Date: Wednesday 12 July, 2023
Time: Registration from 9:30 am | Keynotes: 10 am & 1.30 pm | Conference closes 5 pm | Optional drinks reception 5 pm – 6 pm
Venue: Bill Brown Design Suite, Queens Building, Woodland Road, BS8 1TH.
Registration is now open
Please ensure you click the correct link below*
Students please register on Eventbrite
*Tea/coffee will be available at the start of the morning and afternoon sessions. Lunch will be provided for delegates attending all day.
This conference will explore the role of community and belonging in creating what bell hooks calls “the best climate for learning”.
The programme includes two keynote presentations from Professor Nicola Dandridge (University of Bristol, formerly the OfS) on Belonging and regulation: an essential relationship, and Sunday Blake (WonkHE) and Gail Capper (Pearson) on Building Belonging in Higher Education, as well as sessions on:
- Student partnership and authentic learning
- Staff and staff/student communities
- Community and belonging within and between programmes
- Designing teaching and assessment to build community
- Student wellbeing and belonging
- Decolonisation and sustainability
- Developing student skills, confidence and community
Full timetable
| 9.30am | Registration and welcome teas/coffees | ||
| 10am | Opening: Tansy Jessop | ||
| Keynote: Professor Nicola Dandridge (Professor of Practice in HE Policy) – Title: Belonging and regulation: an essential relationship | |||
| 11am | Break | ||
| 11.30am | Room A | Room B | Room C |
| Developing student skills, confidence and community | Student partnership and authentic learning | Decolonisation, sustainability and community | |
| 12.30pm | Lunch | ||
| Poster Presentations | |||
| 1.30pm | Introduction: Tansy Jessop | ||
| Keynote: Sunday Blake (WonkHE) and Gail Capper (Pearson) Title: Building Belonging in Higher Education | |||
| 2.30pm | Short break | ||
| 2.45pm | Room A | Room B | Room C |
| Staff and staff/student communities | Community and belonging within and between programmes | Sustainability | |
| 3.45pm | Short break | ||
| 4pm | Room A | Room B | Room C |
| Designing teaching and assessment to build community | Student wellbeing and belonging | Decolonisation | |
| 5pm | Drinks reception and celebration of Curriculum Enhancement | ||
| 6pm | Event closes | ||
Keynote speaker (10:00 – 11:00):
Belonging and regulation: an essential relationship
The presentation will consider the many ways in which issues of belonging and community underpin and inform broader policy and regulatory objectives for higher education. These may be explicit, such as the requirements for a supportive learning environment that form part of the Teaching Excellence Framework; or they may be implicit and indirect, such as the way in which belonging is strongly correlated with the positive student outcomes that form part of current regulatory requirements for all higher education providers in England.
The session will consider the different ways in which approaches that promote belonging directly or indirectly inform policy and regulatory objectives, drawing on examples from across the sector, including activities undertaken by students’ unions.
Although the importance of belonging is generally well-recognised within the higher education sector, the presentation will conclude by asking whether more needs to be done to promote the role of belonging and community in wider policy and political discussions.
Professor Nicola Dandridge Biography
Nicola joined the University of Bristol as a Professor of Practice in Higher Education Policy in October 2022 where she is researching higher education governance with a specific focus on the relationship between teaching and research and its impact on students and other policy objectives. She was previously chief executive of the Office for Students, the higher education regulator for students in England. Before that she was chief executive of Universities UK, the membership organisation for UK universities.
