30 April - 1 May 2026, The Manchester Deansgate, Manchester
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Registration Desk60 mins
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Main Room10 mins
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Main Room40 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Outcomes & Impact
As public trust in higher education wavers, for institutional leaders, 'value' extends beyond teaching and research: it is about delivering measurable outcomes for students, employers and their wider ...Chairperson
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Main Room20 minsUniversity teams continue to work through familiar challenges with their core systems, which are often fragmented and disconnected, resulting in many manual processes, inefficiencies and increased cyber risks.
In this session, we will introduce IQ Education, a connected, trusted and intelligent system of work built the UK's Higher Education sector. It brings together people, data and AI on one sovereign platform, so work moves faster, decisions are clearer and innovation happens with confidence.
In doing so, we will cover specific workflows affecting leaders across finance, procurement, risk and apprenticeship delivery functions.
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Main Room20 minsOur signature ‘Dragons’ Den’ session provides each solution provider with an opportunity to deliver a 60 second pitch, explaining why they are here and how their services can help tackle some of the sector’s ongoing challenges.
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Networking and business meetingsNetworking Area75 mins15 minute meetings with suppliers who are offering solutions most relevant to your challenges. Please check the schedule on the back of your delegate pass for your meeting timings.
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Main Room40 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Digital, Data & AI
AI in higher education has moved beyond experimentation; the challenge now is scaling real, measurable impact across institutions. For senior leaders, the question is becoming how to integrate AI sust ...
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Breakout Room 120 minsHigher education estates are entering a new era, defined by tighter funding, greater competition, and rising expectations. This session, presented by BTG Eddisons and Architype, explores how institutions can stay ahead by being “shovel ready”, with robust, well-planned projects positioned to secure funding as soon as it appears.
We’ll show you how to analyse your estate’s performance and define a clear Net Zero pathway so you can unlock investment and drive long-term value. From flexible retrofit strategies to heat networks and innovative financing, we’ll create resilient, futureproofed campuses that lead on sustainability and adhere to compliance together. -
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Breakout Room 220 minsDigital creativity and AI literacy are becoming essential components of a future ready curriculum. This session shows how Adobe’s ecosystem - from Creative Cloud and Express to new AI enabled PDF Spaces - boosts creativity and productivity for faculty, staff and students. A demo of PDF Spaces will highlight how AI can streamline work-flows, support multimodal learning, and open new possibilities for curriculum design and student engagement. -
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Breakout Room 320 minsThis session examines how universities can build long term resilience in an environment of financial pressure, policy reform, and rising expectations. It explores digital transformation as a strategic capability - enabling institutional agility, policy readiness, and sustainable value.
Key themes include strategic collaboration, modernising legacy systems, redefining student success through outcomes and insight, and scaling AI responsibly. Attendees will gain a strategic perspective on aligning technology, governance, and operating models to help universities adapt, protect their core mission, and thrive amid ongoing change.
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Networking lunchDownstairs40 minsAn opportunity to connect with your peers and suppliers to talk over the learnings from the event. Lunch is served buffet style and a range of options are available to cater for different dietary requirements.
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Main Room30 mins
- Digital, Data & AI
- Outcomes & Impact
As AI rapidly reshapes every sector, universities must move decisively to embed competencies into the student experience. For Gen Z and Alpha, these tools are second nature. Yet access, confidence, and fluency remain uneven across the student population. Without intentional strategies, the digital divide will deepen existing inequalities. This workshop will encourage leaders to consider their role in ensuring all students can access and engage with emerging technologies. How can we design inclusive, future-focused pedagogy that keeps pace with technological and labour market shifts? Speakers will explore strategies to ensure that no student is left behind in their journey from enrolment to employment.
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Breakout Room 130 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Digital, Data & AI
With the rollout of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) approaching, the sector is moving towards flexible, modular learning, and institutions need to consider how to respond to LLE requirements and position themselves within a broader learning ecosystem. This session explores how the University of London is translating strategic vision into practical delivery through the development of a cross-federation lifelong learning model, with stackable microcredentials as a key first step. It will highlight how digital innovation is enabling new forms of provision and supporting a more agile, student-centred approach to education.
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Breakout Room 230 mins
- Digital, Data & AI
- Operations & Service Delivery
Universities remain prime targets for cyberattacks, with an increased number of attacks in 2025 from well-funded and persistent sources. Institutions must protect themselves with high levels of cyber hygiene and implement measures in complex environments that minimise disruption. Speakers will also examine how effective recovery are critical to this. This workshop brings together key stakeholders to share best practice on security challenges faced, without disrupting research or straining already tight financial resources.
