Speaker: Anna Artemyeva
Session Synopsis: TBC
Speaker: Kevin Donovan, Workplace Health and Wellbeing Manager, University of Strathclyde
Session Synopsis:
In times of continued pressure and change, wellbeing cannot sit at the edge of organisational life as a collection of supportive initiatives. It needs to be part of how we lead, listen, make decisions and improve the experience of work.
This workshop shares the University of Strathclyde’s developing approach to creating a Culture of Care, built around belonging, psychological safety and kindness. Kevin will introduce the Five Drivers of Flourish: Safety, Belonging, Purpose, Voice and Growth, and explore how these can give institutions a clear, shared language for workplace wellbeing.
Drawing on Strathclyde’s Wellbeing Reviews and emerging Wellbeing Standards Framework, the session will consider how staff insight can be translated into meaningful local action, accountability and evidence of progress. Participants will reflect on how to move from activity-led wellbeing to a more strategic, preventative and sustainable approach during change.
Speaker: Dr Liz Rogers, Head of Risk and Resilience, University of Strathclyde, Chair of HEBCoN; Ben Toogood, Head of Risk and Resilience, King's College, London, Vice-chair of HEBCoN
Session Synopsis: This workshop will explore approaches to assessing and treating the risk of disruption in UK universities. The speakers will consider the value of Business Impact Analysis (BIA) processes in HE settings, by challenging conventional thinking and by presenting practical steps to developing resilient business continuity plans.
Speakers: Charlotte Armstrong, Student Education Operations Manager, Student Curriculum and Operations, University of Leeds; Helen Beecroft, Senior Project Manager, Transformation Office, University of Leeds; Sarah Turner, Deputy Enterprise Architect, University of Leeds
Session Synopsis: Universities are increasingly working to deliver ambitious digital and educational strategies while operating within complex organisational structures with competing priorities. This session explores how the University of Leeds responded to a need to enhance the Online Learning student experience by creating services that meet the unique needs of these learners. The challenge was to work at pace designing and implementing operational solutions that are flexible, sustainable and underpin institutional education and digital strategies. Colleagues from student administration, strategic planning and change, and IT will share learning from their Online Learning project undertaken as part of the institution's Digital Education ambitions. Working with an external partner, experts from across professional services operated outside traditional organisational constraints to meet a rapid delivery timeframe. The project delivered significant technological change, but its greatest value emerged from the transformation of human ways of working across teams. Traditional processes, roles and project approaches became redundant. Trust and devolved decision making enabled new forms of collaboration and allowed work to be centred on the realities of student experiences. We will share: How strategic vision can transform into a real student experience; How engaging cross-functional areas enabled genuine collaboration; How learning from the project is being used to influence future transformation projects; Our reflections on balancing strategic ambitions with practical implementation. Audience Takeaways: Creating genuine cross-functional collaboration and reducing silo working; Transforming how we work to generate change capacity; Capturing learning to support wider organisational strategy delivery; Connecting strategic priorities to real human experiences.
Speaker: Dan Wood, Chief People Officer, University of the West of England
Session Synopsis:
Turning strategy into reality is one of the hardest challenges universities face. This session offers a practical, experience-based reflection on leading a major transformation programme in a UK university, focusing on what makes change succeed - or stall - in complex, values-driven institutions.
Drawing on personal experience, the session explores lessons about starting well, designing change from the outside in, building effective governance and guiding coalitions, and making disciplined choices under financial and operational pressure. Participants will be invited to reflect on their own contexts through a short interactive exercise, with an emphasis on judgement, trade-offs and what change looks like in day-to-day practice.
The session will be particularly relevant for those leading or supporting strategic change across professional services and cross-institutional programmes.
Speaker: Dan Isaac, Data Literacy & Training Lead, University of Exeter
Session Synopsis:
Everyone is talking about AI, but people aren’t talking about the humans that use AI and the data that fuels it. In this talk, I aim to correct that by discussing:
• The role of humans in evaluating AI
• Why AI tools and their human users should be evaluated as a singular system of distributed cognition
• The importance of prompt engineering
• Should we trust AI?
• AI’s data problem
• "Garbage In, Garbage Out": AI will provide poor outputs unless it is fed from good data.
