HESPA 2015 Annual Conference

With the last session over the HESPA Annual Conference 2015 draws to a close. Thank you to HESPA for a brilliant two days of sessions, panels and workshops.

Lucy Hodson, Aberystwyth University, closes the session thanking the organising committee and asking delegates to please fill in an evaluation form. “Have a great weekend, on Monday why not send an email to somebody you met this week, find one thing you want to talk through with your boss, and one thing you would like to do for yourself.”

Dr Christine Couper wraps up our last session explain that Dr Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Gartner Research, has offered to come back and do a three hour worksop for a small group of planners.

“it’s really important for institutions to understand that there is no ‘one size fits all'” Dr Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Gartner Research.

Dr Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Gartner Research, lists the top 10 business trends – what is the job to get done?

Student success: even before research. Student success trumps student experience.
Reinventing credits
Global competition for students
(Re) thinking business models
Retreating political responsibility
Competency-based education: connected to reinventing credits, we need to be able to educate quickly at lower cost.
Learning analytics
Data-driven decisions
Consumerised expectations
E-research

“It all goes into rethinking the business models.”

Dr Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Gartner Research, “It’s about getting everybody on the same page, wanting to do this change, there has to be a lot of convincing and not commanding”

Dr Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Gartner Research, is explaining the education digitisation-digitalisation dimension, mentioning that CD’s created Napster from this we have iTunes, but the really new ways of doing this are Spotify or Pandora. ‘Subscribing’ to music is the new thing.

Dr Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Gartner Research, opens by mentioning Gartner’s 2014 Hype Cycle for education, “Its a toolbox for me for the next five to ten years.” We need to manage the situation of risk and cost.

You can’t possibly put everything on there that young so I tend to use trends.

Dr Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Gartner Research, speaks now in How Digitalization Disrupts Higher Education Business Models

Steve Chadwick and Lucy Hodson, close this session, thanking Jennifer Summerton, HESPA Executive Officer, for being a wonderful organiser of the conference. Join us after lunch for “How Digitalisation Disrupts Higher Education Business Models”

The next question asks panelists to address the Scottish question, highlighting the upcoming Scottish election.

Nigh Hillman, HEPI, “The Scottish fees system is something that would worry me very deeply as I see other institutions taking in £9k fees”

Alison Goddard, “If I were a Scottish Vice Chancellor I would be concerned I total support the will of people to make university tuition free, but it has to be paid somehow. I worry that the further education budget is being raided to pay for higher education which strikes me as not very social progressive. This is only sustainable if you make sacrifices.”

Our panelists now answer questions from the audience, the first of which asks if some important things are overshadowed in the excited ru up to the election.

Mark Leach, Wonkhe answers, “Part of the problem is that politicians want to talk about things covered by the media”

Alison Goddard, Research Fortnight, “These are all concerns we could pile on the already loaded plate, whether they are more alarming than other things we have discussed is something only time will tell”

Graeme Wise, NUS “I think you make a good point but I think that we are often in danger of capitulating policy drivers as the most important rather than student needs”

Graeme Wise, NUS, begins explaining that he will be mainly talking about young people and their approach to higher education.

Students are changing, explains Wise, stating that students now were around under Tony Blair, saw 9/11 as five year olds and have grown along with technology.

“These young people must go at any price, not going is so much worse socially” says Wise, stating that price is irrelevant. Consumerism is also irrelevant, “this is a group of people who have grown up in a world that is moulded around them, they expect a personal touch on everything.”

“Consumer rights are for grown ups – they are so uncool”, Wise says, but that does not mean that you can get away with treating them unfairly, or worse not listening to them.

Wise suggests that there will be no legislation on higher education in the next parliament, the next government Wise believes will be a minority not a coalition.

Wise warns that the students coming in will be bound to be uncertain about what they can say and who they may offend.

Alison Goddard, Research Fortnight, “Unlike the boys, I am going to address the exam question. I’m trying to go for a solid 2.1 here!”

“The challenges are great but not overwhelming and s a sector it is fantastic so see so many people in this room working on this.”

Goddard suggests that she things a coalition may be in place following May’s election. She asks, “What if the conservatives were the biggest single party and if they went into coalition with UKIP?” This would lead to an EU referendum. Although the chances of this happening might be small they would be profound.

