This week saw the ALT conference happening in Cardiff. I did attend the conference last year in Glasgow, but didn’t book a place this year. There were already quite a few people from Jisc going to the conference and my thinking was that they could bring back any intelligence or insight from the event.

However, Cardiff is not that far from me, well as the crow flies it’s about 12 miles, however that pesky Bristol Channel gets in the way, and not having a hovercraft to hand I had to take the car and drive there, and it’s fifty miles to Cardiff by road. The plan was to meet up with people attending the conference who had arrived the night before at the Tiny Rebel pub in the centre of Cardiff. I was concerned ifI was going to be able to get home, because as I drove down the M4 towards Cardiff there was a nasty accident on the other carriageway and the motorway was closed. 

Once I got to Cardiff it was nice to meet with old friends who I only usually see at the ALT Conference. When I drove back home, the M4 was closed by Newport, so I was diverted on the southern A48 before rejoining the M4.

I did miss attending ALT-C this year, but my job at Jisc is much more than just attending conferences I like. Having recently attended the GÉAT SIG-EDU meeting in Sweden and the 1EdTech Learning Impact conference in Thessaloniki, I know I can’t go to every event that happens in the calendar. I also missed the Higher Education Transformation 2026 conference, I spoke at a similar event last year, this year there was somebody else from Jisc speaking, so as with ALT-C my thinking was that they could bring back any intelligence or insight from the event.

I am though attending the WonkHE The collaboration question event. The strapping for the conference is the future shape of UK higher education, and who decides it.

The OfS announced a consultation on the TEF this week, well, it is a series of proposals for the future approach to quality regulation, which includes the Teaching Excellence Framework.

The reaction from the sector (based on an unscientific peruse of social media) was quite negative.

Last week I spent three days in the office, this week I spent two days. Last week I was able to drive all three days and park, this week, the car park was fully booked, so I caught the train to Bristol to the office. I have an EV, so though I add to the congestion I don’t add to the local pollution. 

Next week I am in the London office for two days. It will have been a year since I was last in the London office, which I now realise is quite a long time. Even my last work visit to London was back in January though I did visit Wimbledon in May.