Advance HE showcases its growing impact on higher education worldwide

The growing impact that Advance HE’s work is having on higher education worldwide is detailed in a new document published today.

Our impact on global higher education provides an at-a-glance summary of where and how Advance HE operates in more than 100 countries worldwide – from New Zealand to Finland and from Chile to Uzbekistan.

“Higher education is a global system and organisations across the world are facing shared challenges,” said Anne Moore, Advance HE’s assistant director of international solutions.

“Advance HE is uniquely positioned to support them, wherever they are, to develop the skills, strategies and expertise they need to meet the challenges they face. By working across national borders, we are committed to sharing understanding and successful practice throughout a growing global community to help higher education worldwide to be the best it can be.”

Supporting strategic goals

Advance HE supports institutions to achieve strategic goals such as:

• Develop inclusive cultures
• Support staff to become world-class practitioners
• Embed curricula which enable excellent graduate outcomes
• Gain recognition for research excellence
• Embed sustainable approaches aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Embrace strategic approaches to Transnational Education (TNE) and internationalisation
• Increase student and staff recruitment
• Achieve financial stability
• Fulfil their civic mission
• Climb world rankings (e.g. QS and THE).

Leadership

As well as developing a global leadership framework, Advance HE Has delivered 350 leadership consultancy and enhancement projects with institutions since 2016, including the development of leaders in 40 universities in Ukraine.

Its leadership development programmes have attracted more than 500 participants worldwide and it has published more than 40 reports and resources that provide insights and good practice examples of leadership.

Advance HE’s has run 50 cohorts of its prestigious Top Management Programme with more than 1,000 higher education senior leaders from Australia, Italy, Middle East, Ireland and the UK.

Teaching and learning

The Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Learning Support in Higher Education was revised in 2023 following a consultation with over 800 academics and higher education professionals from more than 20 countries.. More than 170,000 higher education professionals from 100 countries have achieved Advance HE Fellowship in recognition of their commitment to teaching and learning excellence. 178 institutions across 15 countries have accredited continuous development programmes against the Professional Standards Framework.

More than 6,000 participants worldwide joined Advance HE teaching and learning events during the year 2021/22 alone. 

Advance HE has delivered more than 400 bespoke in-house teaching and learning projects to individual institutions globally since 2016.  As part of this bespoke consultancy offer, it has worked with Walailak University in Thailand since 2018 to develop a ‘culture of teaching’ which has seen:

• 30 per cent increase in student retention
• 93 per cent of teaching staff being rated as 4/5 or better by students
• 90 per cent of Walailak University teaching staff have achieved Fellowship.

Advance HE also partnered with Abu Dhabi University (ADU) to implement its employability strategy that has seen its graduates rated as the most employable in the United Arab Emirates. The institution also received the prestigious 5 Star QS rating for the first time.

Transnational Education (TNE)

Experts from Advance HE have completed a project that could soon see Peruvian and UK universities award joint and dual degrees valid in both countries. The TNE roadmap was developed by Advance HE on behalf of the British Council which has been working closely with Peru’s DIGESU (Direccion General de Educacion Superior Universataria) – the body responsible for advancing higher education in the country.

Advance HE’s impact on TNE can also be seen through numerous Advance HE members international branch campuses taking advantage of accredited schemes to develop cohorts of Fellows that are positively impacting the student experience and graduate outcomes. Fellowship is alsonow being used more and more as a path to promotions and in recruitment processes, allowing for great global mobility of staff.

Governance

Advance HE is committed to supporting robust standards of governance across higher education.

More than 3,500 people have taken part in one of our Governor Development Programmes since 2015.

It has delivered some 95 consultancy projects aimed at improving institutions’ governance effectiveness, including 19 in-house governor development sessions and board away days. Whilst most of Advance HE’s work is based in the UK and Ireland, growing interest is being realised across continents, including an audit to review the effectiveness of governance in the higher education sector in Pakistan.

It has carried out more than 50 governance effectiveness reviews since 2018.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

More than 10,000 higher education professionals worldwide have taken part in Advance HE’s women leadership programme Aurora since its launch in 2013. She Leads, a programme based on Aurora, has also been delivered to cohorts in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia.

Its Athena Swan awards scheme recognises progress by higher education institutions towards gender equality and exits under different names and guises in different parts of the world:

• Athena Swan Ireland in the Republic of Ireland

• SAGE in Australia
• SEA Change in the United States
• Dimensions Canada
• GATI in India

Research

Advance HE has now delivered its Research Team Leadership Programme to 100 cohorts.

It also produces a range of reports including the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey which attracts participants from both the UK and Australia.