Our symposium events offer staff a useful forum to encourage the exchange and dissemination of different ways of thinking about key challenges and new approaches. Practitioners are invited to participate in each symposium through submitting an abstract on their work as a fifteen-minute stimulus presentation and case study to support the discussions.
Structure
Each symposium is facilitated by a Senior Advisor from Advance HE with specific expertise in the area being discussed. The day will feature a keynote presentation from a leading practitioner in each area, followed by themed sessions showcasing case studies from across the sector. Delegates will have the opportunity to learn from leading practitioners in the sector, debate priority issues and learn from cutting-edge initiatives.
Benefits
The symposia provide teaching practitioners with access to an open and supportive environment and valuable peer network to share and discuss contemporary practice and initiatives. They enable participants to develop a principled, evidence-informed approach to devising subsequent support and guidance for change in enhancing student success in HE.
Who: Teaching practitioners including: heads of departments, academic programme leaders and developers, lecturers, academic and support staff, and learning technologists.
View the dates of the events below or in the calendar.
Assessment and Feedback Symposium 2020: Assessment and feedback in the pandemic era: A time for learning and inclusion
Date: 28 October 2020
Venue: Virtual
This symposium invites participants to consider our assessment and feedback practices and how these might be enhanced, improved, and made more inclusive, in pandemic and post-pandemic higher education. By way of a keynote session, participant-led workshops and presentations, and a closing plenary, the event will offer insights about these issues, as well as examples and ideas for university staff and students. Drawing on research, evidence-informed practice and broader, recent developments, the event will appeal especially to academic leaders and professional staff with roles incorporating any aspect of assessment and feedback practices.
Mental Wellbeing and Staff in HE Symposium
Date: 17 February 2021
Venue: Virtual
This symposium, by way of a keynote session, participant-led presentations and workshops and a closing plenary, will offer insights and solutions in how to better understand the barriers to staff wellbeing and how individuals and institutions can affect the sustainable change necessary for a genuinely whole university approach to mental health and wellbeing.
Sustainability Symposium
Date: 3 March 2021
Venue: Virtual
In an era of ‘climate emergency’, it is now more timely than ever for us to re-examine and reinforce the embedding of sustainability into higher education curricula. But with the outbreak of Covid-19, what does sustainability in the curriculum now mean and what lessons can be learned from the handling of the on-going pandemic? Are the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) still applicable, and how do we ensure that they remain foremost in our consciousness?
Race Equality Symposium: Disaggregated data and differential experiences: What can I do to understand it?
Date: 20 April 2021
Venue: Virtual
This symposium, by way of a keynote session, participant-led workshops and presentations, and a closing plenary, will offer insights and solutions to issues of race and racism within higher education, and will explore ideas for supporting and advancing change in HEIs and closing the attainment gap.
Employability Symposium 2021
Date: 22 April 2021
Venue: Virtual
It’s inescapable; employability is a prominent feature of contemporary higher education. Globally, a range of HE providers are examining the methods they use to enhance employability and increasingly there is a desire to strengthen and develop relevant activities due to a range of factors and influences such as graduate destination data, labour market detail, policy impact, and student expectations.
This symposium aims to bring together cutting-edge examples of how sustainable and innovative pedagogies for employability can be delivered at school, faculty/college and/or institutional levels.
Gender Equality Symposium
Date: 11 May 2021
Venue: Virtual
Gender equality remains an ever-present concern within the HE sector. The Athena SWAN Charter’s process and framework is now being adopted across the globe, including in Ireland, the USA and Canada, but more work needs to be undertaken in order to address this. As Brian Schmidt, Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU) said, "we can't ignore 50 percent of the population's talent."
This symposium, by way of a keynote session, participant-led workshops and presentations, and a closing plenary, will offer insights and solutions into redressing the gender imbalance in HE.
Curriculum Design/Development Symposium
Date: 3 June 2021
Venue: Virtual
The outbreak of COVID-19 forced us to re-evaluate our curricula, particularly in terms of delivery methods, where online teaching and blended delivery have been the only channels available to us to teach our students. But what lessons have we learnt from this? What have been the benefits to students of full programmes taught online? What new models of teaching have emerged during the past year that allow us to expand and diversify the curriculum?
This symposium, by way of a keynote session, participant-led workshops and presentations, and a closing plenary, will offer reflections, insights and solutions to issues of curriculum design.
Disability Symposium
Date: 15 June 2021
Venue: Virtual
Under the Equality Act 2010, a person has a disability 'if they have a physical or mental impairment, and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities' and that higher education institutions have a duty 'to make reasonable adjustments for staff, students and service users' in relation to provisions, criteria or practices; physical features and auxiliary aids. But what does this mean in practice, and how can we improve the experiences of students and staff with disabilities?
This symposium, by way of a keynote session, participant-led workshops and presentations, and a closing plenary, will offer insights and solutions into supporting students and staff with a disability.
Ireland Symposium
Date: 23 June 2021
Venue: Virtual
This symposium, by way of a keynote session, participant-led workshops and presentations, and a closing plenary, will look to explore priority areas of higher education within Northern Ireland and Ireland and will offer insights and solutions to assist staff in addressing them.