As ever, our member institutions and colleagues employed at those institutions are at the heart of everything we do. In order to make our member benefits as available and accessible to you as possible, each month this summary will provide an overview of recent and upcoming member benefit activity, including the Connect Benefit Series and Fellowship and Accreditation, including the Athena Swan and Race Equality charters.
Advance HE member benefits are open to all colleagues at Advance HE member institutions. Our member benefits are built from services our members have continued to enjoy over many years plus new services developed based on your feedback, to ensure greater accessibility and engagement.
To find out more about the full range of member benefits for the 2021-22 membership year, please click below.
Connect Benefit Series - Student Success
As part of our Connect Benefit Series for 2021-22, our Student Success longitudinal project runs from August to February, focusing on access, retention, attainment and progression, and embedding employability in higher education, with two literature reviews at the centre of the project.
The first literature review as part of this project, ‘Employability: A Review of the Literature 2016-2021’, delivers a major addition to the thematic area of employability. Providing a comprehensive narrative to the literature from 2016 to 2021, nine distinct and central themes are discussed. Ahead of the publication of this literature review, a series of supporting podcasts was also released.
Live webinar - 14 October 07:00 and 15:00 BST
On 14 October, we will host a webinar where authors of the literature review from Oxford Brookes University will be speaking to their recent publication. The webinar will include a general overview of the research, a spotlight on those findings that the authors wish to highlight for discussion and/or provide their own perspective on. There will be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions of the authors based on the review, thematic areas and the broader findings.
All colleagues at Advance HE member institutions can attend this webinar free of charge; please share this webpage with your colleagues. In order to accommodate as many of our colleagues around the world as possible, this event will run on 14 October 2021 at two times during the day.
The first webinar will run at 07:00 – 08:30 BST, book your place here.
The second webinar will run at 15:00 - 16:30 BST, book your place here.
Employability summits
With consideration to the recently commissioned Employability: a review of the literature 2016-2021 these summits will offer colleagues an opportunity to reflect on recent innovations in teaching practice and employability support within higher education. Recognising the crucial role that universities play in preparing students for activities post-graduation, the summit will identify core components, consider new methods and help shape the eventual update to the Framework for Embedding Employability in Higher Education. The summits will identify how employability, as a core thematic strand, aligns to different areas identified by the sector as critical for enabling student success, ensuring any future iteration of the Framework Series is not considered in isolation.
All colleagues at Advance HE member institutions can attend this webinar free of charge; please share this webpage with your colleagues. In order to accommodate as many colleagues as possible, this summit will also take place at the following times:
Friday 22 October 07:00 BST - book here Monday 1 November 15:00 GMT - book here
Monday 1 November 21:00 GMT - book here Tuesday 2 November 10:00 GMT - book here
Connect Benefit Series - Transitions, retention and progression
The Connect Benefit Series project on Transitions, retention and progression focuses on the challenges and opportunities of different experiences and approaches to transitions, retention and progression in higher education. In his blog, Advance HE associate Ben Brabon outlines the project.
Live webinar - Wednesday 29 September at 09:00-10:30 BST
As part of the Connect Benefit Series Transitions, retention and progression project, we are hosting a webinar 'New transitions' on Wednesday 29 September 09:00-10:30 BST, with the opportunity to submit questions to an expert panel. All colleagues at Advance HE member institutions can attend this webinar free of charge.
Ahead of the webinar, a series of podcasts has been published to provide members with the opportunity to listen to insights from across the sector with different perspectives being provided on what we have learnt over the last year and what we need to develop going forward through 2021-22.
Our expert panel:
- Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, Vice President for Higher Education, NUS
- Luke Millard, Dean of Teaching and Learning, Abertay University
- Michelle Morgan, Dean of Students, University of East London
- Christine Rivers, Director of Learning and Teaching and Co-Director Centre for Management Education, University of Surrey
- Alison Torn, Senior Teaching Fellow, Leeds Trinity University
The event will begin with a short presentation from each of the five speakers, the panel will then dedicate the majority of the session to crowd-sourced questions submitted by members. Submit your questions and book your place.
Online Clinic – Monday 18 October – 09:00-10:30 BST
We are also hosting an online clinic on Monday 18 October 09:00-10:30 BST which aims to support colleagues to develop more bespoke responses to their specific challenges within their institutional and discipline contexts.
The clinic will support small group discussion around key topic areas – such as how we bridge knowledge and experience gaps, and the ways in which we can provide targeted and scaffolded support to bridge skills differences. Using the expertise within the group to seek community-generated solutions, we will provide the opportunity for participants to raise questions and explore their challenges around student transitions, progression and retention in a supportive environment.
Clinic participants are encouraged to read Dr Michelle Morgan’s blog 'Supporting transitions in September 21-22 - what next? which provides some food for thought and recommendations for further consideration. Book your place here.
Fellowship and Accreditation Expert Advisory Group
Advance HE has formed a Fellowship and Accreditation Expert Advisory Group to provide expert advice and guidance to Advance HE staff, our Peer Review Quality (PRQ) Committee and ultimately, the Advance HE Board on matters relating to Fellowship and accreditation services. Advance HE has appointed 14 members, including a Chair, to the Fellowship and Accreditation Expert Advisory Group made up of UK and international Advance HE member institutions with high level understanding of higher education in a wide variety of contexts.
Race Equality Charter members networking event
The upcoming REC members networking event on Tuesday 9 November 10:00 – 13:00 is an opportunity to share the future direction of the Race Equality Charter as we embark on its enhancement in light of the independent reviews published earlier this year. The networking event will be an opportunity to reconsider the REC Principles and to present the REC Strategy to members for reflections and discussions.
Please note you will need to login to the Advance HE portal to book onto this event and be a REC member institution.
Recent and upcoming publications
Employability: a review of the literature 2016-2021
This literature review is part of a six-month longitudinal project for the Connect Benefit Series 2021-22 on Student Success, which focuses on embedding employability in higher education as well as a second theme of access, retention, attainment and progression. The review focuses on peer-reviewed journal articles on employability within higher education which present and/or discuss evidence of 'what works'. Download here.
Sustainability for everyone: perspectives from higher education leaders
This publication brings together two important priority areas in higher education: leadership and sustainability, and originates from the Connect Benefit Series 'Sustainability for everyone: here and now' that took place earlier in 2021. Download here.
Staff wellbeing and institutional support in the transition to remote working
A survey of over 1,300 HE staff was carried out by Advance HE between October and December 2020 to gain a snapshot of staff experiences in the transition to primarily remote working; this paper focuses on staff responses. Download here.
Essential frameworks for enhancing student success: Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
This guide complements the Framework for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education by unpacking each of its layers in detail, with a particular focus on recognising practical considerations in the development and delivery of effective enterprise and entrepreneurship curriculum and extra-curricula activity. Download here.
Upcoming: The CATE Collection: Together in Collaborative Educational Leadership
This publication focuses on the experience and expertise of the CATE community, examining the what, why, how and who of the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence, with a range of case studies from award winning academic and student CATE champions from across the UK.
Upcoming: Ethnicity awarding gaps in UK higher education in 2019/20
This report builds on existing research by outlining raw awarding gaps across individual and course characteristics for the 2019/20 cohort of qualifiers, while exploring the extent to which awarding gaps remain when controlling students’ individual, course and institutional characteristics.
Upcoming: Disabled Graduate Employment 2021
The Disabled Students Commission is asking universities, colleges, employers and government to reflect on the level of support that they provide to disabled students moving into employment to ensure recruitment strategies are inclusive.
To find out more about the full range of member benefits for the 2021-22 membership year, please click below.