Meeting of the Board of Directors
11 March 2015
Item 6.6
BD/2015/10
QAA Board of Directors
QAA Scotland: 12th Enhancement Themes Conference, Enhancement and Innovation
in Higher Education
Executive Summary
1
The purpose of this paper is to brief QAA Board on the 12th Enhancement Themes Conference,
Enhancement and Innovation in Higher Education. This is the second three-day international
conference to be organised by QAA Scotland. It is the largest event that QAA organises, with
550 delegate places on each of its three days. As such it is high profile with considerable
potential for positive publicity; conversely, an unsuccessful event could have financial and
reputational consequences.
Key Risks and Opportunities
2
The Enhancement Themes conference is an established part of QAA Scotland activity and a
fixture for the university sector in Scotland.
3
QAA held the first three-day international conference in 2013. It was organised and managed
by QAA Scotland, was very well received and widely seen as successful. As a consequence, it
was decided that in future the annual Enhancement Themes conferences would alternate
between three-day international and one-day more nationally-focused events.
4
The Board has been alerted to the fact that in 2015, QAA’s annual conference, the
Enhancement Themes conference and the June meeting of the Board coincide. Given that the
primary focus of the Enhancement Themes is innovation and enhancement in higher education,
the main audience is academic staff and students, so there is little overlap in audiences of the
respective events. To allow Board members and QAA staff to attend a maximum of events,
colleagues are working effectively together, also to maximise the positive PR and publicity
gained by QAA resulting from the international conference.
5
The dates for the next two years’ Enhancement Themes conferences have been set in view of
Board meeting dates, and so there will in future be no clashes between these two significant
events. The dates for 2016 and 2017 are:
 13th Enhancement Themes conference: 9 June 2016
 14th Enhancement Themes conference/3rd international conference: 6-8 June 2017
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There are strong indicators that the 2015 conference will be a success: there was a higher
number of proposals received than in 2013; key note speakers were confirmed early; the
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning has confirmed she will speak at the
conference, as has the Chair of the Scottish Funding Council; the 300 places reserved for staff
from the Scottish university sector were taken within about two weeks of registration opening.
The conference is fully budgeted for by QAA Scotland within our Service Level Agreement with
the Scottish Funding Council. Overall, the planned income generated represents about 10% of
our expenditure on QAA Scotland’s enhancement programme.
Recommendations and Decisions Required
7
The Board is recommended to:
a. Note the plans in place to ensure that the 2015 Enhancement Themes conference is a
success; and
b. Endorse the actions taken to ensure that in future dates do not conflict, and that QAA is
able to maximise all the opportunities provided by a high profile three-day international
event.
Enquiries
Name of Director:
Rowena Pelik
By Tel:
0141 572 3442
By Email:
[email protected]
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Meeting of the Board of Directors
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Item 6.7
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QAA Scotland: 12th Enhancement Themes Conference,
Enhancement and Innovation in Higher Education
Glasgow, 9-11 June, 2015
Plans to ensure the success of the international conference
Background
1 A significant part of QAA Scotland’s work for the university sector in Scotland is in
managing and leading the national Quality Enhancement Themes. The Themes are one
part of the Quality Enhancement Framework established in Scotland in 2003 in a
partnership between the Scottish Funding Council, Universities Scotland, QAA Scotland
and NUS in Scotland.
2
Each year since 2003, a conference has been held, organised by QAA Scotland, focusing
on the current Enhancement Theme(s). Like the Themes themselves, the conference has
evolved over the years – from a one-day event with invited contributions to a two day event
with an open call for proposals and invited contributions, and then to a three-day event with
peer reviewed proposals. The number of conference delegates has similarly grown over the
years. Each conference has featured an international element and speaker, as well as
student contributions.
3
2013 marked the 10th year of the Themes, and the group which chooses and oversees the
Themes, the Scottish Higher Education Enhancement Committee (SHEEC) decided that
this should be celebrated by running an ambitious international conference. That year’s
conference was a three-day event, with over 500 delegates. Given the success of that
event, SHEEC proposed that annual conferences thereafter would alternate between a
three-day international and a one-day more nationally-focused event.
