Symposia Series

Curriculum Symposium

Date: 9 June 2020
Venue: Online

In light of the current global COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak the delivery date and format of this event may be affected. The event is still open for bookings and we will provide details of any changes as soon as we are able.

The demographic profile of the student body is continuously changing as a result of the sector’s work on inclusivity and growing participation rates. In response to this shifting profile educators must reconsider any assumptions they make in curriculum design, taking into account the accrued cultural and social capital of this emergent student population.

Drawing on research and evidence-informed practice, the event will appeal especially to academic leaders and professional staff with roles incorporating the oversight and design of curriculum, as well as retention and success for learners. By way of a keynote session, participant-led workshops or presentations, and a closing plenary, the event will offer insights and solutions for the enhancement of curriculum design within departmental and institutional contexts.

Employability Symposium: Breaking the mould

Date: In response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak we have moved the delivery date of this event from 22 April 2020 to 15 September 2020.
Venue: York, TBC

Individuals and society are increasingly expecting a different return on their investment in a university degree. Given the current policy context and a focus on graduate level outcomes by the OfS it’s important to understand and anticipate what this topography means in order to enable student success.

#EmpSymp20 ‘Breaking the mould’ wants to explore how HE providers are focusing on these shifts: to work in new ways, to collaborate, to provide fuller foundations for continuous learning and ultimately to provide a long-term commitment to ensuring students succeed and maximise their chances of chosen progression, in particular towards employment.

We want to recognise and promote good practice where employability is part of the curriculum, bringing together cutting-edge examples of how sustainable and innovative approaches to employability can be delivered at school, faculty/college and/or institutional levels.

We are particularly keen to encourage submissions that cover:
•    Inter and/or transdisciplinary approaches to employability.
•    Designing inclusive approaches to employability opportunities.
•    Innovative, high impact pedagogies.
•    Policy and institutional contexts focused on systematic and strategic change.

We believe that these areas are essential and, if focused upon, will lead to positive impact, reflected in student learning, student satisfaction and improved core metrics. This approach can further ensure that all stakeholders have a greater certainty in both the quality and ongoing value of their undergraduate course experience.

Student Retention and Success Symposium: Examining the role of mental wellbeing in the curriculum and university

Date: In response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak we have moved the delivery date of this event from 21 April 2020 to 16 September 2020. 
Venue: York, TBC

Retention and attainment remains a key issue across the HE sector with providers engaged  in a range of approaches and interventions to improve the learning experience and outcomes across different student groups. The theme of this year's Student Retention and Success Symposium is mental wellbeing in the curriculum and university. It will consider structures and culture that support wellbeing and the impact that wellbeing can and does have on student retention, transition, and success.

This symposium invites contributions addressing broadly the following questions:

• How do leaders lead on wellbeing (leadership at all levels including PVC, Dean, Student Union, Programme Leaders)?
• How can assessment design and curriculum framing contribute to student wellbeing? 
• What are the discipline-specific challenges to student wellbeing, and how do we transfer best practice across departments? 
• Does our curriculum need to be more compassionate? What does that involve? 
• Does enhancing wellbeing require a new relationship between student support services and academic departments?
• What is the optimum architecture of committee and reporting structures to drive student wellbeing, retention and success?
• How is the wellbeing of research students supported and what is the role of the PhD-Supervisor relationship?
• How do we manage workload?
• Are there good examples of HEIs addressing staff wellbeing and student wellbeing together?
• How does the professional development of staff best address student wellbeing? Do we need new approaches to professional dialogue around wellbeing in the curriculum?

"Really enjoyed the meeting - speakers were interesting and got lots of good ideas and made new contacts with other attendees"

- Previous Student Retention and Success Symposium delegate

Academic Career Progression Symposium

Date: 3 December 2019 (this event has finished)
Venue: Advance HE, York 

In turbulent times and with conflicting demands on higher education, academic careers and progression remain important for staff morale and staff retention.

This symposium will look at different stages of careers from entry into higher education as a new academic (from practice or as a recent graduate), through to line management and on to strategic leadership.  And we will also explore the contentious area of professoriates: teaching and student related, research focused, service and leadership, knowledge transfer and external engagement and the challenges raised with regards to parity of esteem.