After the general election the first thing that will come is a spending review. Goddard lists a series of cuts that might be made. “Public funding is going to be really severely squeezed. So what are we going to do?”

One answer is international students, but there is competition from other overseas providers and between alternative providers and providers of online learning.

“We’re painting a bleak picture for which I’m sorry but if there is a wasp in the room I think it’s best to know where it is.”

Goddard states that as the world gets higher, demand for higher education is likely to grow.

So how will we weather the storm? “You need a compass and a map, and continually updated water forecast, a crew who on institutions position and bearing, you need leaders and strategic planners. :

Mark Leach, Wonkhe, gives a short history of the Labour party and their position on higher education funding, beginning in 2010 with the tense mood around university fees. It was critical that Labour took home the voters that fled the Liberal Democrats after their fee promise debacle so they promised £6k fees.

The policy was put in the freezer once it was realised that the coalition would last their term.

Back in 2010 Ed Milliband campaigned to be leader of the Labour party and imposing a graduate tax was part of his campaign. “Frankly it was never a deeply held position.”

If fees were reduced to £6k, it was never the intention not to replace the missing 30 per cent, it would be made up in some way.

“What this has done is made it absolutely impossible for about to say anything on this issue.”

Along this journey, options narrowed for labours routes to announcing a new policy. Promising a graduate tax sounds quite good and could actually mean anything.

It’s now pretty clear what Labour is going to do, depending on your perspective it’s good and bad. there won’t be an announcement until the GE campaign. I suspect that the position of Labour has hardened and they are going to announce the retail offer that they will introduce £6k fees and they will introduce a graduate tax by the end of the next parliament. There will be a review directed at implementing a graduate tax. About £5bn needs to be found from the BIS budget.

Nick Hillman, HEPI, mentions the upcoming election and discusses the unknowns for post May higher education.

Hillman also talks about HEPI’s new book, “What do I get?” a collection of 10 essays on student fees, student engagement and student choice.

“We have universities think that they are under resourced and politicians thinking that they have spent all the capital they can”

Hillman gives lessons learnt from the book, saying that, “students and policy makers would all benefit from knowing where fees are going.” Students would feel more value for money.

Chair, Steve Chadwick, University of Exeter, opens the panel session. “The challenge for us will be how we maintain world class research outcomes and student experience in a competitive environment which could easily distract universities from their fundamental purpose. The next five years will bring massive changes to the sector.”

Chadwick introduces our own director, Mark Leach, mentioning that “Wonkhe has established itself as one of the key places to go to for higher education.”

Now we have a panel session: Higher Education Policy – the long view: Weathering the storm

Gordon McKenzie, BIS, “I think what you are seeing are more students getting their first choice, a greater focus on student experience. If institutions are able to adapt to that an do offer an experience that students want, a system that allows and encourages that to happen is probably a good thing. That said I recognise that this is not a normal market. within that more competitive world you need assurances about quality that are beyond any market mechanism.”

Huw Morris, Welsh Government says there are benefits of competition but the risk is that worried universities go too far. “There are no mechanisms currently in place to deal with institutional failure,”

Ministering Theresa Bauer, Baden Wurttemberg, responds to the question saying that competition gives students the opportunity to differentiate between institutions but this shouldn’t be the only mechanism.

Ministerin Theresia Bauer, Baden Wurttemberg, “Surely there are always debates about the privilege to be a research university. It’s very important to keep and maintain the different profiles of these different types of universities, different higher education institutions have to fulfil different tasks.”

Gordon McKenzie, BIS, “From time to time people worry that all of those automatous institutions make the same decision and you end up with an increasing homogeneity. I don’t think people like me should try to decide what the university system should look like. We should try to get the right policy, regulation environment.”

Olivia, University of Birmingham asks about strategies of research concentration and what you light call “letting 1000 flowers bloom”

Huw Morris, Welsh Government, responds that the research that is being done on how research can improve economic wealth suggests that they way to do that is keep your research secret. Lets focus on the outcomes, “I’m not sure we should be maximising the output but we should be thinking about maximising the outcomes.”

Ministerin Theresia Bauer, Baden Wurttemberg, “We need the part of freedom for other ideas, for long term research, for risky research.”