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Breakout Room 120 minsManaging your estate using the 5 pillar approach. -
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Breakout Room 220 minsOnline and hybrid programmes in UK higher education are now expected, but many institutions face thinner margins and longer payback periods than anticipated. The key challenge is no longer adoption, but economic sustainability. Success depends on treating online provision as a portfolio strategy, not a technology initiative. Different growth pathways—greenfield programmes, digitally ready courses, and re engineered existing provision—carry distinct risks, timelines, and returns. Crucially, enrolment alone does not equal profitability. Student success and retention are the most powerful financial levers, with adequate support directly driving completion, margin stability, and long term return on investment. I will share insights and perspective representing Boundless Learning addressing the above topics.
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Breakout Room 320 minsIs AI a friend or a foe? In this talk, I look at the two sides of artificial intelligence. While it makes our jobs easier, it also lets attackers move at a terrifying pace. Unit 42 research shows that attacks are now 250 per cent faster, with data stolen in minutes rather than days. I will walk you through real incidents and clever tricks used to bypass security. We will also cover how to protect your business using practical steps to keep the advantage in our hands.
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Networking and business meetingsNetworking Area75 mins15 minute meetings with suppliers who are offering solutions most relevant to your challenges. Please check the schedule on the back of your delegate pass for your meeting timings.
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Main Room60 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
This interactive roundtable session offers attendees the opportunity to select from a range of focussed discussion topics. Designed to foster peer-to-peer exchange, these small-group conversations wil ...
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Main Room5 mins
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125 mins
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Drinks reception and networking dinnerDownstairs150 minsNetworking sessions – throughout the event we host a networking lunch as well as a dinner and drinks reception to give you ample opportunity to connect with your peers and suppliers over the learnings from the event. Dinner is served in formal-style seating to a set menu. Our delegate team will speak to you to ensure we cater for any specific dietary requirements.
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Main Room10 mins
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Main Room45 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Finance & Sustainability
As higher education enters a new era defined by financial constraint, technological change and shifting learner expectations, universities must re-examine what it means to be entrepreneurial. With clo ...Chairperson
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Main Room30 mins
- Digital, Data & AI
- Outcomes & Impact
The University of Leeds online learning team will share how it reimagined recruitment and support for its growing online postgraduate market. Moving beyond on-campus-focused processes, the university developed a student-centred, agile approach to the end-to-end applicant journey for global learners. This session will explore how digital tools, data, and service design were aligned to reduce friction, enhance engagement, and improve operational efficiency, creating a more responsive and sustainable model for online programme delivery.
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Breakout Room 120 minsMany universities manage vast, decentralised web estates that require stronger governance, clearer operating models, and infrastructure capable of scaling with institutional needs. As digital expectations grow from research visibility to personalised student experiences institutions are rethinking how their digital ecosystems are structured and managed.
Drawing on examples from leading Higher Education Universities including the University of Cambridge, this session explores how universities are simplifying complex web estates through strategic platform design and modern digital infrastructure.
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Networking and business meetingsNetworking Area60 mins15 minute meetings with suppliers who are offering solutions most relevant to your challenges. Please check the schedule on the back of your delegate pass for your meeting timings.
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Main Room30 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Operations & Service Delivery
The need to rethink how universities operate has never been more urgent. Moving beyond short-term efficiency drives, this session explores how universities can design and embed operating models that e ... -
Breakout Room 130 mins
- Strategy & Leadership
- Outcomes & Impact
UK universities are facing an urgent need to reinforce and diversify their international strategies. While internationalisation has long underpinned financial sustainability, the sector must now look beyond purely financial goals to achieve a more balanced approach. A year on from the 2025 Immigration White Paper, institutions are navigating intensified global competition, growing domestic scepticism towards migration, and the potential for further government reforms aimed at ‘fixing’ immigration. Against this backdrop, the session will explore how universities can remain agile and authentically welcoming to international students while preparing for continued policy volatility.
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Breakout Room 230 mins
- Digital, Data & AI
- Outcomes & Impact
With growing pressures on student retention, universities must make full use of the data at their fingertips. This workshop will examine what data is most useful and how these metrics can highlight what is, and isn’t, working in current support strategies to drive engagement, ensure retention and secure outcomes. A key focus will be on empowering staff to confidently utilise data in their roles, creating a culture where insight drives action. How can institutions data to identify students at risk and intervene before issues escalate with personalised support?
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Breakout Room 330 mins
- Finance & Sustainability
- Digital, Data & AI
AI is reshaping the workforce at pace. McKinsey’s 2025 research demonstrates organisations are redesigning roles as AI moves from pilot to strategy. Yet most remain early in adoption; and workforce impacts are still uncertain. For UK higher education, the more urgent question is not institutional efficiency, but graduate readiness. As AI transforms professions, how must universities evolve curricula to ensure students leave with the digital, data and AI capabilities required for an AI-enabled economy? This session explores how institutions can move beyond isolated modules towards embedding AI and digital fluency across disciplines.
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Main Room45 mins
- Outcomes & Impact
This panel will bring together a diverse set of students to share their insights and experiences in higher education. Through candid conversation, they will explore the most pressing issues they faced ...Speakers
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Main Room5 mins
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Networking lunchDownstairs60 mins
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