The symposium will include a keynote session, participant-led workshops and presentations, and a closing plenary, the event will offer insights into current practice and explore talent management, career planning and equality of opportunities.  Drawing on research and evidence-informed practice, the event will appeal especially to academic leaders with responsibility for staff and their development, Staff Development community, HR and ODHE professionals within higher education.

Assessment Symposium

Date: 24 October 2019 (this event has finished)
Venue: Advance HE, York 

This symposium will address the priority area of assessment feedback, an enduring issue across HE globally, focusing on the connected areas of marking practices and feedback processes. It will offer insights and solutions for the enhancement of marking and feedback practices within departmental and institutional contexts, through building understanding about evidence-informed frameworks, principles and practices.

The day will consider approaches in re-evaluating feedback and marking practices both at a cross-disciplinary and disciplinary level, and look at how feedback and marking practices can be enhanced within institutional contexts.

The breadth of the areas covered means that the Assessment Symposium will be suitable for is for HE staff and student representatives with a keen interest in improving assessment practices and for those with responsibility to further enhance the curriculum and improve the student experience of assessment
and feedback such as programme leaders. 

Depending on level of interest and the quality of submissions for the event, we hope to produce a follow up publication of the same name, in which authors have the opportunity to publish a fuller version (approx. 2,500 words) of the paper they present.

Keynote Speaker

Dr Berry O'Donovan,  Principal Lecturer Student Experience, Oxford Brookes University

What makes good feedback good? Enhancing student learning from, and satisfaction with, assessment feedback

This keynote will draw from recent research studies into assessment feedback in Higher Education that critique current practice and suggest some contemporary approaches to improving student learning from, and satisfaction with, feedback that go beyond technical concerns such as timing and quantity.  Such approaches emphasise the particular challenges of feedback within modular programmes that traverse multiple subject areas and the importance of focusing on the feedback literacy of students.  The research suggests that to capture high satisfaction ratings and high levels of achievement that four shifts in practice may be needed in addition to assuring the technical aspects of feedback provision involved in design, timing and delivery.  The presentation is aimed at those who design feedback processes at the programme and/or module level and for institutional policymakers. 

Berry O’Donovan is a Principal Lecturer at the Business School, Oxford Brookes University. She is a National Teaching Fellow and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and has been involved in a number of national projects funded by the Higher Education Academy/Advance HE and the Higher Education Funding Council England (HEFCE) including as Deputy Director for the ASKe (Assessment Standards Knowledge exchange) Centre for Excellence. Her research centres on assessment and feedback in higher education and the intellectual development of students. Her latest collaborative paper 'What makes good feedback good' has been recently published [online] by Studies in Higher Education and will form part of the empirical basis for this keynote.  Currently her teaching focuses on introductory and capstone modules focusing on synoptic learning within management education. 

Afternoon Speaker 

Professor Carol Evans, Professor in Higher Education; Academic Lead of Higher Education Futures Institute, University of Birmingham

Building Assessment Communities: The Interdisciplinary Network for Research-informed Assessment Practices (INRAP)

In this presentation, on behalf of INRAP, Professor Carol Evans will give a brief update on the development of the Advance HE Assessment and Feedback Network, and outline some of the key challenges facing the higher education community in advancing assessment practices, and welcome input from colleagues. Our aim is to build an international assessment feedback community to which all colleagues are welcome. 

INRAP’s key aims: 

• Building and connecting a dynamic community that challenges, critiques and advances knowledge and understandings of assessment and feedback within higher education. 
• Providing a critical and supportive space for inter-disciplinary collaboration and working.
• Supporting institutions in using assessment and feedback evidence rigorously through research-informed and evidence-based ways to impact assessment choices.
• Promoting a holistic approach to curriculum design using assessment as the driver. 
• Framing, discussing and disseminating new ways of thinking and working in assessment and feedback at discipline and institutional level. 
• Empowering practitioners and equipping and supporting them to leverage their own roles and realities for the enhancement of their own practice, and in supporting others to do the same.