Huw Morris, Welsh Government, “My concern is that we often talk about the cost and finance of things and lose sight of what matters”

A question from the audience ask if we could ever see university tuition fees back in Germany

Gordon McKenzie, BIS, discusses the faults of the higher education system, mentioning the strong and healthy participation in full time education but the lack and decline in part time “There is a question of whether the system is producing all it should.”

Why a mass system? “quality, equity, economic benefits. Graduates are more likely to be engaged in society, more likely to vote.” Gordon McKenzie, BIS.

Lucy Hodson opens our first session today which looks at: What constitutes a world-class education system? How do we create world-class Higher Education systems in a globally competitive environment?

Welcome to day two of the HESPA Annual Conference 2015. Following this morning’s workshops we will be live blogging today’s sessions which are as follows.

10.30 – 11.30: What constitutes a world-class education system? How do we create world-class Higher Education systems in a globally competitive environment?
Ministerin Theresia Bauer, Minister for Science, Research and Culture, Baden Wurttemberg, Germany
Professor Huw Morris, Director of Skills, Higher Education and Lifelong Learning, Welsh Government
Gordon McKenzie, Higher Education Strategy & Policy Deputy Director, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
Chaired by Lucy Hodson, Chair of HESPA and Director of Planning at Aberystwyth University

11.30 – 12.45: Panel Session – Higher Education Policy – the long view: Weathering the storm
Nick Hillman, Director, Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI)
Alison Goddard, Editor, HE: Policy and markets in higher education
Mark Leach, Director, Wonkhe
Graeme Wise, Assistant Director of Policy, National Union of Students (NUS)
Chaired by Steve Chadwick, Director of Strategic Planning and Change, University of Exeter

13.30 – 14.30: How Digitalisation Disrupts Higher Education Business Models
Dr Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Research VP and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner Research
Chaired by Dr Christine Couper, Director of Strategic Planning, University of Greenwich

It’s time for drinks and dinner to round up day one of the HESPA Annual Conference 2015. Join us tomorrow for coverage of day two.

Come and find us at drinks or dinner of your very own Wonkhe badge!

Dr Christine Couper, University of Greenwich wraps up our last session mentioning that HESA are hoping to have a webinar toward the end of March.

That concludes the sessions for today. Join us tomorrow for sessions on world-class education, higher education policy and digitalisation.

There are two big things emerging. There is a conversation going on around governance – how do you oversee such a huge range of organisations collecting data, how might it work, how will it achieve buy-in and mandate? What will it involve, inventory of collections? Inventory of standard definitions? Universal challenge process?

Andy Youell, HEDIIP, asks Alison Allden, HESA CEO, to give a few words on the HESA CACHED programme.

“CACHED stands for changing the approach to the collection of higher education data, we are just launching this as a phase one of that programme. There purpose of that is about reducing burden, improving quality, timelines and in addition, redesigning the way that HESA collects and provides data to the sector. Finally I think what we hope to achieve is flexibility and future proofing.”

“The investment will be in HESA yes, but it will be an investment in the whole sector. It will affect you all. This is no small and insignificant piece of work for us all. Once we get together and think about the real benefits of change, we will have the drive to see this through. It’s not going to happen all in one year, it’s going to be more like ripples and stones. As far as possible we will produce, by thinned of March, a business case. We’re doing everything we can to pick up as much stakeholder impact”

We need to address the fundamental question, “What should a redesigned landscape look like?” Andy Youell, HEDIIP, “How will we know if/when we have succeeded? What are the next steps on this journey?”

Our fourth and final topic for today is new landscape which John Britton, Cardiff University introduces, “The question here is, how can we reshape the UK data landscape so that it works better for all participants and users. This is an exciting opportunity and gives us the chance to be radical and different.”

“This technology has given us incredible power, as human beings and organisations, we can’t keep up with it.” Andy Youell, HEDIIP.

Now Andy Youell, HEDIIP, will speak on Data Capability. Dr Christine Couper introduces this, “There is a concern in the sector that we may not have got the foundations of data management correct. This is an opportunity to look at the sector and look at our data capability.”

An audience member states her worry of humans allocating these codes without error.

“Absolutely there are issues and challenges around that. We are about to open a big consultation about this, when the consultation goes out, do look at the website. I find it very easy to use and I think that computers can help with this.”, Andy Youell, HEDIIP, “If we are going to implement a new coding system there is going to be a burden with recoding everything.”