• How can we define 'good' data?
• Understanding Availability Bias for humans and AI
• The data challenge faced by 'legacy' organisation
• The knowledge gap between AI/Data Professionals and Business Leaders
• Why humans need data literacy
• What is Data Literacy?
• Always asking "What does the data tell us?" when making a decision
• Data literacy is not intuitive and must be learned
Speaker: Smita Jamdar, Partner & Head of Education, Shakespeare Martineau LLP
Session synopsis:
Higher education strategy is being made in an increasingly difficult environment: financial pressure, volatile recruitment, changing regulation, greater political scrutiny and rising expectations of universities from students, government and wider society. Across the UK, the regulatory and policy frameworks differ, but many of the strategic challenges, and the governance questions they raise, are unsurprisingly similar.
Drawing principally on developments in England and Wales, while reflecting on emerging themes in Scotland and Northern Ireland and globally, this session will consider what governing bodies need to do strategy well in this environment.
It will explore how boards can look beyond assurance and compliance to make a meaningful contribution to institutional strategy: understanding external change, challenging assumptions, navigating risk and uncertainty, making difficult choices, and maintaining a clear sense of institutional purpose. Above all, the session will ask what strategic governance looks like when the future is becoming harder to predict.
Speaker: Scott Davidson. The University of Edinburgh
Session Synopsis: TBC
Speaker: Matthew Abley, Access and Participation Plan Programme Manager, University of Westminster
Session Synopsis: This session will focus on the establishment of a programme structure to support the delivery of University of Westminster's APP, exploring how the institution has moved from a diffuse model to a defined and robust governance structure, cross-institutional participation and collaboration, and more effective deployment of resource to integrate the APP's delivery into business as usual. The session will explore how the APP has been further incorporated into, and recognised by, broader institutional strategy.
Speaker: Ruth Burchell, QAA
Session Synopsis: TBC
Speaker: Louise Jones, Head of Strategic Projects Portfolio and Delivery, Manchester Metropolitan University; Andreea Lupu, Strategic Projects Communications and Information Officer, Manchester Metropolitan University
Session Synopsis:
A strategy only delivers value when it is translated into action. In this session, we will discuss how we have worked with Executive PVCs to move beyond traditional strategy documents and create operational plans that actively drive delivery across professional services and academic communities.
We will share the practical steps we have taken to make strategic plans living documents. Participants will leave with actionable ideas, lessons learned from our experience, and opportunities to reflect on how institutions across the HE sector can collectively strengthen the link between strategy and delivery.
Key takeaways:
• Turning strategic priorities into clear, deliverable plans.
• Embedding accountability and ownership across the institution.
• Learning from shared sector challenges and successes.
• Exploring future opportunities for enhancing strategic delivery.
Speaker: Clare Foyle, Director of Strategic Planning, UCL; Enzo Raimo, UCL; Patric Kirchner, UCL
Session Synopsis: TBC
Speakers: Julie Gifford, University of Edinburgh; Dr Estelle King, Head of Planning and Returns, Nottingham Trent University; Katya Samoylova, Cambridge; Adam Van Coevorden, Jisc/HESA
Session Synopsis: TBC
Speakers: Tim Bedford, University of Strathclyde; Michael Johansen, Aalborg University
Session Synopsis: TBC
Speaker: Sadie Lynch, Principal Analyst and Futures Lead, College of Policing
Session Synopsis: Policing faces an increasingly complex and fast-changing future shaped by technological innovation, evolving crime threats, demographic change, and global events. This session introduces futures and foresight, exploring how these approaches can help policing anticipate change, navigate uncertainty, and make better strategic decisions.
Drawing on the work of the College of Policing, the presentation will explore how horizon scanning identifies emerging trends, risks, and opportunities, and how futures thinking supports long-term planning and preparedness. Participants will also be introduced to foresight techniques, including scenario planning and the futures wheel, which can be used to explore alternative futures, understand the implications of change, and strengthen organisational resilience.
Offering an engaging and accessible introduction to futures thinking, the session will provide practical insights into how organisations can anticipate change, explore uncertainty, and prepare for emerging challenges and opportunities to inform strategy and build long-term resilience.
