Day 1
12 November 2024
Day 2
13 November 2024
- Main stage
- Wonks' stage
- Woburn Suite
- Senate Room
- 8:00
- 8:15
- 8:30
- 8:45
- 09:00
- 9:15
- 9:30
- 9:45
- 10:00
- 10:15
- 10:30
- 10:45
- 11:00
- 11:15
- 11:30
- 11:45
- 12:00
- 12:15
- 12:30
- 12:45
- 13:00
- 13:15
- 13:30
- 13:45
- 14:00
- 14:15
- 14:30
- 14:45
- 15:00
- 15:15
- 15:30
- 15:45
- 16:00
- 16:15
- 16:30
- 16:45
- 17:00
- 17:15
- 17:30
- 17:45
- 18:00
- 18:15
- 18:30
- 18:45
- 19:00
- 19:15
- 19:30
- 19:45
- 20:00
- 20:15
- 20:30
- 20:45
- 21:00
- 21:15
- 21:30
- 21:45
- 22:00
Festival induction
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 09:00 – 09:30
Location: Woburn Suite
If it’s your first time at the festival, you’re new to higher education or just attending alone – grab a coffee and come along and meet the team, and find out how to make the most of your experience.
Speakers
Alistair Jarvis
Pro-Vice Chancellor of Partnerships and Governance
University of London
Debbie McVitty
Editor
Wonkhe
Festival opens
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 09:45 – 10:00
Location: Main stage
Workshop in development: libraries
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 14:15 – 15:15
Location: Woburn Suite
Surviving and thriving in HE professional services
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 12:15 – 13:00
Location: Senate Room
Newly minted author and longstanding higher education professional Rachel Reeds joins us to share insight from her forthcoming book, Surviving and thriving in higher education professional services: a guide to success. Whether you are new to HE or are wondering how to reignite your motivation this session should give you some practical tools, new ideas, and reassurance that you are not alone.
Speakers
Rachel Reeds
Senior Admissions Manager
Anglia Ruskin University
Secrets and fries: franchising in HE
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 14:15 – 15:15
Location: Wonks' stage
#notallproviders, right? But concerns over problematic practices in franchised provision of higher education have been expressed this year from the National Audit Office, the Commons Public Accounts Committee, and as a result, the Office for Students. These point to a system that is vulnerable to exploitation by bad actors at the extremes, and even in the ostensibly legitimate end, realising generous profits from exactly the same unit of resource that universities argue no longer comes close to meeting the real costs of teaching. We’ll break down exactly what is going on, and what can be done about it.
Speakers
Nick Braisby
Vice Chancellor
Buckinghamshire New University
A whole university approach
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 13:30 – 14:00
Location: Wonks' stage
Every policy agenda for higher education seems to demand a “whole-institution approach” to solving it, but what does that actually look like? Liz Thomas has been researching a whole institution approach to access and participation and will explore what lessons can be learned for other hitherto siloed and orphaned institutional agendas.
Speakers
Liz Thomas
Researcher Department for Education
University of York
The pedagogy of AI
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 16:30 – 17:30
Location: Woburn Suite
The hype is easing and we’re learning a bit more about how students and university staff might use AI-assisted technology as part of legitimate learning and teaching activity. Preparing students for the reality of a world that is AI-infused and more likely to be automated, but still fundamentally requiring human intelligence requires understanding what AI makes possible in learning, where the risks are, and how can they best be navigated. How does the availability of AI tools reshape our sense of what learning is and what sort of productive activities contribute to it?
Speakers
Janice Kay
Provost and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor
University of Exeter
Richard Strange
Chief Information Officer
University of the West of England
The business of universities is business
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 15:30 – 16:15
Location: Senate Room
The secret sauce for lifelong learning
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 15:30 – 16:15
Location: Woburn Suite
As students’ needs change, demographics shift, and policy coalesces around the skills agenda, patterns of provision will also change in many higher education institutions, with a greater focus on meeting the needs of lifelong learners. The Open University has been leading lifelong learning provision across the UK for decades – so what’s the secret of making it work?
Speakers
Ian Pickup
Pro-Vice-Chancellor - Students
The Open University
Back to the Future in the devolution Delorean
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 14:15 – 15:15
Location: Senate Room
Marking 25 years of national devolution in the UK, we look at the lessons from two decades of HE policy difference and divergence, what could be coming up in the 2026 devolved elections, and look ahead to what might happen next in, and across, England.