Andy Youell, HEDIIP, tells us why they went with a nonhierarchical system, “As a part of the analysis done in the lead up to this project, there area number of areas where one could take different views as to where a subject sits. There are some subjects which don’t obviously fit into a group, it was felt that building a hierarchy into the coding system is possibly not helpful. It also provides a lot more flexibility in terms of the evolution of the system.”

The proposed new frame work is six numeric digits and the structure itself does not have a hierarchy. There has been working populating a framework, governance and maintenance processes and the consultation launches this month in about two weeks time.

We are putting JACS to one side and starting with a clean sheet of paper – the Subject coding project. The requirements are that it looks at lexicon issues, “we need to bring some clarity to what it is we’re trying to code here”. There must be a very broad conversation; diverse views and requirements.

Now we take a look at the New Subject Coding System. ‘JACS’ which was developed in 1996 by four people, two from HESA and two from UCAS. The system was created as a compromise, within the structure there are all sorts of inconsistencies. Since implementation there have been two major revisions. It does not meet the requirements of many stakeholders.

Andy Youell, HEDIIP, talks about the adoption plans for the ULN, mentioning the relationship with the Scottish Candidate Number, “There is a lot of work going on with colleagues in Scotland about how we can bridge the systems”.

Unique learning numbers (ULN) grew out of MIAP in the early 2000s. It is the primary ket to the personal learner record. It has been adopted in FE and schools in England and Wales and is going live in Northern Ireland in September 2015. We are starting to get a cohort of young people moving into higher education with a ULN that was allocated when they turned 14, “It’s a no-brainer”

Moving on to unique learning numbers, Andy Youell, HEDIPP, states one of the problems HEDIIP has at the moment is that every system uses its own student identifier, “The bottom line is it’s a lot, and it’s a mess” and they all come together in HEI systems. It’s a barrier to data sharing and linking systems.

In the next break, why not go and visit our very wonky friends at Economic Modelling Specialists (EMSI) in the exhibition area – they provide labour market data, workforce intelligence and other important tools for wonks.

HEDIPP conducted a review of student data collection, looking at a third of the 93 organisations they had identified, “There were some horror stories”.

Andy Youell, HEDIIP gives a few words on HEDIPP. One of the big problems we came upon when we were established was that there was no place we could go to ask “who does all the data collections?” The first thing we did was create an inventory of data collections, there are now 523 separate he data collections and 93 organisations collecting student data every year.

Andy Youell, HEDIIP, lists the challenges of data collection, first the, “absolute lack of coordination amongst those organisations who collect data”. We also find all sorts of data capability issues, “there is a lot of work we think we need to do to improve our relationship and help drive the value of data”. There is also the senior view, “it’s all about the ‘burden'”. There are big issues out there and there are two things that everybody agrees on – “it is not how we would want it to be, and it is somebody else’s fault”.

There is a break now before the final session of the day which will be Question Time: Looking at the Changing Information Landscape at 16.30.

Paul Clark, UUK, summarises with three lessons learned

Need to flexible and opportunistic: The overton window is the opportunity you have to deliver a policy, what the electoral will tolorate.

Personal relationships matter: One of the most important things to do is to get to know the officials

Rational argument is necessary but not sufficient: It will give you a ticket in but only that.

Paul Clark, UUK, choses the UK Cyber security Strategy as his second case study for open policy making. HMG aims: “make the uK the safest place in the world to do business in cyber-space”.

There were some genuine challenges, on one hand a department would want to protect IP while another would want open access to research findings. In an open and collaborative spirit of policy making we tried to work through these and come up with a sensible policy.

Paul Clark, UUK, moves on to the first of two case studies in policy making, Academic Health Science network (AHSNs), part of government’s Innovation, Health and Wealth agenda (IHW).

There were 15 AHSNs developed through a competitive process and there was an initial process of collaboration between DH, UUK, NHS confederation and TSB industry partners with a promise of £5m per AHSM per annum.