Morning sessions (11:30 – 12:30):
Room A Session 1 – Developing student skills, confidence and community
10-minute presentations followed by a 20-minute Q&A with all presenters
- Angela Parry-Lowther: Why embedding key skills – no matter the programme of study – helps students thrive in all areas of academic life. view abstract
- Celine Petitjean and Manisha Koneru: Building community and self-confidence through mentoring between PGTS and Post-docs view abstract
- Nienke Alberts: Forced fun: questioning the role of personal tutoring in the development of student communities view abstract
- Juliet Pope and Stuart Pope: When MS Teams work makes the dream work view abstract
Room B Session 1 – Student partnership and authentic learning
15-minute presentations followed by a 5-minute Q&A after each presentation
- Alex Paterson and Nora Pau: The ‘Bristol Model’ putting students at the heart of the University’s civic mission in social science and law through a ‘student as researcher’ approach view abstract
- Hannah Tweddell: Connecting students with each other and the city through community engaged learning view abstract
- Domi Duff: Lived Experiences of Students Enrolled on Authentic Units view abstract
Room C Session 1 – Decolonisation, sustainability and community
7-minute presentations followed by a 3-minute Q&A after each presentation. Remaining time for wider discussion
- Alix Dietzel: Philosopher Queens – Creating an Inclusive and Decolonized Learning Space (SPAIS FSSL) view abstract
- Helen Thomas-Hughes: Students as Community Researchers: Developing New Insights (The Cabot Institute) view abstract
- Holly Bain: Engaged Learning in a Challenging Future: How ‘real world’ learning can connect us to global challenges (Professional Liaison Network, FSSL)
- Katherine High: Building a new supportive learning community through formative assessment (CALD) view abstract
Lunch in the atrium (12:30 – 13:30)
Poster presentations
Short presentations of research posters
- Alex Paterson – The ‘Bristol Model’
- Alicia Gonzalez-Buelga – Effective and Inclusive Flipped classroom
- Becky Selwyn – Students as Partners in Engineering Education Research
- Charlie Davey – Skori
- Dave Gatrell – Celebrating Curriculum Enhancement
- Domi Duff – Lived Experiences of Students Enrolled on Authentic Units
- Juliet Pope – When MS Teams work makes the dream work
- Maire Gorman – Statistics and social science students
- Rosie Nelson – Trans and Non Binary Inclusive Pedagogies
- Sarah Allsop – Collaborative scheme for peer-delivered Basic Life Support training
- TBA – BILT highlights/successes from 2023
Keynote speaker (13:30 – 14:30):
Building Belonging in Higher Education
Building Belonging in Higher Education
Despite research into the ways in which “belongingness” is produced and sustained in various pedagogical contexts, belonging can still be seen as a vague and indefinable concept. Where exactly do feelings of belonging come from in a university setting? What factors enhance or hinder it? And what can institutions do to better facilitate feelings of belonging? Wonkhe and Pearson research breaks down the concept of belonging and presents recommendations with the aim of helping universities extend pockets of best practice across the sector.
Gail Capper biography:
Following an early career in English Language teaching, Gail has held commercial, development and insight roles at Pearson for over 18 years. She is currently delivering product and market insight internationally and produces research across a range of educational themes. Her latest publication, in association with Wonkhe, delved into the four foundations of belonging in Higher Education.
She is an advocate for diversity, equality and inclusion challenges, wherever they are found, and is passionate about making a difference.
Sunday Blake biography:
Sunday Blake is associate editor at Wonkhe. Sunday is coming from the University of Exeter where she works in strategic development and delivery with a specific focus on belonging and inclusion. Previously, she was President of the University of Exeter Students’ Guild, where she worked for two years after completing a postgraduate degree.
She has carried out policy change work both locally and nationally in areas such as sexual misconduct, drug and alcohol use, student sex work, freedom of speech and no-detriment policies. She has worked alongside a diverse range of partners, from AdvanceHE to the Department for Education, and is interested in widening participation, access and retention, and graduate outcomes.