Speakers: Roger Adams, Head of Planning and Policy, Cardiff University; Dr Melanie Rimmer, Data Analysis & Reporting Manager, Cardiff University
Session Synopsis: We will cover how Cardiff University created and implemented an internal student-staff ratio measure as part of discussions around the academic future of the university. We will describe the process of defining and agreeing the measure, how we engaged with academic Schools, and the reporting created to support ongoing discussions. The new measure has been embedded in monthly reporting and future scenario projections and has found wide acceptance among stakeholders, forming an integral part of Planning & Budgeting discussions around the future size and shape of the university.
Speaker: Jessica Sims, Head of Strategic Planning Partnering, UCL
Session Synopsis: This session explores how a fragmented, error-prone data environment (built on countless spreadsheets) was transformed into a robust, reliable data infrastructure to support strategic student number planning and recruitment decision-making.
We will walk through the journey from the initial challenges to the creation of structured data pipelines and Tableau dashboards, improving both data reliability and accessibility. The session will also highlight how new governance frameworks have enabled more consistent and coordinated planning across the institution.
Alongside the technical build, we will address how a business partnering approach was essential in securing stakeholder trust, embedding new ways of working, and driving adoption of an improved student number planning process. Through collaboration and shared ownership, teams across the institution have shifted from reactive decision-making to more proactive strategic planning.
Participants will gain practical insights into effective governance, securing buy-in, continuous improvement, cross-team alignment, and the importance of user engagement in sustaining a single version of the truth.
Speaker: Ruby Adams, Strategy and Programme Manager, Harper Adams University ; Henry Blackman, Director of IT, Harper Adams University
Session Synopsis: Many organisations have ambitious strategies, but delivering them consistently across complex institutions remains a significant challenge. This session will explore how Harper Adams University created the Harper Transform programme to bridge the gap between strategic ambition and operational delivery. The session will share how a university-wide transformation programme was established to support growth, improve efficiency and effectiveness, and develop a culture where continuous improvement becomes part of everyday business. Rather than focusing solely on individual projects, Harper Transform combines business process improvement, digital enablement, and staff engagement to create the conditions for lasting organisational change.
Drawing on practical examples, we will discuss how colleagues were engaged in identifying improvement opportunities, how process improvement was linked directly to strategic priorities, and how the programme sought to deliver change with people rather than to them. Participants will gain insights into the challenges, lessons learned, and benefits of creating a transformation approach that balances strategy delivery with cultural change.
Attendees will leave with: Practical approaches for translating strategic objectives into a coherent transformation programme. Lessons on creating the organisational engagement required for successful change. Techniques for identifying and prioritising business improvement opportunities that release capacity and support strategic goals. Insights into building a culture of continuous improvement and embedding change as part of "business as usual". Reflections on the realities, challenges and successes of delivering institution-wide transformation within a resource-constrained environment.
Speaker: Aya Ferguson, Director of Consulting, SUMS Consulting
Session Synopsis: TBC
Speaker: Anna Tinkler, Registry Academic Data Governance Lead, University of Sunderland
Session Synopsis: We will outline how a 6-month project led to securing executive support and strategic investment for the creation of the Registry Academic Data Governance Unit. Now existing to ensure the effective ownership, quality, and strategic utilisation of academic data across the service and university. Our remit spans the oversight, coordination, and enhancement of data processes and systems for the service, underpinning institutional decision-making and supporting the university’s academic mission, serving as a central point of expertise, guidance, and operational oversight, with a commitment to delivering measurable value and fostering a culture of data-driven excellence.
We will focus specifically on:
- Exploring the need for service-based data strategy, and what we are doing to support this
- Why data ownership/stewardship matters and how to improve engagement with the concepts
- Role of data literacy in supporting business effectiveness
- Key tools supporting the work of the unit
Speakers: John Blake, Director, The Post-18 Project, and Professor of Social Innovation and Public Policy, University of Salford
Synopsis: The new Prime Minister’s been clear he wants to see more decisions made locally, to build more prosperous communities across the country - but he has inherited a weak economy, growing international turmoil, and a very short window before the next election. Higher education institutions must have a role in these agendas - as drivers of research, teachers of students, and employers of local people - but they are trapped in a failing system which cannot self-correct. John Blake explores how and why we got to this point, and how we might get out of it.
