We are delighted to announce the full programme for the HESPA Showcasing Good Practice Week 2024.
The aim of this event is to provide a space for our members to share with each other the work they have done which they feel has either been a particular success, or has generated lots of useful ideas based on lessons learned. Above all, we wish to celebrate and promote the hard work of planners in the HE sector.
We are so grateful to our wonderful members who have volunteered to lead sessions. We know the rest of the HESPA community will be looking forward to hearing what you have been working on. The programme is now announced below, and you can book your places using the links for each session.
All sessions are free for HESPA members and will be held on MS Teams. You will receive an automated booking confirmation email for each session you book. This contains a copy of the Team meeting joining link. Please check your junk mail if you do not receive it. You will also receive a copy of the link by email from us nearer to the event and be added directly to the Teams meeting invitation.
Speakers:
Suzanne Constance, Head of Portfolio Performance
Clare Beckett, Student Recruitment & Admissions Director
Institution: Kingston University
In this session colleagues from Kingston University will discuss their clearing scenario planning, and talk through the following questions:
Kingston University is determined to achieve a balance between growth in recruitment, increasing tariff and reducing dependency on Clearing. In 2022, the university identified the data and the dashboard design that would enable key stakeholders to undertake scenario planning on how many students to take at each tariff band across multiple subject areas in the key period between the embargoed results being available to it and confirmation on A-level results day. The Clearing Scenario Planner Dashboard was born, and in 2023, it enabled Kingston to maximise its performance in all three areas, by increasing market share in the main cycle whilst also closing the gap on tariff with the sector during a period of grade deflation as well as growing its student numbers.
Speakers:
Camille Kandiko Howson, Associate Professor of Education
Charlotte Whitaker, Learning Analytics Project Manager
Institution: Imperial College London
Introduction
Phase 1: Writing the Policy
Phase 2: Collaboration and Expert Consultation
Phase 3: Empowering Student Voices
*Presentation of findings regarding what aspects students were comfortable with and where they expressed reservations
Phase 4: Incorporating Student-Friendly Policy/Policy Information Content
*Highlighting how staff will be informed about data usage boundaries and student intervention preferences outlined in the policy
Key Learnings and Best Practices
Q&A Session
Exchange of insights, experiences, and additional best practices from session participants.
*items which will only be included if there is time to cover it in the session
Speaker: Kirsty Bryant, Senior Institutional Research Analyst
Institution: University of Westminster
Within a UK higher education context, the Student Voice is imperative. UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are assessed and rated via the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), and students are encouraged to use TEF ratings – which provide a clear signal of a provider's excellence. Institutions submit a range of data and evidence to support their TEF assessment. This typically includes data on student satisfaction, student retention rates, graduate employment outcomes, and other relevant information. The TEF metrics focus on quantitative data and can provide us with a picture of the ‘what’ – for example, ‘what is the satisfaction rate of students?’ but it does not tell us the why. Collection and analysis of qualitative student feedback can provide the ‘why’ behind the numbers and provide guidance on understanding the Student Voice and how to make decisions that are led with improvements and the Student Voice in mind. With the increasing importance of enhancing the student experience and fostering continuous improvement in higher education, the University of Westminster has employed AI technology to analyze and interpret the multifaceted feedback and sentiments expressed by students.
This presentation highlights the power of AI in understanding the Student Voice, and our aims to drive positive change for student experience and student outcomes.
For reference, this session will repeat some elements of my talk at the HESPA conference earlier this year. Specific areas that I will cover include:
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Speakers:
Catherine Bingham, Senior Business Intelligence Analyst
Chris Evans, Deputy Director of Planning and BI
Institution: University of the West of England
Join us for a session on degree apprenticeship reporting, where we'll share the progress made at the University of the West of England to address the unique questions and challenges within this area. Over the past two years we've developed a range of reports using Power BI to support apprenticeship delivery and the session is aimed at anyone with an interest in apprenticeships, Power BI or exploring how data can support operational and leadership teams in their university.
Speakers:
Helen Cooke, Senior Manager, Academic Strategy and Planning
Maria Kantirou, Head of Academic Strategy and Planning
Institution: The Open University
Using case studies from our work across the institution, we will showcase how a small, central Academic Strategy and Planning team at The Open University has enabled the implementation of complex strategic initiatives through effective cross-unit teamwork and collaboration. We will share our experiences as well as the project management methodologies and leadership theories we have built on to achieve our goals.
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Speakers: Clara Lewis, Senior Data Analyst
Institution: University of Birmingham
Learn how University of Birmingham’s Strategic Planning and Performance Insight department are using GitHub to work collaboratively in the development of Power BI reports. The session will include what software individuals require, the support we provided developers, our experiences including the benefits and challenges and what’s in store for the future. Presentation format. Attendees will leave with actionable steps to implement version control for collaborative Power BI development within their organisations. No prior experience of version control is assumed.
