This session is part of the HESPA Showcasing Good Practice Week 2026. The aim of this week is to provide a space for our members to share with each other the work they have done which they feel has been a particular success (or which they feel they learnt something valuable from), and to celebrate and promote the hard work of planners in the HE sector.
Synopsis:
This session will outline how UCL introduced an evidence‑based Stage Zero process to strengthen programme viability, improve governance, and shift academic culture around new programme development. Historically, many proposals were brought forward on the strength of academic interest alone, with little consideration of student demand, market conditions, or financial sustainability. Stage Zero was designed to address this by building a structured, consistent approach to viability checks before any proposal progresses to formal approval.
We will explain how Planning, Marketing, and Finance work together to provide early market insight, financial modelling, and competitor analysis — supporting academics to refine ideas and preventing unviable or duplicative programmes entering the pipeline. We will also highlight how this differs from sector norms: while some institutions conduct basic market checks, many do not operate a coordinated approval model of this kind.
Through anonymised examples, we will show the practical impact: improved forward planning, clearer governance, better‑quality proposals, and a culture shift from “I want to run this programme” to “this programme is viable and sustainable”. The session will offer a simple, replicable process for institutions looking to build more strategic, data‑informed portfolio management.
Speakers:
Monique Lee, Strategic Planning Partner
Lucy Emanuel, Senior Marketing and Student Recruitment Manager, Faculty of Medical Sciences
from UCL
Tagged : Free Event, Data Evaluation and Visualisation, Strategy Development and Implementation
Type : Meeting