Chair
Dewi Knight
Director
PolicyWISE
Realising the value of humanities
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 11:15 – 12:00
Location: Senate Room
How to write the perfect article on Wonkhe.com
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 15:30 – 16:15
Location: Wonks' stage
Come and meet the Team Wonkhe people behind the headshots, while we chat through what makes a great article for the site.
Speakers
Michael Salmon
News editor
Wonkhe
Data Futures, redux
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 11:15 – 12:15
Location: Wonks' stage
Speaking to those who have been directly involved, we trace the story of the changes, challenges, and occasional chaos that have befallen the 2022-23 Student data collection. It’s the ultimate insider story, a tale of agency politics, project governance, and data definitions that has had a real and measurable impact on providers and regulation. And Data Futures is here to stay – we examine how sector data can move on from the data present.
Chair
David Kernohan
Deputy editor
Wonkhe
Speakers
Richard Puttock
Head of Business Intelligence and Data Analytics
University of Leeds
Andy Youell
HE data and systems specialist
Gabby McLaren
Head of Data and Insight
Point Blank Music School
In conversation: Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 13:15 – 14:00
Location: Senate Room
The authors of Born to Rule: the making and remaking of the British elite will be discussing the role that universities can have in reproducing or, more rarely, disrupting established patterns of social privilege – and what can be done about it.
Chair
Sam Friedman
Professor of Sociology
London School of Economics
Aaron Reeves
Course Director - Evidence-Based Intervention and Policy Evaluation
University of Oxford
The politics of technology: in conversation with Heidi Fraser-Krauss
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 12:30 – 13:15
Location: Wonks' stage
The Jisc CEO joins us to discuss how higher education can make the most of new technologies for education and research, make itself central to the Labour government’s digital agenda, and build digital citizenship in students, while managing spiralling costs, increasing cyber threats, and the incursions into higher education of the technology futures industry.
Speakers
Heidi Fraser Krauss
Chief executive
Jisc
Tackling the Cheems Mindset in higher education
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 16:30 – 17:30
Location: Wonks' stage
Jeremy Driver joins us to discuss what it is about some professional cultures where nothing seems to progress because the otherwise intelligent people involved claim that every single thing impossible – a phenomenon he has dubbed the “cheems mindset.” Find out more about cheems and why it’s bad in Jeremy’s blog about this: https://normielisation.substack.com/p/cheems-mindset
Chair
Mark Leach
Founder and editor in chief
Wonkhe
Speakers
Jeremy Driver
Head of Campaigns
Britain Remade
Workshop: policy ideas for the new government
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 12:45 – 14:00
Location: Woburn Suite
Ask not what government can do for higher education but what higher education can do for government policy. This workshop will examine some of the core policy agendas of national governments and convene imaginative thinking about what evidence, bright ideas, and fresh thinking higher education could bring to the table.
Chair
Alistair Jarvis
Pro-Vice Chancellor of Partnerships and Governance
University of London
James Coe
Associate editor
Wonkhe
What should the compact be with higher education staff?
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 16:30 – 17:30
Location: Main stage
Financial challenge means tougher times, and many higher education institutions are facing difficult decisions about staff structures, roles, and budgets. While national negotiations over pay, terms, and conditions continue, we discuss what is within universities’ control about the working experiences of higher education staff, and whether current higher education staffing arrangements are still fit for purpose.
Speakers
Raj Jethwa
Chief Executive
UCEA
Jessica Wren Butler
Honorary Research Associate
Imperial College London
Kelli Wolfe
Deputy Academic Registrar
University of Roehampton
Arun Verma
Head of Equality & Inclusion
University of London
Workshop: transforming cultural community engagement through creative collaboration
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 11:15 – 12:30
Location: Woburn Suite
Katy Shaw, the dynamic director of the AHRC Creative Communities programme leads a participatory workshop to develop your thinking on how to reinvigorate your community engagement.
Speakers
Katy Shaw
Director
AHRC Creative Communities
In conversation: David Behan
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 15:30 – 16:15
Location: Main stage
The interim chair of the Office for Students and leader of the government’s review of the regulator “Fit for the Future” joins us to discuss his priorities for higher education regulation.
Speakers
David Behan
Interim Chair
Office for Students
In conversation: MAC chair Brian Bell, followed by panel: resetting the public narrative on international HE
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 13:45 – 15:15
Location: Main stage
We will talk to Brian Bell, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), diving into immigration policy, data and evidence with the man who chairs the committee responsible for telling the government what the country needs from immigration.
