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Member Benefit Round-up February 2022

25 Feb 2022 | Advance HE This member benefit round-up provides a summary of recent and upcoming member benefit activity including the Connect Benefit Series, the Global Leadership Survey, Athena Swan and Race Equality Charter events and recent and upcoming publications.

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 institutionsOur member benefits are built from services our members have enjoyed over many years, plus new services developed based on your feedback to ensure greater accessibility and engagement.

Connect Benefit Series - Student Success: Flexible Learning

Our Student Success longitudinal project continues with a focus on flexible learning. As part of a range of activity linked to our upcoming literature review on flexible learning, authored by Professor Mark Loon of Northumbria University, we have launched a new podcast discussing the opportunity to infuse diversity within higher education to ensure practices and processes are flexible to promote student success for increasingly diverse cohorts.

The literature review also is accompanied by a webinar and summits. 

Webinar 10 March: at this webinar, authors will speak to their recently commissioned literature review on Flexible Learning (2016 – 2020). The webinar will take place at two times in order to accommodate as many colleagues as possible.

The associated summits will also run on three different times and dates.

Register your interest in the upcoming literature review here.

Connect Benefit Series – Inclusive institutions: enabling and supporting culture change

This project addresses the barriers that limit access and belonging, and particularly attention to removing barriers to marginalised groups, can only be created and sustained through an inclusive institution with a culture that is well aligned to purpose, values and goals. The project aims to:

  • Stimulate new thinking for governing bodies and senior executive
  • Consider wellbeing through the lens enabling culture
  • Explore inclusive culture and creating the right conditions for academic staff to be innovative and deliver flexible teaching and learning.
  • Identify ‘what works’ examples via case studies and reflections from a range of institutions.

 Find out more here.

Global leadership survey and framework

Advance HE is working with the sector to develop a global survey for leadership in higher education, research institutes and related organisations. The project aims to generate a unique evidence base for leadership through exploring the impact of leadership development across the sector and throughout the world. The first stage of the project has involved Advance HE commissioning a scoping study which concluded with the following outputs; a literature review and a series of 11 roundtable discussions.

There is still an opportunity to take part in the discussions, with the final round table taking place on Tuesday 8 March 2022, 09:00 - 10:30 GMT - book here

Athena Swan - Diversity Interventions Conference 7 - 8 April 2022

Diversity Interventions 2022 will take place on 7-8 April in-person and online, an international conference hosted and co-convened by the University of Oxford, Advance HE, and Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) Limited. The event will bring together gender equity, EDI professionals, researchers, and advocates from across the world to share best practice, discuss emerging innovations, and exchange personal experiences in designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions and action plans.

Abstract submissions for Diversity Interventions 2022 are now open. Authors are invited to submit their abstracts by 1 March 2022. Further guidance is provided on the Oxford Abstracts submissions portal.

Attendance to this event is available both in-person and remotely. Book your place here.

Athena Swan - Enhancing Practice: Shared Parental Leave and Breastfeeding Practices in UK Higher Education Institutions 22 March 2022 (10.00-12.00 GMT)

In this online workshop, researchers from York St John University will discuss the findings of their recent study into shared parental leave and breastfeeding practices in UK HE Institutions. Aimed at Athena Swan leads, Deputy Leads and those working on gender equality within their institution, the two-hour webinar on will provide an opportunity for participants to engage with the researchers to evaluate current practices, develop action points and build on recommendations to support gender equality in their own workplace. Book your place here.

Race Equality Charter (REC) Network Event: The why, what and how of REC data and analysis 29 March 2022 (14:00-16:00 BST)

This Network Event is designed to support members who are to embark on, or are in the process of, applying for an award and provides an opportunity to revisit the REC award data requirements including tips for analysing and presenting data. A highlight of the event will be a Panel discussion with experienced Panel members who will share their experiences of reviewing the use of data in award applications. An update of the REC redevelopment will also be presented. There is no REC member institutional limit on how many staff attend. Book your place here.

International event - Introduction to Principal Fellowship (14 June 16:00 AEST)

This free, open to all 90 minute session is for Principal Fellowship for prospective applicants. It will provide an overview of the benefits of Principal Fellowship, the requirements for applying, and the resources and what support is available to applicants. Book your place here.

Recent and upcoming publications

Education for Mental Health Toolkit

This toolkit has been developed in partnership with the University of Derby, King’s College London, Aston University and Student Minds. Funded by the Office for Students via a Challenge Competition, the resource provides research and evidence informed guidance on the ways in which curriculum can support both wellbeing and learning. Find out more.

Exploring the use of automated captioning and its impact on disabled students in higher education 

This report provides a series of recommendations on how to improve auto-captions, informed by a roundtable discussion held by the Disabled Students’ Commission (DSC) to help understand the issues more fully. Find out more.

Coming soon: Flexible learning literature review: 2016-2021

The flexible learning literature review project looked in-depth into 105 research articles published between 2016 and 2021, including Advance HE’s report on the topic. The papers reviewed detailed research undertaken across the world, using quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, including a few conceptual articles. Initial findings reveal that Covid19 was a key driver for the increased adoption of flexible learning by HEIs. Nonetheless, flexible learning was also a deliberate strategy in some HEIs. Register your interest.

Author:

We feel it is important for voices to be heard to stimulate debate and share good practice. Blogs on our website are the views of the author and don’t necessarily represent those of Advance HE.

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