Since the 2019 Conference, higher education has gone through an unprecedented time of disruption and adaptation. While the sector has responded to the necessities of remote working and learning in agile and inventive ways, it has never been clearer that connection and community are essential to a thriving higher education ecosystem.

The higher education sector engages a wide range of often overlapping communities at local, national, international, disciplinary, and institutional levels. As we move forward into a period of rebuilding and recovery, we now look to identify and sustain the best practices and new insights which strengthen and connect these communities.

Novel possibilities for hybrid learning and flexible working have the capacity to facilitate additional pathways into higher education. How can we, as a community of practitioners and researchers, harness this potential to enhance the inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility of our sector? Creative forms of collaborative working can help us to meet challenges ranging from sustainability issues to disciplinary silos, to enhancing policy impact. What practices, principles, and partnerships should we build on to support higher education as a dynamic and innovative sector?

Recent changes to working structures and patterns also raise a host of important considerations. With different disciplines relying on digital and physical infrastructures in varying ways, how do we configure university spaces effectively? In a sector already strained by internal competition and inequalities in resource distribution, can we enable this period of change to be one of positive transformation? After long stretches in isolation from our colleagues, this event will provide a space to reconnect and exchange knowledge. Together we will ask: what works, what must change, and what new possibilities could we pursue? Read the full call for papers.