Programme at a glance
Friday 28 November 2025
| 08.45- 09.00 | SRHE welcome & opening remarks |
| 09.00- 09.45 | Plenary |
| 09.45 – 10.00 | Break |
| 10.00 – 11.30 | Parallel Session 1 |
| 11.30 – 11.45 | Break |
| 11.45 – 13.15 | Parallel Session 2 |
| 13.15 – 14.00 | Break & Meet the SRHE Network Convenors |
| 14.00 – 15.30 | Parallel Session 3 |
| 15.30 – 15.45 | Break |
| 15.45 – 17.15 | Parallel Session 4 |
| 17.15 – 17.30 | Break |
| 17.30 – 17.45 | Closing remarks |
Tuesday 2 December 2025
| 10.00- 11.00 | Registration, tea & coffee and exhibition viewing |
| 11.00- 11.15 | SRHE Welcome & Opening Remarks |
| 11.15- 12.00 | Plenary |
| 12.00- 12.30 | Meet the SRHE Network convenors |
| 12.30- 13.30 | Lunch, networking, poster & exhibition viewing |
| 13.30- 15.00 | Parallel Session 1 |
| 15.00- 15.30 | Tea & coffee, poster and exhibition viewing |
| 15.30 – 17.00 | Parallel Session 2 |
| 17.00- 17.15 | Break |
| 17.15 – 18.15 | Poster presentations |
| 18.15 – 21.30 | Welcome Drinks Reception & Informal Buffet Dinner |
Wednesday 3 December 2025
| 09.00- 09.30 | Registration, tea & coffee, poster and exhibition viewing |
| 09.30- 11.00 | Parallel Session 3 |
| 11.00- 11.30 | Tea & coffee, poster and exhibition viewing |
| 11.30- 12.30 | Symposium: 60th Anniversary |
| 12.30 – 13.30 | Lunch, networking, poster & exhibition viewing |
| 13.30 – 15.00 | Parallel Session 4 |
| 15.00 – 15.30 | Tea & coffee, poster and exhibition viewing |
| 15.30 – 17.00 | Parallel Session 5 |
| 17.00 – 17.15 | Break |
| 17.15 – 18.15 | Network and Meet the Editor sessions |
| 18.15 – 18.30 | Break |
| 18.30- late | Drinks Reception, Fellows, Informal Buffet Dinner & Entertainment |
Programme Highlights
Dr Karen Gravett
Across higher education institutions, conversations about care and its significance are increasingly on the agenda. Concerns about wellbeing, about supporting diversity and inclusion, and about the will to foster educational experiences premised on belonging, connection and engagement, have meant that educators are frequently discussing approaches to education that prioritise practices of care. And yet, are universities really more caring places to work and to learn? At the same time as the proliferation of ‘care practices’, discourses that devalue and obscure educational and care labour within the academy, that prioritise educational efficiency dominate. Arguments that surfaced the gendered, classed and racialised practices of care, that exposed its situated material conditions, struggle to find a place in a marketized, individualizing, HE sector that is increasingly precarious. This keynote will explore these tensions, and examine what discourses of care are legitimised in contemporary higher education and which are silenced? Drawing on feminist and posthumanist ideas, Dr Karen Gravett will seek to contribute to more complex meanings of care in the contemporary academy, arguing that care is not simply a warm and pleasant ideal; rather that matters of care can be understood as situated webs of relations and practices. Our speaker will close by considering how we might generate broader ways of thinking about care, and how relational pedagogies might offer a means to foster more critical and caring ways of working, by encouraging us to notice our institutions and learning spaces anew.
