This week I was attending the UCISA Leadership Conference in Liverpool.

On day one I drew two sketchnotes from the sessions I attended. On day two I did four sketchnotes. On the final day of the conference I did two more sketchnotes.

Tackling Today’s Student Engagement Challenges

Today’s students expect more from your institution. Apart from their academic careers, students expect to be communicated with in a modern way, they expect to be engaged right from the start, and they expect to be part of your campus community. The question is: how do you live up to those high expectations? Innovative digital solutions have proven effective in improving student communication, increasing student engagement and personalising the overall student experience. This session will share valuable learnings and insights on how an institution has effectively personalised the student journey.

Trust, teamwork and technology: building a culture of educational innovation at scale

This is a session where we, a Pro-Vice-Chancellor Academic and a Chief Information and Digital Officer, will share our journey of building a trusting relationship to serve our academic and learner communities. We will reflect on what qualities we foster among our teams, give them space to innovate and collaborate, and drive motivation to deliver at pace. We will share our story of building a bridge between academic and professional services communities, where the frequent users are our students. Finally, we will showcase some tech transformation and implementation that may not be ground-breaking but delivered at pace and at scale. It’ll be an interactive session and we will have some fun!

I am attending the UCISA Leadership Conference in Liverpool.

On day one I drew two sketchnotes from the sessions I attended. On day two I did four sketchnotes.

A sustainable approach to building a diverse and disability inclusive team

Building a diverse and inclusive team requires both honest reflection and positive action. Hear from AbilityNet on how to create the conditions where the widest talent pool can thrive.

Curriculum management as the foundation of digital transformation and success: What can UK higher education leaders learn from their Australian counterparts?

We passionately believe that true digital transformation starts with an institution’s core asset – its curriculum. In this presentation, we share learnings from universities that have successfully digitally transformed their curriculum management systems, exploring along the way:

• Why curriculum management should be the focal point for any digital transformation journey
• How digital tools enable staff to manage critical digital data assets accurately, effectively and efficiently
• How a curriculum management system with composable architecture supports and builds resilience into the university ecosystem
• How to ensure a successful implementation

Tackling the Gender Pay Gap in Tech

The twin challenge of pay gap and lack of role models can mean it feels like an uphill struggle to attract and retain women in tech. In this session Tracey Jessup talks about her role as Chief Digital and Information Officer at Parliament and the work the Parliamentary Digital Service did to ensure they were recruiting across the whole of the market, leading to a 0% gender pay gap.

Durham University’s AI Journey

I did attempt to do a sketchnote on the shared services session, but it didn’t come together.

I am attending the UCISA Leadership Conference in Liverpool.

On day one I drew two sketchnotes from the sessions I attended.

Driving  transformational Higher Education through automation and Total Experience technology

In this session Dave Wright from Servicenow talked about driving transformation in an university, thinking holistically about the processes and role of digital.

As the technology landscape grows more complex, the need for platforms that cater for large scale change are essential for educational management. Recent events have shown a need for hybrid and digital learning, plus automation of back-office processes and systems to provide a revolutionary student and employee experience. Delivering a cohesive Enterprise Service Management(ESM) that’s easy to adopt, monitor, and use is now crucial to Educational institutions.

Reasons to be cheerful

In this session, Karen Stanton, Vice-Chancellor, Solent University takes about the challenges, but all the opportunities that mean there are reasons to be cheerful.

Karen Stanton, Vice-Chancellor at Solent University, for this keynote session focusing on the positives IT Leaders can look forward to in the near and distant future. With attitudes in the sector often straying somewhere south of positive, it’s time to consider how the role of IT Leaders will change as the importance of technology grows in shaping strategy will .