Discover and share good practice for smarter working universities

Developing the next generation – Brunel University

A guidance and good practice resource for the leadership development of early career researchers and academics, based on a research project funded by the Leadership Foundation's Innovation and Transformation Fund.

Development of an Academic Intern Scheme

This project will develop a professional development scheme for postgraduates interested in an academic career. This intern scheme is designed to offer an innovative and inclusive way to expose postgraduate taught and research students to wider academic skills, practices and processes, whilst providing an opportunity to see the workings of a higher education institution.

Academic Futures: a new career route for postgraduate students?

The University of Lincoln is developing a programme to tackle the lack of professional development schemes tailored to the needs of postgraduate students interested in an academic career. Rebecca Sanderson explains the project funded by the Innovation and Transformation Fund that explores how to provide postgraduate students with more effective career development opportunities.

Engagement driven approach to process improvement – University of Hertfordshire

This report describes a project to develop an approach to process improvement within Higher Education that focuses on people, acknowledges their different perspectives and uses these perspectives to enhance capability.

Putting Students at the Heart of Our Processes – University of Leicester

This report is a guide to the University of Leicester's exploration into whether connecting senior leaders more closely to the student experience created an impetus for organisational improvement. It contains information on “what works” in engaging senior leaders and seeks to provide insights for institutions looking to develop similar approaches.

Participative Process Review – toolkit

The process reviews developed by Oxford Brookes have been specifically designed to enable teams to subsequently self-facilitate further reviews. This toolkit introduces the concept of carrying out process reviews to professionals working in higher education.
Cover image from the Participative Process Review Toolkit by Oxford Brookes University

How Participative Process Reviews can nurture conversations and deliver efficiencies

After taking part in workshops run by the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, teams in Oxford Brookes University have changed their practices to make them less complicated, more streamlined and more cost effective. As part of a series of posts by the nine ITF-funded projects, Ian Whiting explains the aims of the Participative Process Review programme.

Are students at the heart of our processes?

The University of Leicester has developed an approach to engaging senior leaders with the student experience. In the latest of our blogs from the nine Innovation and Transformation Fund projects, Claire King writes that the university believes it can provide valuable insight for institutions looking to develop similar approaches.

Developing the next generation of researchers and academics

When developing guidance on good practice to inform staff development, Brunel University asked academic and research leaders to reflect on their own experiences early on in their career. As part of a series of posts by the nine ITF-funded projects, Fiona Denney explains the work.

Engagement driven approach to process improvement

When University of Hertfordshire staff were invited to review a frustrating process to change a key academic document, the energy generated by the engagement process was channelled into something positive. Gill Sadler explains how this engagement-driven approach is being embedded in the university’s process improvement work.