Professor Theo Gilbert
To some extent, the currently dangerous combinations of extreme competitive individualism – in politics, business and media – are not reduced by people and teams in those environments that have come out of the (also individualistically competitive) HE factory. But new ways of thinking and practice are emerging from the unlikely context of educating for compassionate student group/teamwork. The initiative is gaining strength from a fascinating and fast developing transdisciplinary theoretical underpinning. Teaching and individually assessing not only both research skills and criticality but also, thirdly, the live use of smart compassionate communications in a final task focused group/teamwork meeting has had interesting results in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Life and Medical Sciences, and Law, at the University of Hertfordshire. Studies so far identify reductions in staff marking workloads, in unjustifiable awarding gaps (with statistical significance for individual critical thinking), in student-reported loneliness and disengagement, and in the inappropriate use of AI in assignments. Professor Theo Gilbert will help demonstrate what the assessed micro skills of cognitive – not emotion-based – compassion mean and look like, practically, when a team meets, online or not. You’ll see how surprisingly easy they are to teach and assess and where to get quickly accessible practical support for that.
As part of the Society’s 60th anniversary celebrations, this session will explore how SRHE has championed research and researchers across its history, with a particular focus on support for Early Career Researchers. We will showcase the journeys of 4 recipients of our Newer Researchers awards, illustrating the impact that these opportunities had for them, and continues to shape their contributions to the field of HE research. Looking ahead, the session will also invite discussion on how SRHE’s wider programme of grants and awards can evolve to meet the changing needs of all scholars and align with the Society’s future strategic directions. Early Career Researchers attending the conference will have the chance to ask questions, share aspirations, and consider how they might benefit from – and contribute to – the Society’s next chapter. Join us to honour our history while imagining the possibilities for the next 60 years of SRHE support for researchers.
Speakers:
Professor Heidi Mirza – The Black presence in Higher Education. The rationale and internal dynamics of this movement; 1993/4 – recipient of the first award!
Professor Kelly Coate – The Formation of Undergraduate Students’ Identities: Disciplinary Differences; 1999/2000
Professor Camille Kandiko Howson – Why work in academia? A comparative analysis of motivation and prestige factors of academics in different national contexts; 2011/2012
Dr Charlie Davis – Working-class academics talking: a participatory critical storytelling project with Russell Group academics; 2021/2022
The SRHE Networks provide the primary means of bringing together researchers in special interest groups through facilitating meetings with fellow researchers to share research issues, exchange ideas and review current thinking and new developments.
Come along and meet the SRHE Network Convenors and the SRHE Team. This is a great opportunity to find out more about the various SRHE Networks, share your thoughts and ideas, and discuss the Society’s activities and programme of events. Whether you are a first-time delegate, a newer researcher or an SRHE member, we would love to say hello. This is a friendly, welcoming space to meet the team, make connections and learn about how you can get involved.
Poster presenters are invited to be available by their posters for a live discussion with conference attendees. This is a chance to showcase your research, receive feedback and connect with colleagues. There will be a prize for poster presentations; all posters will be judged by conference delegates. The Delegate Pack will include the voting form with further guidance. Voting will open on Tuesday 2 December and end after lunch break on the following day.
Poster prize winners will be announced at 18:30 on Wednesday 3 December – good luck to all involved.
With Professor Alex Owen and Dr Emily Danvers
The event will introduce opportunities for attendees to design and propose their own future network sessions, where they can showcase projects, pedagogic innovations, or research-informed strategies. The focus will be on highlighting the process for proposing network events by talking through a practical example of how a LTA network event is put together and what considerations proposers should be mindful of.
With Dr Sazana Jayadeva
Come along to meet the network convenors, and also other SRHE members working on topics related to international education and international student migration! We will discuss the network events we have planned for the coming year and will be very keen to get your feedback about the types of events you would like to see us organise. It will be an informal meeting, so feel free to bring along your lunch!