Following on from our discussion with Brian Bell, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, our panel will explore what universities and government might do together to put international recruitment on a sustainable footing, with political and public support.
Speakers
Brian Bell
Chair
UK Government Migration Advisory Committee
Jess Lister
Associate director, education practice
Public First
Rachel MacSween
Director of Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement
IPD Connect
Cláudia Moreira
Vice-President for Postgraduate and International Experience
Kent Union
Sophie Turnbull
Director of International Recruitment and Admissions
UWE, Bristol
You’re out of touch, they’re out of time – students under pressure
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 12:30 – 13:30
Location: Main stage
As the cost of living crisis hardens into a “new normal”, the principal impact appears to be on time – and like staff, students are now expected to maximise efficiencies in ways that few understand clearly and in ways that leave little slack. In this session a panel of students will help us to understand the pressures, the weigh-ups and the calls they’re making to pack it all in – with lessons for everyone from module leaders to academic strategists, from employers decoding barebones CVs to those in charge of the UK’s student finance systems.
Are we all tertiary now? The opportunities and challenges of coordinating regional post-18 education provision
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 11:15 – 12:15
Location: Main stage
In different ways across the UK there have been efforts to make post-18 skills and education provision more coherent, more aligned, and more legible to the students and employers who benefit from it, from funding, to quality, to curricula. But while nobody objects to collaboration and partnership work in principle, the reality can be much messier and involve more compromise than some might see as desirable. Our panel will interrogate the principles of “tertiary” education provision and the practicalities of what is needed to make it work.
Speakers
Julie Lydon
Chair
Medr / Commission for Tertiary Education
Brooke Storer-Church
Chief Executive Officer
GuildHE
Justine Andrew
Head of Education, Skills and Productivity (ESP)
KPMG
Chris Husbands
University leader and education policy adviser
Higher Futures
The decade ahead: how a Labour government could reshape higher education
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 10:00 – 11:00
Location: Main stage
There’s a new government, with a new, mission-led policy agenda for higher education in Westminster centred on opportunity and economic growth. How can higher education navigate its way through funding challenges and regulatory reform while also working in partnership with the new government to deliver its national missions?
Chair
Debbie McVitty
Editor
Wonkhe
Speakers
Sally Mapstone
Principal and Vice-Chancellor
University of St Andrews
Shitij Kapur
Vice-Chancellor and President
King’s College London
Stian Westlake
Executive Chair
ESRC
Andy Westwood
Professor of government practice
University of Manchester
Wonkhe after hours – 10th birthday party – join us ’til late
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 18:30 – 21:00
Location:
We’d love you to join the Wonkhe and University of London teams at The Marquis Cornwallis pub in Bloomsbury for drinks (on us), proper food, more entertainment and special guests till late.
We’ll also be celebrating 10 years of Wonkhe.
Food will be available from 7.30pm
Find it on Google Maps (a 5-10 minute walk from Senate House)
Drinks reception sponsored by Saxton Bampfylde
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 17:30 – 18:30
Location:
Join us for some drinks and refreshments in Crush Hall
My imaginary university
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 16:30 – 17:30
Location: Senate Room
Aficionados will be avid listeners to My Imaginary University – the podcast where University of Nottingham registrar Paul Greatrix challenges his guests to describe their ideal university.
Chair
Paul Greatrix
Registrar
University of Nottingham
Registration and refreshments
Date: November 12, 2024
Time: 08:30 – 09:45
Location:
- Main stage
- Wonks' stage
- Woburn Suite
- Senate Room
- 8:00
- 8:15
- 8:30
- 8:45
- 09:00
- 9:15
- 9:30
- 9:45
- 10:00
- 10:15
- 10:30
- 10:45
- 11:00
- 11:15
- 11:30
- 11:45
- 12:00
- 12:15
- 12:30
- 12:45
- 13:00
- 13:15
- 13:30
- 13:45
- 14:00
- 14:15
- 14:30
- 14:45
- 15:00
- 15:15
- 15:30
- 15:45
- 16:00
- 16:15
- 16:30
- 16:45
- 17:00
- 17:15
- 17:30
- 17:45
- 18:00
- 18:15
- 18:30
- 18:45
- 19:00
- 19:15
- 19:30
- 19:45
- 20:00
- 20:15
- 20:30
- 20:45
- 21:00
- 21:15
- 21:30
- 21:45
- 22:00
Campus clashes and culture wars – what now for free speech?
