In our latest ‘Innovators’ blog, Yanina Aubrey-Gimenez writes about how the University of Hertfordshire is providing dedicated (and multi-faceted) support to businesses and entrepreneurs. “Starting and scaling up innovation can be an uphill battle for entrepreneurs. The journey is fraught with challenges – particularly in the beginning – and statistically, the odds are against even […]
Alliance Universities are anchor institutions as well as innovators – benefitting regional economies through vital collaborative research. For instance, since opening in July 2023, Teesside University’s Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre (NZIIC) is playing a key role in the decarbonisation efforts of the Tees Valley and beyond. In the latest instalment of the ‘Innovators Blog’, […]
Alliance universities are defined by their ethos of continuous innovation and collaboration. In the latest instalment of UA’s ‘Innovators’ blog, Paul Fairburn explains how Coventry University are delivering ‘challenge-led innovation’, supporting businesses and commercialising research to benefit regional economic growth “The pace of technological change and the disruptive nature of technology is continuing to transform […]
Hands-on experience is a defining feature of teaching and learning at Alliance universities. In our latest instalment of the Innovators blog series, University of Greenwich’s Dr. Louise Hewitt writes about how the Innocence Project London provides vital experience and a critical perspective of the criminal justice system for her students. Deconstructing claims of innocence from […]
This article was originally published in HEPI. Degree apprenticeships. They’re Skills Minister Robert Halfon’s “two favourite words in the English language” and we’re at the beginning of a whole week dedicated to raising awareness and celebrating the many benefits of apprenticeships at all levels (yes this year’s National Apprenticeships Week does clash with World Nutella Day, but that aside…). Armchair […]
This article was originally published in Wonkhe. Working alongside the NHS requires universities to constantly be adapting. The relationship between universities and the health and social care sector can be described as evolutionary. For decades, nurses were trained directly on wards, with schools of nursing traditionally hosted by individual hospitals. Training began to move towards […]
The 2023 TEF submissions have been published but, as Jim Dickinson and David Kernohan observed on WonkHE, “there’s no way any human is going to read all of them”. I have however read the institutional narratives from the 14 English members of University Alliance (16 of the UK’s leading professional and technical universities) and have […]
It’s been another whirlwind year for the higher education sector – and a successful one for the Alliance. These are my reflections on a few of the stand-out moments from 2023. 1. ‘Must do better’: the House of Lord’s Industry and Regulators Committee reviews the OfS We kicked off the year by working with our […]
Pandemic learnings As the public Covid-19 inquiry grinds painfully on, it is appropriate for us in the Higher Education sector to conduct a little reflection of our own. There is much about lockdown life we all want to forget: the grim headlines, the concern for our loved ones and ourselves, the questionable Netflix binges and […]
“Orkney is a unique archipelago of islands, regularly ranked as one of the best places to live in the UK. But its appeal is much greater than this. Orkney has an entrepreneurial and innovative culture which lends itself to testing new and varied ideas. As an island group, it offers variety through its mix of […]
