AHUA Autumn Conference 2024 round up

With the University of East London playing host and lots going on in and around the sector, the AHUA Autumn Conference 2024 saw a good buzz of interest from members and other guests.

The largest delegate turn out since 2007 saw representatives from 65 different universities including from further afield with new member, Sally Dzingwa, flying in from South Africa where she works at Central University of Technology, Free State. Conference welcomed nine new members attending their first ever conference.

Here’s a quick round up of some of the key discussions and reflections at the conference.

The conference opened with host Vice Chancellor, Amanda Broderick, reflecting on the journey UEL had taken. She shared powerful accounts of some of the more difficult parts of its history but also its resilience and willingness to reinvent itself leading to the huge impact it now delivers  for an increasingly diverse student body and the local community. Her story of how confidence can be regained and of the strength of purpose of institutions felt like a message of optimism particularly, perhaps,  for those whose institutions are currently in a challenging context..

From the initial focus on our generous hosts we moved to a panel debate looking at our wider political context. Chaired by AHUA member Alistair Jarvis CBE (University of London) a panel of sector experts joined Amanda Broderick including Nick Hillman (HEPI), Shahid Omer (UUK), Debbie McVitty (Wonkhe) and Jess Lister (Public First). The panel explored various views on the new government agenda, in particular what universities can be doing to help the government to support the sector’s future success. Discussion areas included the extent to which funding might change, the role of universities in the growth, devolution and equalities agendas and touching on the impact of political change on other bodies such as the OfS and public perceptions.

Workshops kicked off with engaging workshop style seminars on key issues. Governance associate Seamus Gillen explored best practices from beyond the sector, AHUA national sponsor and legal experts Shakespeare Martineau led a session with all the hot legal updates, issues and advice and Natasha Bennet (Director of Change at City St George’s University of London) and Rachel Brealey (Chief Operating Officer at University of Leeds) talked through evaluating effectiveness in professional services as part of transformation programmes.

Following lunch and informal networking AHUA Chair, Nicola Owen was joined by a number of the executive to talk through possible plans on changing membership entitlement as part of an EGM. Nicola explained that, while the Executive are keen to explore changes to the number of members an individual institutional member might be able to have in order to deliver better value for money and to reflect changing structures and roles in the sector, they were not yet sure of the specific membership criteria that should accompany such a change. Nicola explained that ‘balancing the diversity of membership with the distinctive contribution of our members and the strength of our membership community is key’. Nicola reassured members that consultation on possible approaches would be held in advance of the Executive returning with a further proposal to the next AGM (Spring conference 2025).

A second round of workshops followed with Andrew Scott (AHUA coaching and consultancy associate) helping members think about personal and organisational resilience. Hilary Lissenden (UEL’s Assistant COO -Sport and Active Campus) led a session about how institutions can improve student experience by creating a sense of place, belonging and active participation.

The closing plenary of the day was focussed on the tricky issues of ‘dealing with financial challenges – the realities and the practice’. Chaired by Karen Kroger (Chief Financial Officer at Queen Mary University of London and Vice Chair of BUFDG) , joined with presentations from Khadir Meer (DVC Finance and operations SOAS University London), Tracey Slaven (University Secretary and COO at University of Aberdeen) and Janet Smith bringing a slightly different perspective form  further educations and her role as CEO and Principal at Nottingham College.

The panel explored lots of really practical examples of how financial efficiency was achieved from targeted changes to operating practices, accounts management, estates operations and teaching practices through to wider transformation of structures and teaching profile. Filled with empathy and encouragement along with a message about change supporting people and quality the session perhaps echoed back to Amanda Borderick’s opening, leaving the conference with a sense that while the challenges might be considerable the sector is well equipped with people with the ability to deliver transformative change when we focus our attention and support each other.

Thanks to everyone involved in Autumn conference 2024 including delegates, presenters and workshop hosts and our generous hosts at UEL. We hope to see you all, and many more, at Swansea for Spring Conference 2025.