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 12:00 – 12:45
Location: Woburn Suite
Just because planned regulation on free speech has been paused doesn’t mean that tensions on campus are reduced or that the complexity of the issues driving those tensions is any less. One person’s free speech is another’s threatening environment, and higher education institutions will continue to come under fire for being perceived to be drawing the lines in the wrong places. We’ll assess the situation and look at practical options for managing the unmanageable.
Session in development: tbc
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 13:30 – 14:15
Location: Senate Room
In conversation with: David Sweeney
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 12:30 – 13:15
Location: Senate Room
A chance to hear from higher education legend David Sweeney about his career in HE policymaking and leadership.
Speakers
David Sweeney
Professor of Research Policy
University of Birmingham
In conversation with: Mary Curnock Cook
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 14:30 – 15:15
Location: Senate Room
Chair of the Dyson Institute and Pearson Education, former UCAS chief executive, serial NED and friend of the show Mary Curnock Cook pulls up a chair for a chat about what she’s learned from her various experiences in and outside higher education, and what it all means for the future of the sector.
Speakers
Mary Curnock Cook
Chair
The Dyson Institute
Making the most of student feedback
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 11:30 – 12:15
Location: Senate Room
Speakers
Helena Lim
Academic Lead and Head of Opportunities
evasys Surveys & Evaluation
David Gilani
Head of Student Engagement and Advocacy
Middlesex University
Solve for student engagement: making sense of quality, teaching excellence and education gain
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 14:15 – 15:15
Location: Wonks' stage
Speakers
Mark Peace
Professor of Innovation in Education & Academic
Kings College London
Vicky Stott
Chief Executive
QAA
Practical innovation and education change
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 13:00 – 13:45
Location: Woburn Suite
Redesigning the research funding system
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 10:30 – 11:15
Location: Senate Room
Jonathan Grant hosts an expert discussion testing received wisdom on all the sacred cows of research: peer review, full economic costing, bureaucracy, and innovation infrastructure
Chair
Jonathan Grant
Founding director
Different Angles Ltd
Speakers
Molly Morgan Jones
Director of Policy
The British Academy
Workshop: improving higher education
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 14:00 – 15:15
Location: Woburn Suite
Back by popular demand: the hard-thinking and straight-talking Selena Bolingbroke and Joe Cooper help you work up your best ideas for making higher education better and pitch against your peers for an investment of Wonkhebucks.
Speakers
Selena Bolingbroke
Principal
Building Crafts College
Joe Cooper
Director of people and culture
University of East London
Workshop: live consultancy with Wonkhe & Counterculture
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 09:15 – 10:30
Location: Woburn Suite
How universities can influence the Labour government: in conversation with Marc Stears
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 11:15 – 12:00
Location: Wonks' stage
The director of the UCL Policy Lab, political strategist and speechwriter joins us to discuss how universities can use their research and insight more strategically to shape government thinking.
Chair
Mark Leach
Founder and editor in chief
Wonkhe
Speakers
Marc Stears
Director
UCL Policy Lab
The future of universities in their places – insight from the Kerslake Collection
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 13:00 – 14:00
Location: Wonks' stage
The UPP Foundation has recently published a collection of essays in memory of former Sheffield Hallam University chair and public servant Bob Kerslake. UPP Foundation executive chair Richard Brabner will be joined by contributors to the collection to assess Bob’s legacy and new ideas from the essays.
Chair
Richard Brabner
Director of ESG for UPP and Director of the UPP Foundation
What the UK can learn from Canadian (and global) HE, with Alex Usher
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 09:15 – 10:15
Location: Senate Room
It’s often said that UK HE promotes itself with North American stylings of student experience – but on European budgets and quality expectations. Drawing on his detailed knowledge both of Canadian and wider global HE, in this session we’ll be around the fireside with Alex Usher, who runs Canada’s Higher Education Strategy Associates, to learn lessons, swap observations and generally chew the strategy and politics fat.
Speakers
Alex Usher
President
Higher Education Strategy Associates
Belong: the latest trends from our student insight panel
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 10:30 – 11:00
Location: Wonks' stage
Chair
Jim Dickinson
Associate editor
Wonkhe
How to read higher education news
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 12:15 – 12:45
Location: Wonks' stage
Team Wonkhe digests the biggest stories of the moment and how the HE news ecosystem works.
