the ‘first choice’ provider or employer, especially during a cost-of-living crisis
- Focus on sustainability from environmental, economic and social perspectives delivering a more joined-up and holistic approach from lecture hall to boardroom, and more effective ways to demonstrate value and impact to wider stakeholders.
“I am delighted to welcome Dr Colette Fletcher as Head of Governance and Consulting who will be a key part of that team. Her experience in higher education and in governance in other sectors will be invaluable in our work to support our members and institutions in the critical areas of good practice and effective governance, helping to shape and lead solutions to some of many the challenges that Executive teams and Boards face.”
Dr Fletcher will join Advance HE at the end of May. She joins from Natural Resources Wales where she is currently leading the governance transformation programme of Wales’s largest Government-sponsored body. Prior to her appointment at Natural Resources Wales, she was Assistant Vice Chancellor at the University of Winchester. Dr Fletcher has significant experience as an HE consultant, Head of Policy at Bournemouth University and in roles at QAA and HEFCE. She recently completed the DBA HE Management at the University of Bath.
The Consulting, Governance and Insights group draws on experts and associates from across governance, EDI, Leadership, and Teaching and Learning.