The 2015 Conference
4 The 2015 Enhancement Themes conference will be the second international Themes
conference. It will take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow, 9-11 June.
5
Work in preparation for the conference is progressing well with almost all elements now in
place. The programme will include a keynote plenary each day (see below) as well as a
student-led session. Much of the programme consists of parallel sessions of presented
papers or workshops. In addition, there will be exhibition space to display the posters
accepted through the proposal route. The dominant theme of the conference is Student
Transitions, the current national Enhancement Theme.
6
Following a widely publicised call, over 250 proposals were received with higher numbers of
both student- and staff-led submissions than for 2013. All were peer reviewed by staff and
students from across the Scottish sector. There was a range of outcomes with most being
accepted as the submitted proposal, some being accepted as a different type of
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Meeting of the Board of Directors
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contribution to the conference, and a small number declined. The outcome of this is a full,
varied and rich programme of contributions from staff and students: over 20 workshops,
over 130 presentations and around 70 posters, across all 10 conference tracks.
7
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The invited keynote speakers are confirmed:
Professor Sally Kift, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at James Cook University and
President of the Australian Learning and Teaching Fellows (ALTF)
Professor George Kuh, University of Illinois and Emeritus Professor at Indiana University
Bloomington, USA
Jim McColl OBE, Chairman and Chief Executive, Clyde Blowers Ltd
8
These speakers bring perspectives of different aspects of transitions: Professor Kift has
conducted research into transitions pedagogies; Professor Kuh was the founding director of
the National Survey of Student Engagement and has researched and written extensively
about student engagement; Jim McColl has a long connection with higher education but will
bring to the conference an employer perspective of student transitions.
9
Both international speakers are travelling a considerable distance to contribute to the
conference. To maximise the benefit of their visits, both have agreed to stay beyond the
conference to allow further engagement between them and staff and students in Scottish
HEIs.
10 Angela Constance, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, and Professor
Alice Brown, Chair of the Scottish Funding Council, are both speaking on day two under the
theme of The Future of Enhancement and Innovation in Higher Education.
11 Alongside student-led submissions as part of the conference tracks, there is a student-led
element of the main programme each day. Students from The Royal Conservatoire of
Scotland are performing a piece about their personal experiences of transition; Muriel Grey,
author and broadcaster, and Chair of The Board of Governors at Glasgow School of Art, is
chairing a panel session; and, on the final day, the Enhancement Theme’s Student Network
is presenting on the work around its two projects this year - transitions to postgraduate
study and the support needs of students leaving care. The support needs of Care Leavers
is also one of the topics QAA Scotland is pursuing in support of the Student Transitions
Theme this year.
12 To complement the business of the conference, there will be social activities: a Scottish
night on the first evening with Glasgow City Council again supporting us with a Civic
reception, and the Conference Dinner on the second. There is a fee for any delegates
wishing to attend either of these events.
13 Conference registration opened in mid-January for presenters and during the latter part of
January for all delegates. Through Scottish Funding Council Themes funding, a substantial
number of places are provided at no cost to delegates from Scottish HEIs. All staff places in
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Meeting of the Board of Directors
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this category have already been filled; staff now have the option of paying to attend or
joining a waiting list. Around half the Theme-supported student places have been reserved
already.
14 For those outside the Scottish higher education sector, there is a registration fee structure.
Currently, the early bird rates still apply, and these are being publicised through the
website, newsletter and emails. Numbers at this stage look healthy.
15 Evaluation of past conferences indicates that delegates value the networking opportunities
the conference affords. In a new venture for this conference, we aim to engage conference
delegates in discussions before the event, through a conference LinkedIn group, with
discussion stimulated by the conference track leads. As well as stimulating discussion, it is
hoped that this mechanism will encourage greater networking at the conference itself,
which will be further supported through informal networking groups during the conference.
Interaction will also be enabled through mechanisms such as a ‘twitter wall.’
5