Discover and share good practice for smarter working universities

Rosie Niven

Rosie Niven

Rosie is the content editor at Efficiency Exchange

Six approaches to widening participation

A series of blogs by HEPI, explore widening participation and the more radical techniques universities are using to make progress. Here are six examples taken from them of what universities in the UK and USA are doing to improve fair access to their courses.

Sandra Heidinger: measuring up at Strathclyde

With a clutch of awards for its business process improvement work, the University of Strathclyde’s achievements have received UK-wide recognition. In this interview from last August, the university’s HR director Sandra Heidinger talks to Rosie Niven about how empowering staff is the key to organisational success.
Empty seats

Retention levels come under scrutiny, but universities are on the case

Universities must focus on retention as much as they do on widening the pool of applications and enrolments, a report by the the Social Market Foundation suggests.

Gold is the only colour that matters to students, survey reveals

Research by the Higher Education Policy Institute has revealed that more than two in three university applicants say a gold Teaching Excellence Framework rating is important to them.
Leaning tower of Pisa

If not lean, then what?

Lean is just one method of continuous improvement and there are a range of others that are commonly used in higher education (HE). We close our lean series with three viewpoints from HE professionals and consultants on different ways of applying lean and its alternatives.
A building at the University of Wolverhampton featured in the report

UK university income grows by £2bn in one year, AUDE report reveals

UK Universities' response to the efficiency agenda and their own income generating projects have helped them increase their income to a record £30bn.
toy wooden house on some grass

Five strategies universities are using to keep estate costs down

In the past few years the university sector has grown, yet property costs have remained stable despite substantial upward pressures, according to statistics by AUDE. In its report, AUDE highlights some of the ways that institutions are successfully keeping their estate costs down.

HESA launches bid to remove barriers to the reuse of its datasets

A five year plan to open up higher education data was unveiled on Thursday by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Rosie Niven reports on the agency’s key recommendations.

Efficiency Exchange at ARMA 2016

This week, Efficiency Exchange is at the ARMA 2016 conference in Birmingham where we will be reconnecting with research managers from across the UK higher education sector.

Making it easier to discover new approaches to efficiency

Need help navigating the higher education efficiency agenda? The redesigned Efficiency Exchange website will guide you towards the right place to find help.