Higher education is navigating unprecedented pressure. Financial uncertainty, restructuring, digital transformation, shifting student expectations – and leaders at every level are expected to respond, often without dedicated time or budget for their own development.
Our Leadership Skills Workshops for Higher Education are a new suite of short, focused online modules designed specifically for people with leadership responsibility in higher education. Each workshop runs for three hours, addresses a single real challenge, and is grounded in the Framework for Leading in Higher Education – so the content is always relevant, and the application is always immediate. You choose the module that fits your current need, attend when it suits your diary, and earn a digital badge on completion. Take one workshop or build a series. Individual places and institutional bundles are available.
Leadership development that respects your time, fits your budget and prepares everyone across your institution to lead in the sector as it is today.
2026-27 Workshop Topics
Each workshop focuses on a single leadership challenge, giving you practical tools and frameworks you can apply straight away. Workshops are offered online, multiple times a year.
“Participants can attend a three-hour online session, focused on exactly the challenge they are facing right now – financial uncertainty, leading through a restructure, or building the kind of collaborative culture their institution is asking for.
Ireen Litvak-Zur, Senior Consultant, Leadership & Management, Advance HE
How the workshops work
Duration: 3 hours per workshop, delivered fully online
Audience: Global – open to all HE staff with leadership responsibility
Participation: Breakout groups for discussion and networking
Structure: Each session includes introductions and connectivity, expert input, group sense-making, and intention-setting
Resources: Supporting a digital learning environment with pre- and post-session materials for asynchronous learning and community building
Delivery: Individual places available, or institutional bundles for groups of 10 plus
Recognition: Digital badge awarded for each session completed; a series badge for completing multiple workshops
Who are the workshops for?
These workshops are open to anyone with leadership responsibility in a higher education institution – regardless of title or seniority. If you lead a team, manage a project, or hold responsibility for others in an HE context, these workshops are designed for you.
The workshops are particularly relevant for:
- Anyone preparing for greater leadership responsibility
- Academics stepping into their first management or leadership role
- Research leads and principal investigators
- Professional Services managers and leaders
- Heads of Department and Deans
When are these workshops most useful?
These workshops are especially valuable when you or your institution is navigating:
- Financial sustainability pressures and the need for budget-confident leadership
- A restructure or organisational change – before, during or after
- Succession planning and developing the next generation of leaders
- A digital transformation programme requiring leaders to bring their teams with them
- A new or expanded leadership role with limited prior formal development
Why participate? Why choose a leadership skills workshop?
Just-in-time, not just-in-case
No waiting for cohort formation or a new academic year. Attend when the challenge is live and the learning is immediately relevant.
Grounded in higher education
Every workshop is built around the Framework for Leading in Higher Education. The examples, the conversations, and the frameworks are all rooted in the sector you work in.
No time away from your institution
Three hours online. No travel, no accommodation costs, no days out of the office.
Peer connection across the sector
Learn alongside leaders from other HE institutions and build lasting networks with people facing the same challenges.
Practical from the first session
You work with your own real cases and situations. You leave with clear intentions you can act on straight away.
Visible, credible evidence of development
A digital badge for every session completed, and a series badge for attending multiple workshops – suitable for appraisals, CPD records and succession planning conversations.
Are you interested in bookings for your team, department or institution?
Booking multiple places helps teams and departments build a shared leadership language and culture. When colleagues attend together, they can apply learning to their own context, support accountability and use workshops to drive ongoing team development.
Group bookings also offer greater value and flexibility, with the ability to secure multiple places on different dates of the same workshop to support wider participation across teams.
Bulk booking discounts are available for groups of 10 (5%) and 20+ (10%). Please note that bulk bookings apply to multiple places on the same workshop only and cannot currently be used across different workshop types.
Speak to us about booking multiple spaces.
