Navigating a changing higher education landscape
Financial pressures, workforce transformation, evolving student needs, the rapid advance of artificial intelligence and geopolitical instability are placing significant demands on leadership, governance, education and institutional culture. To respond effectively, institutions need capable people at every level who can navigate complexity and lead meaningful change.
Alongside these challenges, institutions continue to deliver education and research that transforms lives and strengthens society. Those that develop coherent and credible responses to change are well positioned to thrive and shape a better future.
A flexible membership offer designed around you
Our membership provides flexible and scalable support that delivers value across different contexts, missions and resource levels. Within it you will find practical examples of how membership helps institutions to:
- Build inclusive communities
- Strengthen leadership capability
- Enhance educational quality
Your trusted partner for positive change
Advance HE is committed to supporting you and your people to succeed. We work alongside you as a trusted partner, offering:
- Expertise grounded in sector insight
- Evidence based approaches
- Opportunities for peer connection
This enables you to design and deliver positive change with confidence.
Accreditation and recognition services
Advance HE membership brings together Teaching and Learning Accreditation and Fellowship, the Inclusive Institutions Framework, the Athena Swan Charter and the Race Equality Charter to provide your institution with robust, externally recognised indicators of quality and impact across teaching, learning and inclusion. Through these services, membership enables your institution to evidence commitment, demonstrate progress and strengthen confidence with students, staff, governing bodies and regulators against globally respected standards.
Teaching and Learning Accreditation and Fellowship
Helps your institution strengthen teaching and learning excellence through accredited programmes and Fellowship for academic, professional and research staff who teach and support learning. Fellowship evidences impactful teaching and learning practice and recognises achievement throughout all career stages, providing an effective tool for professional development planning.
- Provides your institution with an effective, strategic tool for workforce development and for evidencing excellence to students, staff, governors and regulators.
- Confirms alignment with the internationally recognised Professional Standards Framework, creating a coherent, institution-wide approach to professional recognition.
- Teaching and Learning accreditation enables your institution to award Fellowships that recognise effective, impactful teaching and learning at all career stages.
- Provides recognition of individual achievement while evidencing your institutional commitment to high-quality and inclusive education.
- Advance HE members benefit from exclusive discounts on individual fellowship application fees.
Inclusive Institutions Framework
Supports your institution to embed equality, diversity and inclusion as a core institutional capability.
- Integrates EDI into strategy, governance, curriculum, practice and decision making.
- Aligns activity across protected characteristics, improving prioritisation, coherence, efficiency and impact.
- Strengthens confidence through clearer evidence, benchmarking and peer insight for leaders and governing bodies.
- Offers a modular structure with optional departmental engagement and streamlined peer review, balancing flexibility with rigour.
Athena Swan
Enables your institution and departments to identify and remove barriers to gender equality across education, research and professional practice.
- Delivers externally recognised validation of commitment and progress at institutional and departmental level.
- Provides a robust, evidence-based framework for data‑informed analysis, action planning and evaluation of impact.
- Enables progress on structural and cultural barriers affecting progression, retention and success across roles.
- Embeds gender equality into leadership behaviours, workforce practices and organisational culture.
Race Equality Charter
Supports your institution to examine and address inequalities affecting racially minoritised staff and students.
- Embeds race equality within institutional strategy and everyday practice, supporting long‑term cultural change and public trust.
- Promotes honest institutional reflection through analysis of data, culture and practice.
- Provides a structured, evidence led approach to targeted action planning and sustained improvement.
- Strengthens accountability by enabling leaders to evidence progress and impact transparently.
Every year we refresh and revamp our membership offer to reflect the changing needs of higher education.
Every year, through extensive engagement with our members – gathering insight on the pressures they face, the opportunities they see and the support they need – we identify strategic priorities where Advance HE is best placed to make a genuine difference.
These priorities reflect what members themselves have told us matters most. They are not discrete problems with straightforward solutions. They are complex, overlapping, and demanding of leadership capability and a shared institutional response simultaneously. Our member benefits are designed to help your institution navigate these with confidence, clarity and practical support – turning intent into sustained action.
Peer connection
Our peer networks, included in Advance HE Membership, enable leaders to learn from one another, strengthen decision-making and respond confidently to shared strategic challenges. Through regular, focused engagement, they support informed leadership and practical progress. The following networks are available within our membership packages:
- Accredited programme leaders network
- Athena Swan and Race Equality Charter networks
- CBHE Network
- DVC/PVC Educational Excellence Network
- Provost and DVC Network (in partnership with UUK)
- Advance HE Connect
Additional services and support included in Advance HE Membership
Strategic Membership
Helps higher education institutions respond to financial, workforce, regulatory and technological challenges by providing expert support, sector insight and peer connections.
Membership enables institutions to strengthen leadership, enhance educational quality and build inclusive communities.
Benefits include access to recognised frameworks such as Teaching and Learning Accreditation, Athena Swan, the Race Equality Charter and the Inclusive Institutions Framework, alongside peer networks, research insights, professional development, consultancy support and resources that help institutions demonstrate impact and deliver meaningful, sustainable change.
Access Membership
Supports smaller institutions with higher education provision through expert insight, evidence-based approaches and peer networks, it helps institutions build inclusive communities, strengthen leadership capability and enhance educational quality.
Membership includes discount on Fellowship applications, and can include the Inclusive Institutions Framework and the Race Equality Charter. This is alongside access to networks, grants, student surveys, awards, development programmes, consultancy discounts, a dedicated contact and the Knowledge Hub, enabling institutions to drive improvement, demonstrate impact and deliver positive change with confidence.
Research Institute Membership
Provides flexible support for research institutes through expert insight, evidence-based approaches and peer connections, membership helps institutions build inclusive communities, strengthen leadership capability and enhance institutional quality.
Benefits include access to the Inclusive Institutions Framework, Athena Swan and the Race Equality Charter, alongside peer networks, dedicated support, exclusive resources, discounted development programmes and consultancy services. Together, these help institutes drive positive change, demonstrate impact and build confidence in their future direction.