Afternoon sessions (14:45 – 15:45):
Room A Session 2 – Staff and staff/student communities
10-minute presentations followed by a 10-minute Q&A with all presenters
- Fiona Hartley and Kevin Haines – Building a learning community amongst teachers view abstract
- Jo Rose – Learning from each other: Researching Teaching and learning across disciplines view abstract
- Becky Selwyn – Students as Partners in Engineering Education Research
- Emilie Poletto-Lawson and Fiona Hartley – Social programme and PGCAP interdisciplinary learning groups view abstract
- Christophe Fricker – Can there be a learning community if learning means vastly different things to different people? view abstract
Room B Session 2 – Community and belonging within and between programmes
10-minute presentations followed by a 10-minute Q&A with all presenters
- Maire Gorman – Statistics and social sciences students: building confidence, camaraderie and appreciation of relevance of statistics through inter and intra-cohort Mentimeter activities view abstract
- Christy O’Sullivan – An Intro to Academic Societies view abstract
- Charlotte Verney – Fostering positive experiences of belonging and difference for joint honours undergraduates view abstract
- Emily Bell – Together from the Start? Exploring students’ sense of belonging. view abstract
- The BILT Transition Group Project (Robert Sharples, Claire Spencer, Keith Beasley, Emily Bell)– Thriving or Surviving? What students say about the transition to University view abstract
Room C Session 2 – Sustainability
7-minute presentations followed by a 3-minute Q&A after each presentation. Remaining time for wider discussion
- Andy Wakefield – Offsetting teaching emissions: an educational opportunity for final year students (Biological Sciences / Life Sciences) view abstract
- Evelyn Miller and Eva Craig – Anxiety within decolonising the curriculum and sustainability movement in higher education (BILT & SPAIS) view abstract
- Helen Thomas-Hughes and Joanne Norris – Building an inclusive environmental research culture: Exploring the Cabot MScR programme (The Cabot Institute) view abstract
- Charlie Davey – Global Green initiative view abstract
Afternoon sessions (16:00 – 17:00):
Room A Session 3 – Designing teaching and assessment to build community
10-minute presentations followed by a 20-minute Q&A with all presenters
- Rachael E.H. Miles, Kerry J. Knox and Jonathan P. Reid – Building community through pedagogy: Team based learning and 2 stage assessments view abstract
- Rushana Khusainova – How we can use video and audio (podcasting) feedback to make assessment feedback more personal and meaningful view abstract
- Alicia Gonzalez-Buelga – Effective and Inclusive Flipped classroom from a student’s point of view. view abstract
- Oghale Ayetuoma – Building community and belonging of students through teaching and assessment approach view abstract
Room B Session 3 – Student wellbeing and belonging
10-minute presentations followed by a 10-minute Q&A with all presenters
- Jessica Roy, Natasha Mulvihill, Sandi Dheensa and Sam Kirwan – From content warnings to engaging with trauma: Cross disciplinary approaches to trauma informed teaching and assessment view abstract
- Rosie Nelson – Trans and Non-Binary Inclusive Pedagogies view abstract
- Ros Death – Challenging the extension culture; What are the driving factors that encourage students to seek extensions? view abstract
- Christy O’Sullivan – The Conditions for Community view abstract
- Jacks Bennett – A whole university approach to student mental health and wellbeing support view abstract
Room C Session 3 – Decolonisation
7-minute presentations followed by a 3-minute Q&A after each presentation. Remaining time for wider discussion
- Alice Robson, Lydia Miles, Bronwen Burton, Caroline McKinnon, Ames Mosley and Zaf Bashir – Decolonising and Diversifying the Biomedical Sciences Curricula (Schools of Biochemistry, Cellular & Molecular Medicine and Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience. Faculty of Life Sciences) view abstract
- Patricia Neville and Konrad Spiteri Staines – Diversifying Oral Medicine’s clinical images (DOMci) in Health Science teaching (Bristol Dental School) view abstract
- Polly Barr, Peter Allen and Kristopher Magee – Decolonisation activities to insert in Research Methods courses (School of Psychological Science) view abstract
- Evelyn Miller – Decolonising the curriculum zine (BILT & SPAIS) view abstract
Post-conference event (17.00 – 18:00):
Drinks reception and celebration of Curriculum Enhancement
- Please indicate if you would like to attend this event when you register.