The reality of implementation was that AHSNs were driven centrally from the DH, and became part of performance management system. There was strong suspicion of central management control, a lack of sector champions, the promised funding didn’t materialise and the dialogue between sectors was difficult to manage. “The health service was way behind HE in thinking about how it could help growth”

There were several policy making lessons learned:

Centrally-commanded initiatives invite resistance and are rarely effective
There were competing agendas: the treasury weren’t interested as it wouldn’t create jobs.
Cultural issues and decision making: Between the university sector and the health sector there was a very different way of resolving conflict, where the health sector was very aggressive and confrontational and the university sector was more backhanded.
Personal relationships were incredibly important: having a personal relationship is the most important thing, picking up the phone and being able to talk to somebody, it always gets stuff done.
Money always helps

As a summary, policy making needs to be:

Flexible
Inclusive
Democratic
Experimental
Evidential
Data-driven
Collaborative: “I’ve seen examples in the sector where agencies have gone off in a particular direction and have encountered problems where they haven’t consulted or collaborated.”

Paul Clark, UUK, uses Aristotles rhetoric as key points for persuasion:

Logos: message
Ethos: messenger
Pathos: audience
Agota: context/place
Syzygy: alignment

Clark uses George Bush as an example for Ethos and Al Gore for Logos in Gore vs. Bush 2000.

Moving on to persuasion, Paul Clark, UUK, “The skills of persuasion and negotiation are critical in policy making”. Analysis, evidence and rational argument will be your ticket in, but it will only give you the entry ticket to have a discussion. Communication skills, audience, politics and opportunity are almost more important.

Paul Clark, UUK, lists some recent case studies of open policy making in higher education with UUK involvement

Spending review
Efficiency and moderation
Regulation
Capital funding
PG student loans
Cyber security
Digital economy strategy

A question from the audience: “Do you think that the government can afford to do open policy making because we do all of the number crunching for them for free.”

“That is open policy making in action.” – Paul Clark, UUK,

Paul Clark, UUK, talks about a number of wider factors driving the shift to open policy making:

Increased democratisation
Improvements in digital technology: Information is much more freely available, more transparency about what the government does and what their policies are.
Prevalence of social media use
Increased transparency: giving information almost in real time.
More pluralistic society: More voices to be heard, very difficult to define as a one size fits all.
Austerity: Open policy making has also been termed ‘hollowed out government’, as a result of the recession there have been lots of job cuts, therefore you haven’t got the numbers to make policy as it has been done in the past. Arguably this is the only driving factor to open policy making. “Arguably the trends were already there but austerity has accelerated the change”

Paul Clark, UUK, talks about open policy making which there has been a shift towards in recent years. While there is no agreed definition, Clark would characterise open policy making by the following.

Collaboration
Transparency
Challenge
Experimentation
Use of digital tools
Design thinking
Ethnographic approach
‘Big data’

Paul Clark, UUK, begins by listing his his policy making tools.

Evidence base
Statutes
Codes of practice
Budget priorities
Resource allocation decisions
New administrative processes
Political leadership
Communication

We’re back after lunch with a workshop on How policy is made

That concludes this mornings sessions, we will be back after lunch at 14.30 when today’s workshops begin.

Sir Eric Thomas, University of Bristol, wraps up his session with one last observation, “Let’s return to the famous global league tables, you could argue that a university appears in the top 100 of all four of the league tables, you could probably call that university a global university.” Thomas went through the league tables and found only 49 in the top 100 of all global league tables and 70 in three of four. “So is the answer that there are 49 global universities? Or 70? Or only four? I’ll leave that up to you.”

Sir Eric Thomas, University of Bristol gives actions that university leaders can take.

Leadership: It’s about global becoming the daily discourse in university, forming the basis of all decisions. Leaders should also ensure that they are connected to the global education agenda.

Faculty engagement and champions: Clearly they have to see the added value. Key opinion formers among your faculty are crucial here.

Internationalise the student body: If there is not a diverse student body they cannot consider themselves to be global. Make decisions on the number of international students.The language you teach your courses in is an important issue.

Extending the reach: Student and staff mobility arrangements, joint ventures with overseas partners and new campuses overseas. Both national and sub-global networks will assist with globalisation. There are also four global networks; if you can demonstrate that that network is giving you real added value, then join it. If you want to keep the identity of your parent university very strong, it is probably best to not open an overseas campus. Opening an overseas campus has many benefits as well as risks.

“So what is a global university?”

A clear brand with internatinoal recognition: There are very few universities whose brand would be known across the world by everyday people. Your brand should be easily recognised, there should be a number of disciplines in your university with global recognition among peers.