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Speakers:
Roederer Rose Lyne, Net Zero & Emissions Manager
Fraser Lovie, Head of Sustainability
Institution: University of Aberdeen
As part of the University of Aberdeen’s Net Zero ambition, we are committed to improving our emissions reporting, identifying emissions sources for which we have limited data or lack a robust reporting methodology, and ensuring compliance with the Scottish Government mandate to report comprehensively.
As part of that process, a gap was identified around our ability to report emissions data associated with students travelling to study in Aberdeen from around the world.
The subsequent development of an innovative and effective calculation tool has enabled us to report these emissions for the first time and has seen the tool enhanced for sector-wide dissemination and shared as a best-practice methodology.
The session will highlight the development process and how it fits into Aberdeen 2040, the University’s 20-year strategic pla
Speakers: Robyn Wyatt, Head of Governance Services, Secretary to the Board of Governors
Institution: Falmouth University
We have recently developed and internally launched a bespoke ‘board portal’ App for our Board of Governors. The first phase of the app (launched in summer 2023) includes access to meeting papers, live strategic performance monitoring reports, live risk and compliance reports, further reading including training and development resources, a news feed, user control of personal information, user declarations of (and management of) interests, and an integrated expenses claim process.
As the App is part of the Microsoft Apps, it is fully secure and integrated with our University’s Teams, SharePoint and Power BI resources, with process automation through Power Automate.
This was developed at very low cost – with a low internal resource requirement (developed in a couple of weeks by the Head of Business Intelligence and Board Secretary), with marginal increase to existing Microsoft licenses (to enable Board access to PowerBI reports). The solution is very low maintenance – with the Board Secretary able to self-serve most changes. We’ve just collected the first round of user feedback and are working toward phase two.
This session introduces and explores the functionality within the solution, and enables opportunity for questions and discussion around limitations and opportunities linked to this approach.
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Speakers: Martin Tickle, Risk Manager
Institution: Imperial College, London
Imperial has recently implemented an integrated software solution for ERM, and the session is geared towards sharing our experiences of this in the following areas:
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Speakers:
Judith Crocket, Senior Survey Analyst
Mary Daly, Strategy and Insight Lead
Institution: Glasgow Caledonian University
An overview/case study of our automated online Closing the Feedback Loop process for our end-of-trimester module evaluations.
The session will include a background/history to how and why we developed and implemented the process and an overview of the process itself.
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Speakers: John Tipple, Data Insights Manager
Institution: Anglia Ruskin University
At ARU, we’re currently working with an external supplier to measure our economic, social, and cultural impact across our local campuses. The aim is to measure our current impact and also provide a benchmark to measure future improvement.
This has involved working to gather 47 datasets across the university. The session would cover the best practices involved in gathering these datasets: stakeholder management, how we approached the data gathering process, what to include / exclude, adhering to GPDR regulations and organising non -disclosure agreements, what went wrong and how we addressed this, and next steps for the project going forward. The work also uncovered different levels of data maturity across the organisation and highlighted how we can improve this in future iterations.
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Speakers: Nicholas Clark, Planning Officer
Institution: Brunel University London
In this session, Nicholas Clark from Brunel University will talk though their work on finding out where and why students underperform by using per student comparative analytics. He will talk though the methods, the advantages, disadvantages, how it has been used and explore possible extensions of the mindset.
Speakers:
Rebecca Baker, Risk and Business Continuity Manager
Lindsey Bartram, Data Governance Manager,
Sally Bembridge, Senior Administrator (Planning, Risk, Insurance and Data Governance)
Institution: Sheffield Hallam University
At Sheffield Hallam University, we do not have a system to manage, report or visualise risk. We have therefore worked collaboratively with data governance colleagues to develop Tableau dashboards to support risk management and stakeholder decision-making.
In this session we will talk through the journey we have taken to visualise risk, including key considerations at each stage, discuss our outputs and the benefits we have realised, and how we see this as a starting point.
We would then like to open the session up to collaboration, using breakout groups to get people thinking critically about risk visualisations. We propose to do this through splitting the attendees into groups and giving each group a risk visualisation to review. We will then pose some key data governance/management questions for the group to answer, and each group will feedback to other attendees to bring the conversation together.
Key Points:
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Speakers: Clare Foyle, Head of Strategy Delivery Account Management
Institution: UCL
UCL have introduced an approach to reviewing the programme portfolio, challenging under-performing programmes and using data to inform the introduction of new programmes.
This session will describe the journey that UCL took to be able to review programmes in this way, the barriers to success and the benefits that have been seen so far.
The approach taken aligns with the strategic planning cycle at UCL and we will also describe how the two work together.
Showcasing Good Practice Week 2023 Recordings
Showcasing Good Practice Week 2022 Recordings
