Keynote speakers

Keynote speakers

Shân Wareing
Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education) | London South Bank University
What does fit for the future look like? And where does the bear fit in?
A personal perspective: Transforming the student journey and developing a digital strategy. 

**This session is now full**

About Shân

Shân Wareing is Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education) at London South Bank University (LSBU) and a Professor of Teaching in Higher Education.  Her previous roles include PVC Learning and Teaching at Buckinghamshire New University, Dean of Learning and Teaching at University of the Arts London, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at Roehampton University and visiting professor in linguistics at Michigan State University, USA.  She holds degrees from Oxford University, Strathclyde University, and the UCL Institute of Education, University College London.  She is a past Co-Chair of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), was a member of the 2014 English Subject Benchmark Review Group, and is a Senior Fellow of SEDA, a Fellow of the Leadership Foundation, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a National Teaching Fellow. She oversaw the LSBU 2017 TEF submission and the 2013 Bucks New University REF submission, and won the Wonkhe award for the best piece of original analysis or argument published on Wonkhe in 2017.

What does fit for the future look like? And where does the bear fit in? A personal perspective

London South Bank University is transforming its student journey and developing its digital strategy through a major whole institution change programme entitled LEAP.  My goal is to take the university from a collection of cottage industries and inconsistent practices to one that uses automation to achieve speed and accuracy in essential processes, while avoiding becoming a soulless corporate environment in which factors such as academic challenge, community, role models, experimentation and creative energy are lost.

In this presentation Shân will be wrestling with the questions:
How much is it going to cost?
Where do professional services fit in?
What are the consequences of redesign versus the consequences of no redesign?
Why is there a bear in the title?
What does fit for the future look like?

Jess Moody
Senior Adviser | Advance HE
Excellence and Equity: new directions for social mobility and student diversity

About Jess

Jess is a Senior Adviser at Advance HE, working on the promotion of equality and diversity for staff and students in universities across the UK. She has led projects supporting HEIs on positive action in recruiting underrepresented groups, and worked on the equality implications of the new regulatory landscape and the Teaching Excellence Framework. She also works on LGBT+ inclusion, and supporting diverse faiths in university. She has worked with Jisc on equality data issues, and the advisory forum of Action on Access, and occasionally blogs for Wonkhe.

Jess has worked in Higher Education for nearly 15 years, including at Russell group, post 1992, and small specialist institutions, focussing primarily on issues of fair access. She holds a Law degree from Oxford University and an MA in Gender, Sexuality & Culture from Birkbeck. She can’t seem to stop tweeting @JessMoodHE

Excellence and Equity: new directions for social mobility and student diversity

Higher education has been wrestling with the big questions of social mobility, widening participation, and diversity and inclusion for a long time. Now we face new regulatory frameworks, and calls for the sector to be more ‘ambitious’ in its efforts to improve access, participation and student outcomes. Our data capabilities have increased to provide new tools for targeted action, and culturally we’re starting to have the bigger conversations about gender, ‘race’, age, LGBT+ experiences, and disability.

But, in the face of increasingly divergent media opinions on social justice and the pressure of TEF and league tables, how do institutions make step-changes in ensuring every student is supported to achieve their best? This session aims to draw together some of the key narratives and policy drivers around social mobility and student inclusion, and asks: how do we as a sector, as institutions, and as individuals, ensure ‘equity’ in our pursuit of ‘Excellence’?

Marian Hilditch
Head of Data Quality | Teesside University
Data Encounters of the Third Kind: The future of HE data is now. But what does it mean?

About Marian

Marian Hilditch is Head of Data Quality at Teesside University and member of the SROC steering committee. She has worked in Higher Education since 2008 across data, systems and records, though she’s picked up a few other things along the way. When not at her desk, she can be found in national roundtables and working groups with a good cup of coffee, exploring collaboration and best practice across the sector.

Data Encounters of the Third Kind | The future of HE data is now. But what does it mean?

As the sector stands on the cusp of a new age of instant data-based decision making, how does our capability measure up to the realities of big data, the age of Cambridge Analytica, and the brave new world the Office for Students has in store for us?

Come and listen as we explore the possibilities of Data Futures and what the changing landscape means to our every-day, good old, admin-heavy reality.

Are you ready?

Patrick Hackett
Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer
University of Manchester
The Role of Professional Services

About Patrick

Patrick Hackett has been Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer at The University of Manchester since 1 October 2018 where he leads more than 5,700 Professional Services (PS) staff and is a member of the Senior Leadership Team.
Previously Patrick was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at The University of Liverpool, where he contributed to the development of a new institutional strategy, ‘Towards 2026’; led the Strategic Change programme to deliver new strategic objectives; and developed a new vision of ‘one PS’.
An architect by profession, Patrick has a BArch from University College Dublin and has previously held senior leadership positions at The University of Reading and Royal Holloway, University of London.  He has also been a consultant, advising higher education institutions across the UK on facilities management organisation and development and the delivery of major capital projects.

Role of Professional Services

This session will consider how Professional Services can contribute to the success of our universities and ensure that HE is not just fit for the future but thrives in an era of globalised competition and a world of uncertainty. We will also tackle the issue of how best to describe or categorise those “non-academic” colleagues who make a vital contribution to our universities.