Comprehensive excellence: A global university must provide state of the art facilities and should be independent and have excellent leadership and governance.

Innovative global research: Without it a university cannot claim to be global. Global research is not just more connectivity, it is the size of the endeavour, the partners, the questions which will differentiate it from other research.

An international curriculum with global dissemination: A global university will have global distribution of it’s material. The arrival of MOOCS has to some extent changed all that with many online courses receiving tens of thousands of registration, outnumbering the students studying at the university.

International student and staff demand

Impacting on global policy formulation: Academic staff will be advising global institutions.

Interacting with global business: Naturally successful businesses will interact with organisations they believe to be punching at the same weight that they are

Multiple visitors

Universities across the globe will have to think about using English in their teaching and research. “English is now the global language of communication, I regard that as simply factual.” – Sir Eric Thomas, University of Bristol.

Increased faculty and staff mobility: Sir Eric Thomas, University of Bristol, lists standards for staff at a global university “They have the very best intellectual environment and peers, next the ability to define their research, next facilities, then teaching with the very best students and teaching in a global university.”

Students are already thinking global when exploring university courses. There is an unmet demand for higher education globally, “I have no doubt that students will travel for their postgraduate education, particularly doctoral.” says Sir Eric Thomas, University of Bristol.

Moving onto the implications of globalisation, Sir Eric Thomas, University of Bristol, makes the point that all universities face increased competition; competition for students, competition for staff and now increased competition for research and for new sources of income. Thomas mentions the new global league tables stating that they do have the power to sway student opinions. These tables are relatively consistent with American universities leading the board and UK universities coming in second.

Sir Eric Thomas, University of Bristol, states that information technology has been key in globalisation “it simply couldn’t take place without rapid information flows.”

Sir Eric Thomas, University of Bristol, begins by talking about the 2014 REF and the following reaction where almost every university described themselves as ‘world class’ – “It has become meaningless”. The surge of self proclaiming ‘world class’ universities begs the question – what defines a global university on 2015?

Our next session is What defines a global university? Sir Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor, University of Bristol. Chaired by Dr Craig Hutchinson-Howorth, Director of Strategic Planning, Edge Hill University. 

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen wraps up with his final thoughts. “We need to be positive about higher education and continue to make the case. We need to be seen to be spending every penny wisely and therefore we need to plan effectively and efficiently.”

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen, moves on to open data mentioning the University of southampton as a university doing it right.  “There is a huge amount that we can do with open data”.

“We need to be able to be effective at sharing equipment” says Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen, and suggests that sharing enhances research: the phd students work together. But Diamond warns that sharing one piece of equipment rather than two does not half the cost.

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen, talks about shared services mentioning that Jisc is the biggest cost sharing group in the UK. “I think what they’re doing is just fantastic”.

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen lists; Procurement, IT, Shared Services and Streamlining as main areas to help save money.

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen, discusses his annoyance at the term ‘Universities are awash with cash’ and the thought that universities have got away and avoided the spending cuts. – This is not profit, this is serious money that is being reinvested in the business in order to be able to drive the student experience but that message hasn’t got out.

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen, “Too often the skills agenda is seen as an FE one”

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen, mentions the impending 2016 elections in both Scotland and Wales.

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen asks “is the future rosy?” – No. No good news for public finance, post election, both Labour and conservatives are committed to reducing spending it will become ever more difficult to maintain the research budget that we have.

Diamond does suggest there is good news for students coming from abroad and that Labour may remove international students from immigration numbers.

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen “Universities are investing their own money in order to maintain infrastructure”

Sir Ian Diamond, University of Aberdeen, discusses pressures on teaching costs stating that teaching costs have actually remained relatively low over the last few years during the recession, but they will rise.

Our first session begins: Higher Education: some challenges for planning and planners Professor Sir Ian Diamond, Vice-Chancellor, University of Aberdeen, Chaired by Rona Smith, Deputy Director of Strategy & Policy, University of Strathclyde.
Over the next few years it is likely that higher education policy will continue to be highly fluid. This talk will look at some of the challenges and argue that the need for good planning has never been greater.

John Forshaw, Director of Planning, University of Salford welcomes the delegates and introduces the conference.

The delegates are arriving as the day begins. Highlights for the day are below, or download HESPA 2015 Conference Brochure.