Jisc Change Agents' Network Conference 2024

The concept of belonging has become increasingly prominent in discussions post pandemic, touted as a crucial factor in student engagement with a corresponding  impact on student access, success, attainment, and progression. However, despite this  recognition, students continue to report rising levels of loneliness and alienation,  particularly those from racially minoritized groups, and there remains a persistent gap in  student success and outcomes on course and post graduation. 

In response to this challenge, institutions are introspecting, examining their internal  structures to identify barriers that may hinder student belonging and its associated  outcomes. The traditional deficit model is gradually giving way to a more student centric approach, but progress remains sluggish, which is concerning given our societal  emphasis on social mobility and the higher education sector's reliance on student  satisfaction, outcomes, and regulatory compliance for financial sustainability. 

While the idea of belonging seems straightforward, understanding its nuances,  determining its contributory factors, and creating the optimal conditions for it are  complex endeavours. By delving deeper into what belonging entails, what factors foster  it, and how to cultivate these conditions effectively, we can pave the way for a more  inclusive and supportive educational environment where all are able to succeed.

About Sheree:

Sheree is the Head of Access and Student Success at the University of Manchester and is recognized as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. With a proven track record of leadership in both secondary and higher education sectors, she has led exceptional teams. Previously excelling in secondary education with an 'outstanding' rating from Ofsted, Sheree seamlessly transitioned into leadership roles within higher education. One notable achievement is her leadership at the University of Kent Law School, where she spearheaded a strategy that closed the Black White Awarding Gap, drastically reducing this gap from -38% to just +1%. Furthermore, Sheree played a pivotal role in securing funding for Raheem Sterling Scholarships at the University of Manchester, alongside spearheading an externally funded collaborative partnership aimed at raising attainment levels in collaboration with Imperial College.

Sheree's academic qualifications include a PGCE from the University of Oxford and a Masters in International Law (LLM). Currently, she is honing her skills as an Executive Coach through training with the Institute of Leadership and Management. Proficient in leading teams to innovate, Sheree is highly sought after as a consultant, coach, and motivational speaker within the higher education sector. Sheree has made impactful appearances at national conferences, including those hosted by the Open University, Sheffield Hallam University, UniversitiesUK, and the Open University International Biennial. In 2022, she was retained as a consultant for a project funded by the Office for Students and UK Research England, focusing on Student Success.

Sheree's expertise extends to delivering inspirational keynote speeches and coaching sessions on various topics, including: enhancing performance, personal success, educational pedagogy, closing awarding gaps, and facilitating progression for underrepresented groups. She actively contributes as a panellist for the Advance HE Race Equality Charter, underpinning her work with values of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Her unwavering passion lies in fostering cultural transformation and enhancing practices to create inclusive environments which enable all individuals to realise their full potential.

As a founding member of the Decolonise UoK team in 2019/20, Sheree played a pivotal role in driving institutional and cultural changes at the University of Kent. Collaborating closely with students as co-creators, she championed efforts to diversify the curriculum, contributing significantly to a more inclusive educational landscape.

UK universities are facing significant disruption due to the economic crisis and limited resources, along with the lasting impact of the pandemic on staff and student wellbeing. One of the ways the sector is responding to challenges and disruption is by developing or revisiting their digital strategies. The benefits of digital transformation are manifold: a university that uses technology to its maximum potential stands to not only enable a healthy research culture and high-quality teaching and learning experiences, but will also leverage the use of data, improve accessibility, optimise efficiency, bolster cyber-security, protect itself financially, and even reduce its environmental impact.

The path to successful digital transformation is not without challenges. It demands targeted investments, digitally aware leadership, robust and secure infrastructure, engaged stakeholders, uniform data practices, digitally proficient staff and students, and, perhaps most crucially, a cultural shift towards digital adoption. 

Students are central to driving forward digital transformation. Their expectations and experiences of technology are an essential consideration in how a university takes forward its digital vision. Active involvement of students as partners in the co-creation of digital strategies, co-designing the curriculum, informing the reimagining of assessment in the context of AI, supporting the development of digital capabilities, and ensuring the equity of experiences for all students, including international students will drive successful digital transformation.

Sarah’s keynote will introduce the Jisc framework and the accompanying maturity model for digital transformation for higher education and highlight the role of students as partners. After a discussion of how universities are using these resources to support their digital developments, participants will be asked to consider what challenges they see in their own organisations to involving students in digital transformation and how these can be overcome.

About Sarah:

Sarah Knight is head of learning and teaching transformation within the higher education and research directorate at Jisc and is supporting universities with their digital transformation of learning, teaching and assessment. Sarah established the Jisc student experience experts group, an active community which provides valuable consultation and dissemination opportunities for Jisc. Sarah continues to champion Jisc’s change agents’ network: to support staff-student partnership working on technology enhanced curriculum projects. During her 20 years at Jisc, Sarah has led large transformation projects on curriculum design, digital capabilities and learners’ experiences of technology.

This keynote will explore how creating partnership opportunities for underrepresented students to act as change agents in our institutions can enhance the wider student experience but can also contribute to social justice goals now and in our future.

Access and Participation Plans are growing in expectations about how providers effectively ensure equality of opportunity. As a proud widening participation institution Northumbria has a variety of important activity in place to support students to access, succeed in and progress from Higher Education.

One such scheme is our Student Inclusion Consultants scheme, which appoints 20 underrepresented students to act as change agents towards a more inclusive environment for all.

Co-presenting with a student inclusion consultant, we will provide an overview of the scheme and its benefits to the students involved, but most importantly we will discuss how this intends to avoid a deficit approach to wide

About Emily:

As Student Experience and Enhancement Manager within the Accessibility & Inclusion Team at Northumbria University, Emily works in partnership with staff and students across the university to enhance Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy and practice as it relates to students. This includes leading the support and evaluation of the ‘on-course’ aspects of our Access and Participation Plan, managing the Inclusion Team who provide 1-1 support for carers, care leavers, estranged students and Sanctuary Scholars, and embedding meaningful student partnership to enhance inclusive practice. Emily has over 10 years’ experience working in HE and is passionate about facilitating a high quality educational experience with a focus on supporting students to identify as equal partners in their higher education journey.

After setting out key principles and areas of focus for the University of Portsmouth, I will attempt to challenge established narratives and orthodoxies on engagement and partnerships. I will introduce the notion of 'teaching well, consistently' as a departure from the often overwhelming, overused and abused sector rhetoric on excellent, outstanding or transformational teaching. I will finally articulate how the 'teach well' agenda is being deployed at Portsmouth and conclude with -if not a definitive set of next steps- at least my wish list for change.

About Ale:

Alejandro (Ale) Armellini leads digital learning, learning innovation and pedagogic transformation, including on-campus and online provision, across all Faculties at the University of Portsmouth. He wrote and embedded the Digital Success Plan for Learning and Teaching in 2021, which became the centrepiece of the University’s new Education Strategy, co-developed by Ale in 2023.  Before joining Portsmouth, Ale was Dean of Learning and Teaching at the University of Northampton, where he was the strategic lead for the redesign of all programmes for active blended learning (ABL). His work shaped Northampton’s flagship Waterside campus, which opened in 2018 – without lecture theatres, among other radical features. He publishes widely and is a reference point in areas including large-scale institutional transformation, ABL, learning design and innovative teaching practices.  Ale is a National Teaching Fellow, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in the UK. He holds visiting professorships at several universities and is active in external examining and consultancy globally.