Chair
Michael Salmon
News editor
Wonkhe
UCAS: ask us anything
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 09:15 – 10:15
Location: Wonks' stage
The wonks of UCAS break out their spreadsheets to answer your questions about demand for HE, admissions trends, applicant demographics and experiences, and whatever else you can come up with. Send your questions to events@wonkhe.com.
Speakers
Ben Jordan
Head of policy
UCAS
Opportunity for all
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 15:30 – 16:30
Location: Main stage
Higher education retains a deep power to transform lives. But there are limits to university influence in conquering cultural prejudice and redressing systemic economic inequities, particularly as the UK continues to suffer from regional economic inequality and lagging productivity. The new Labour government has adopted “opportunity” as one of its five core missions and the structuring theme of its education policy. But as students struggle with meeting the costs of study and with their mental health, we’ll interrogate the existing assumptions around what education opportunity means across the nations and regions of the UK and think through how higher education can continue to deliver it.
Speakers
John Blake
Director for Fair Access and Participation
Office for Students
Jo Saxton
Chief Executive
UCAS
Amira Campbell
President
NUS UK
Jonathan Simons
Partner and Head of the Education Practice,
Public First
Turning knowledge into economic growth
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 14:15 – 15:15
Location: Main stage
Economic growth is the centrepiece of Labour’s mission-led approach to government, and much of that growth will depend on the UK’s ability to realise the benefits of the knowledge capital developed in universities. How can higher education, research and innovation be more joined up with regional and national industrial and public services strategies to convert aspiration into reality?
Speakers
Wendy Thompson
Vice-Chancellor
University of London
The Wonkhe Show: Live recording
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 13:00 – 14:00
Location: Main stage
Join us for a festival tradition – a live recording of our weekly higher education podcast: The Wonkhe Show. Bring your lunch!
Chair
Jim Dickinson
Associate editor
Wonkhe
Leadership and governance to steward HE through challenging times
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 11:45 – 12:45
Location: Main stage
The difficult decisions that institutional leaders and governors are making right now will determine the future shape and activity of the higher education sector including what courses are on offer, and what research is prioritised. Their ability to oversee change, build organisational capability, sustain external partnerships, and maintain the morale and motivation of their staff will determine whether the sector continues to thrive or whether it flounders in the years ahead. Our panel will assess whether the sector’s decision-makers have the right mix of skills, evidence, and values to make the best possible calls in challenging times.
Speakers
Philippa Pickford
Director of Regulation
Office for Students
Mark Smith
Vice-Chancellor
University of Southampton
At the geopolitical front line: university knowledge diplomacy in action
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 10:30 – 11:30
Location: Main stage
As international geopolitics gets trickier and the world more dangerous the knowledge capital generated by UK universities has the potential to aid or hinder the furthering of international relations and global stability. Universities need to be well-informed of the risks of international collaboration, as well as being equipped to tackle global challenges in the context of political change. What kind of diplomatic capability do universities need and how can they best acquire it?
Speakers
Phil Allmendinger
Professor of Land Economy and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education)
University of London
Alex Favier
Founder and Director
Xavier Ltd
Workshop: Design thinking for higher education inclusion
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 10:45 – 11:45
Location: Woburn Suite
How to fix higher education’s financial woes
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 09:15 – 10:15
Location: Main stage
There are no easy answers on higher education funding, for students or institutions. There is little political consensus on the value of public funding, fees are also contentious, alternatives are niche and non-existent. The very real threat of an institution going bust has to be weighed against the moral hazard of a public programme of government bailouts. By the end of this session, the answers will be clear.*
*not guaranteed
Speakers
Sarah Seed
Partner
Mills & Reeve LLP
Shahid Omer
Director of Policy
Universities UK
Festival closes
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 16:30 – 16:45
Location: Main stage
Registration and refreshments
Date: November 13, 2024
Time: 08:30 – 09:45
Location:
Day 1
November 12, 2024
Day 2
November 13, 2024
- VIEW ALL
- Main stage
- Wonks' stage
- Woburn Suite
- Senate Room
Data Futures, redux
- Richard Puttock
- Andy Youell
- Gabby McLaren
- VIEW ALL
- Main stage
- Wonks' stage
- Woburn Suite
- Senate Room
Redesigning the research funding system
- Molly Morgan Jones
Making the most of student feedback
- Helena Lim
- David Gilani