AUA Annual Conference and Exhibition 2023 Call for Proposals

Lead inspiring conversations and sessions focused on your professional practice and career journeys! 

The deadline for proposals has been extended!

The deadline for submissions is midnight on Tuesday 28 February.

The AUA Annual Conference and Exhibition 2023 will take place in-person from the evening of Sunday 2nd July to Tuesday 4th July at the world-leading University of Warwick – renowned for excellence in academic research and teaching standards. 

The AUA Annual Conference and Exhibition needs the creative input of AUA members and the wider higher education sector to be valuable for higher education professionals. Your contribution ensures that the conference programme is relevant, practical, and inspiring. 

For higher education professionals, presenting at the AUA Conference is a significant professional development opportunity. Whatever stage of your career, you can grow by receiving feedback from your peers and forging networks of colleagues with various interests and areas of expertise from institutions across the sector. By presenting, you can also enhance your profile, draw attention to your work and promote your institution.  

We are now inviting proposals for the AUA Annual Conference and Exhibition 2023, which must address this year’s theme: 

Becoming a Higher Education Professional: Continual Reinvention in a Transforming Sector.

Our theme centres on the career pathways of professional staff and explores a continual self-reinvention to navigate a changing and challenging sector. This theme challenges the notion of having a fixed identity as a HE professional and instead offers that our professional self is fluid and in a perpetual state of self-overcoming – always learning, always changing, always growing. In our becoming as professionals we are an active plastic force, a powerful energy that can transform – but we need to be able to imagine, to be creative and to dare to do things differently. 

Speakers can attend the day of their working session at conference, and the Sunday AUA Garden Party for free!

In addition, we would like to welcome working session speakers to attend the remainder of the conference at a discounted rate of 50%. Please note that this discount will be applied to the standard rate dependent on your membership status.

*Please note that Accommodation is not included in this offer but can be booked through the University of Warwick here.

Within this theme, we have five conference strands, and your proposal will need to align with at least one: 

+ Early career transformation in the professional services 
+ Becoming a leader in the professional services 
+ Reinventing senior leadership in the professional services 
+ Transforming wellbeing in the professional services 
+ Transforming approaches to equality, diversity and inclusion in the professional services 

The AUA CPD Framework is at the centre of all our professional development activities. Please describe how your session supports up to three of our nine professional behaviours. Read more about the AUA CPD Framework. 

You may choose to submit a proposal for a: 

+ 30 or 60-minute interactive workshop 
+ 20-minute paper presentation 
+ Poster 
+ Wild card (be creative! For example, a wellbeing walk, a performance or a group activity. We particularly welcome proposals which make effective use of campus space.) 

The deadline for proposal submissions has been extended and is now: 

Tuesday 28 February 2023

The review panel will expect your proposal to show how your session:

+ Includes the latest content that shares research and/or practical experiences of higher education professionals 
+ Highlights initiatives that demonstrate best practice and addresses challenges in the higher education professional services 
+ Maximises engagement and interest from the audience 
+ Is complete, accurate, and clear 
+ Has clearly defined take-aways for participants 
+ Embeds equality, diversity and inclusion 

Please read our guidance notes for submitting your proposal, which provides further detail and practicalities. Once you are ready, you can submit your proposal below.

AUA reserves the right to edit information supplied in the proposal form. We may contact you to provide additional information. Speakers are subject to the standard event terms and conditions.  

AUA welcomes session proposals from: 

+ AUA members 
+ Non-members working as higher education professionals in higher and further education institutions or private providers 
+ Higher education sector associations and bodies 
+ Not-for-profit organisations from the UK and around the world. 

AUA doesn’t accept proposals from corporate organisations or consultancy firms. If you want to introduce or promote products and services to delegates you can take part in the conference as sponsors. If you are interested in being part of the AUA Annual Conference and Exhibition as a sponsor or exhibitor and would like the opportunity to host a session, please contact events@aua.ac.uk to find out more.  

If your proposal is accepted, each session leader and co-presenter must register as a conference delegate for at least the day on which your session takes place. Speakers can attend the day of their working session at conference, and the Sunday AUA Garden Party for free!

In addition, we would like to welcome working session speakers to attend the remainder of the conference at a discounted rate of 50%. Please note that this discount will be applied to the standard rate dependent on your membership status.

*Please note that Accommodation is not included in this offer but can be booked through the University of Warwick here.

Proposal submission: Annual Conference 2023

Before submitting your session proposal, please read the Annual Conference 2023 session proposals guidance notes and AUA Event terms and conditions.

Please note that you are able to save your submission at any point using the link at the bottom of this page.

  • Lead Presenter

  • Please provide brief details of your career, professional interests and experience, in 200 words max. Please write in 3rd person.

  • Co-presenter 1

  • Please provide brief details of your career, professional interests and experience, in 200 words max. Please write in 3rd person.
  • Please provide brief details of your career, professional interests and experience, in 200 words max. Please write in 3rd person.

  • Proposal

  • Max 15 words
  • Describe your content, including the delivery methods (see guidance) and outline the relevance to the conference theme. Max 300 words.
  • Please write your learning outcome as the completion of the following sentence "By the end of the session delegates will be able to..."
  • Please write your learning outcome as the completion of the following sentence "By the end of the session delegates will be able to..."
  • Please write your learning outcome as the completion of the following sentence "By the end of the session delegates will be able to..."
  • Please select up to two strands.
  • Please choose as many as are relevant.

  • Proposal details

  • Please select up to three behaviours.
  • Max 300 words
  • For example: Does the content use a broad range of examples/scenarios/images that illustrate the diversity of higher education? How will the content of your session be accessible to all? Have you considered if the content and structure will be appropriate for those with sensory or mobility impairments?

  • Practicalities

    (Maximum participant number, equipment, room layout) We always try to account for all your requirements when preparing our conference programme. However, it’s not always possible to do this and so are not able to guarantee your requirements will be met.
  • Presenters and co-presenters are able to deliver their session at no cost, however, if they wish to attend the conference they are required to register as paying conference delegates. In recognition of the contribution made to the conference programme, presenters are booked on at the cheapest attendance cost, please refer to the Annual Conference 2023 proposal guidance notes (at the top of this form) for full details. AUA reserves the right to edit information supplied in the proposal form. We may contact you to provide additional information. Presenters are subject to the standard event terms and conditions which can be found at aua.ac.uk.
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