Agenda
09:30 – 10:00: Welcome and Networking
10:00 - 10:45 - The Challenge: Striking a Balance between the Imperative and the Pragmatic
In this opening session, technical leaders within higher education institutions will come together to explore the delicate balance between the urgency of innovation and the practical constraints they face. As they share the challenges and pain points of leading technical projects—ranging from budgetary pressures to aligning technological advancement with institutional priorities— there will also be an emphasis on the desire to look beyond the sector for inspiration. By considering innovative practices from outside higher education, participants will engage in a broader discussion about how external insights can inform strategic decisions.
Speakers:
- Sharon Ellis, Chief Operations Officer, Queen Mary University London; Public Governor, Homerton University Hospital Foundation Trust (Invited)
- Simon Stearn, Chief Data Officer, University of Warwick (Invited)
- Heather Lowrie, Freelance Advisor (Confirmed)
10:45 – 11:15: Refreshments and Networking
11:15 - 13:00 - Fireside Chats: Cross-Sector Insights for Higher Education Transformation
Following our opening session, we invite you to join a series of Fireside Chats featuring distinguished tech leaders from various sectors. These informal discussions will provide valuable insights into how industry-leading organisations tackle some of the most pressing challenges in technology today.
Key themes addressed:
11:15 – 11:50 - Customer and User Experience: Drawing on the development of Customer Experience is not a new phenomenon for Higher Education with Student Experience having climbed the ranks to become a strategic driver of technology investment. Though Student Experience is rightly developing it’s own catalogue of best practice, there is enduring relevance in unpicking customer-experience-driven technology investment choices within enterprise. In this discussion we examine what how the drive to more predictive planning, better personalised products and higher fidelity feedback loops between customer and service.
11:50 – 12:25 - Cyber Stance: Higher Education institutions face sustained complexity in safeguarding their data, systems, and users. While the sector has unique cybersecurity needs—ranging from protecting sensitive research data to ensuring the privacy of student records—the strategies and technologies being adopted across various industries can offer valuable insights.
By examining emerging cybersecurity practices beyond the higher education sector, we can identify innovative approaches to threat detection, risk management, and incident response that can be adapted to the specific needs of universities. This discussion will explore how advanced threat intelligence, proactive vulnerability assessments, and integrated security frameworks are helping organisations across different sectors to stay ahead of cyber threats, and how these practices can inform the cybersecurity strategies within higher education.
12:25 -13:00 - Data Stewardship: Universities face the dual challenge of modernising their data estates while managing the autonomy of various departments. Balancing the use of commodified services with the need for bespoke, institution-specific solutions is one concern; another is ensuring integration and observability across diverse, often fragmented systems. By looking at how analogous organisations manage complex data estates —harmonising standardised tools with tailored approaches and maintaining oversight without stifling individual requirements— universities can derive practical strategies for improving their own data stewardship.