With Dr Peny Sotiropoulou, Dr Yetunde Kolajo and Dr Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal
Drop in at this informal session to meet the EDI network co-convenors, like-minded EDI enthusiasts from across the globe, and help co-create meaningful activities for all! You will find out all about the newly-established network, and have the chance to ask the convenors any questions. However, this session is mostly for you to share your EDI-related research/practice/interests, as well as the activities you would like to see the network organise. Everyone’s input is extremely valuable, so, please, also use this Padlet to leave your comments: https://padlet.com/pensot/srhe-conference-2025-edi-network-help-us-co-create-relevant–nunc77iywa70ol7s
With Dr Martin Gough, Dr Paula McIver Nottingham and Professor Tina Ramkalawan
This network session aims to cover getting to know you better as a practitioner and a researcher and to discuss how future Network events can make a difference to you and others, and to developing the field of knowledge about postgraduate education. We shall invite you to talk about topics in the postgraduate domain that interest you. We welcome other ideas from you, since, as an important objective, this will suggest ideas for future events which will be both important and of interest.
With Dr Rita Hordósy, Dr Sonia Ilie, and Dr Manny Madriaga
This session reflects upon the journey of this network since its consolidation of interests in widening participation and student experience in 2019. The purpose of the session is to recount the recent policy changes that have occurred in higher education that has impacted upon our research endeavours in the areas of student access and student experience.
With Dr Ciaran Burke and Prof Tracy Scurry
The SRHE Employability, Enterprise and Work-Based Learning (EEWBL) Network brings together researchers and practitioners interested in the relationship between work and higher education and how higher education supports students’ transitions to work. In this session, we will reflect on recent Network discussions and events and identify priorities for the coming year. We will explore emerging areas of research and practice, including graduate employment outcomes, disadvantage, and longer-term scarring; the impact of AI, technology and new forms of work on employability; curriculum, pedagogy and the vocational-academic balance; international graduates’ employability and transitions; and methodological innovations, including the use of administrative datasets. The session will also consider opportunities for collaboration and for running joint events with other SRHE Networks. In addition, we will gather ideas for future EEWBL events, such as development sessions on funding, publishing and impact, or methodological workshops
Meet the Editors: Studies in Higher Education after five decades - Wednesday 3 December, 17:15-18:15
With Professor Maria Slowey
Studies is one of the leading international journals in the field of higher education research. It is owned by the SRHE and published by Taylor and Francis, and, in 2026, will celebrate 50 years since it was founded by the Society. Obviously, the journal- and academic publishing more generally- has undergone enormous changes over this period in terms of scale and scope of research in the field of higher education.
Members of the Editorial Team welcome this opportunity to engage actively with the community of higher education researchers as we work together to publish exciting research, maintain standards and be as fair and transparent as possible in the process.
With the support of SRHE and the publisher, the Editorial Team does not adopt a narrow focus on metrics. The sole priority is to publish the most original, rigorous, and impactful research on higher education, welcoming contributions from diverse disciplinary perspectives and world regions. Because of its reputation and the scale of submissions, the journal has to maintain a highly selective editorial process, with an acceptance rate of approximately 8%. While this low acceptance rate is disappointing to prospective authors (and to us as a team) it reflects the status of the journal as indicated by key statistics and achieved through rigorous peer-review processes.
This session will be an opportunity to discuss: the purpose of the journal; some key statistics; the way Special Issues are produced (with SI Editors who are members of the Editorial Team, working alongside Guest Editors); challenges which we share with all reputable academic journals concerning securing good quality, timely, reviews; some of the main characteristics of what constitutes a ‘successful’ submission; and, materials and advice to assist early career researchers.
SRHE has worked over the past few years to revive its fellowship programme, and in 2025 has appointed 23 new Fellows of the Society. This prestigious recognition marks a milestone in the Society’s 60th anniversary year, as the Fellowship has been reviewed and revised to better reflect and celebrate the contribution to scholarship made by its members. Scan the QR code to find out more about our new Fellows.
The introduction of these new Fellows nominated and appointed from within the Society’s membership underscores SRHE’s renewed dedication to recognising achievement, supporting career development, and building collaborative networks that enrich the field of higher education research. Join us at dinner on Wednesday 3 December 18:30 to celebrate!