“These projects tackle one of the most pressing challenges facing our members and indeed everyone in higher education today – preparing both our students and our educators for a future where AI capability is essential…"
Advance HE is delighted to announce the winning bids for the two £20,000 awards in its Collaborative Development Fund 2025-26 – the annual scheme that offers all Advance HE members the opportunity to apply for grant funding to undertake work on important sector needs and goals.
This year’s projects and awardees are:
The Graduate of 2040 – exploring evolving learner profiles and graduate capabilities
Led by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with University College London, the University of East London, and Süleyman Demirel University, Turkey.
By 2040, graduates across all disciplines will need to understand, evaluate and apply AI ethically in their careers. Yet the sector currently lacks a consistent way to embed these skills across degree programmes, with provision concentrated in computing and engineering. This uneven access risks creating new inequalities, disproportionately affecting international students, neurodivergent learners and those from widening participation backgrounds.
The project will develop and test an Interdisciplinary AI Competency Framework and Curriculum Design Toolkit through co-design workshops with more than 50 participants across UK and international universities. All resources will be freely available to members via the Advance HE Knowledge Hub.
The Educator of 2040 – investigating future teaching roles and technology-enabled pedagogies
Led by Anglia Ruskin University (including Anglia Ruskin London, ARU Peterborough and ARU Writtle) and the University of York.
The project addresses how university educators can help students develop AI skills for future careers whilst ensuring they don’t become overly dependent on technology at the expense of critical thinking and decision-making.
Through collaborative workshops, academics, learning technologists and students will envision the educator’s role in 2040 and work backwards to create practical action plans. The findings will be analysed against Advance HE’s UK Professional Standards Framework, with the project producing a toolkit to support professional development and technology integration.
Nick Skeet, Advance HE, Director of Membership and Global Development, said: “Many congratulations to the winning bids in what’s been a highly competitive field of notable quality.
“These projects tackle one of the most pressing challenges facing our members and indeed everyone in higher education today – preparing both our students and our educators for a future where AI capability is essential. By taking a collaborative, forward-looking approach, our awardees will help the sector develop practical, inclusive tools that ensure no one is left behind as technology transforms teaching and learning. We look forward to seeing these important projects in action and positively impacting practice.”
Outputs from both projects are expected by the end of June 2026, with measures in place to assess their impact and success.
