Advance HE is a unique agency helping higher education be the best it can be. We are member-led, not-for-profit and globally connected, with members in 27 countries. Our renowned experts focus on the areas of leadership and governance, teaching and learning, research, and equality, diversity and inclusion, looking across and beyond the HE sector to share practice and insight. We work closely with our members and clients to understand the challenges faced and the opportunities presented to improve and enhance how things are done.
Request our brochure
Find out more about how Advance HE is supporting institutions to be world-class providers by requesting our Strategic Consultancy, Governance and Insights brochure.
Supporting the achievement of your strategic goals
Our work can help you:
- Keep pace with—and think beyond— changing financial and regulatory contexts through effective strategy and approaches to access, teaching, research, student experience, leadership and governance
- Compete for and retain both students and staff by sustaining an inclusive culture, delivering support and enabling belonging in order to be ‘first choice’ as a provider or employer, especially during a cost-of-living crisis
- Focus on sustainability from environmental, economic and social perspectives delivering a more joined-up and holistic approach from lecture hall to boardroom, and more effective ways to demonstrate value and impact to wider stakeholders.
We felt that Advance HE’s combined expertise in inclusion, culture, education and leadership made them unique in the sector and most likely to be able to deliver what we were looking for. When I spoke with the team there, they listened to our needs, learned more about our context and designed and delivered this programme. Having worked with them for over 12 months now I have learned that they also bring a
flexibility and responsiveness to the context making this not only a bespoke and fit-for-purpose programme from the start but one that has evolved with our changing needs.”Professor Sherria Hoskins Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Health, University of Portsmouth
Our people
Working with us means drawing on the expertise of highly experienced colleagues who are active leaders in their fields with significant track records in supporting institutions to deliver their objectives.
A vast pool of experienced associates
Advance HE works with a vast pool of experienced high-level associates across all areas of our work. Many hold or have held significant posts in the sector and understand the context of the regulatory landscape and current best practice. We ensure that our associate pool is diverse, including people with lived-experience and who have sensitivity to a range of issues.
Working with you
Effective strategy and inclusive culture
Strategy development
Using our three-step approach Advance HE can support you to develop visionary strategies and plans.
Transforming culture
Using our Transforming Culture Cycle Advance HE can help you unlock and evolve culture at various levels to realise strategic progress and deliver an environment in which staff and students can thrive.
Strategic Enhancement aligned to the UN SDGs
Developed in partnership with Times Higher Education, our model supports the creation of robust strategies, policies, processes and practices that embed SDGs across the institution.
High impact staff development solutions
We can work closely with you to deliver high-impact tailored solutions equipping your staff with the required skills, knowledge and confidence to excel in their roles and to develop their capabilities both individually and collectively.
Research and insights to make the case for change
Understanding stakeholder perceptions
Through bespoke research, Advance HE supports institutions by understanding the perceptions of key stakeholders such as students, staff, prospective applicants, parents or teachers.
Programme and certification evaluations
Working with programme directors and course tutors, our research team can evaluate the impact, influence and outcomes of certification and qualification programmes.
Application cycle reviews
The focus of these reviews is to equip key internal stakeholders with evidence of performance coupled with an opportunity to explore good practice in the sector, in order to achieve more effective and efficient processes and approaches.
Impactful teaching and learning
Strategy positioning and portfolio evaluation aligned to PROCEED
Aligned to the OfS PROCEED metrics, Advance HE can support institutions to understand whether portfolios are fit-for-purpose; deliver student engagement and success; and, are set up to deliver against graduate outcomes benchmarks.
Teaching and Learning Strategy Reviews
Advance HE can provide an external perspective on your Teaching and Learning Strategy
supporting you to deliver on your own vision and mission.
supporting you to deliver on your own vision and mission.
Curriculum Reviews
Using our Curriculum Review Tool we evaluate alignment of practice at an institution, faculty or school level and support the development of curricula that drive student and institutional success.
Embedding equality, diversity and inclusion
Reviews and Audits
Our bespoke equality reviews and audits are designed to help institutions identify where challenges lie and what works best within their own context. They can focus on a specific area such as bullying and harassment, or look more broadly at EDI approaches.
Tailored training for staff
Our tailored training solutions offer focused learning for participants in support of creating places of work and learning that promote equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing for all.
e-Learning Courses
Our e-Learning courses have been carefully designed by our sector experts to support staff and students within higher education, supporting institutions to create places of learning and employment that welcome diversity, nurture talent and create sustainable change.
Effective governance and readiness for regulation
Governance Effectiveness Reviews
Using our Framework for HE Governance Effectiveness at the core, we adapt our reviews to suit your needs and institutional context while maintaining the use of a robust process that triangulates the evidence collated for example through paper-based review
and self-assessment.
and self-assessment.
Academic Governance Reviews
We work with you to review academic governance including the effectiveness of Senate/Academic Board and the ability of the governing body to have assurance that academic quality and standards are maintained.
Board Development Sessions
A board development session, which can be conducted on-site or remotely, can provide much-needed time and space to develop an institution’s vision, nurture relationships between members and encourage new approaches.
Support in achieving Degree Awarding Powers
Using our specialist experts we can help navigate and advise you through the process of evidencing effective institutional governance and assurance of quality and standards through a robust and intense process involving regulatory bodies .
Bespoke governance turnaround support
We are adept at providing highly bespoke, confidential and sensitive support to Boards and Executives to resolve and move on from challenging governance scenarios.
In undertaking our Governance Effectiveness Review, colleagues from Advance HE worked closely and diligently with us to understand our context and reflected a breadth of experience and practice from across the sector to inform our continuous improvement. The process was engaging, informative, and constructive.”Jim Irving, Chief Student Officer & University Secretary, Southampton
Solent University