Join us at SCAPP’s conference bringing together managers, practitioners and policy makers working in HEIs, Colleges, Schools, local authorities, and third-sector organisations.
Since 2019 SCAPP, has worked in partnership to support the development of a sector wide community of practice for widening access and participation professionals. This conference will reflect on the success and challenges in Scotland’s Widening Access and Participation sector over the past 30 months. We will explore what we have learned and achieved, what our priorities should be, and how practitioners continue to adapt and develop to support future thinking for widening access and participation within a changing education landscape, keeping the student experience at the heart of our work.
Keynote speakers will include Professor John McKendrick, Scotland’s new Commissioner for Fair Access and James Dunphy, Scottish Funding Council Director of Access, Learning and Outcomes.
There is no cost to attend this years’ SCAPP Conference in order to support participation from our members, and encourage networking in our sector post-pandemic.
However, please be aware that places are limited. If there is excessive demand, SCAPP reserves the right to limit places per organisation in order to support attendance from all our members. If needed, we will contact individuals directly.
There will be opportunities throughout the day to meet and connect with practitioners and we hope that you will be able to commit to the full day’s schedule of activities.
A conference programme and workshop selection will be sent to registered attendees in the spring.
Please note, registrations for this event are now full, but you can join the waitlist, here: https://SCAPPConference2023.eventbrite.co.uk
Grab a cuppa and catch up with colleagues old and new during our Connect with Coffee events.
Whether you can join from your organisational or home office, these are designed to enable staff to meet, share news, catch up with colleagues you might not have seen in a while or meet new colleagues you have joined the sector.
Wednesday 29th March 11am – 12pm
Please register to attend the event, here.
Thursday 27th April 11am – 12pm
Please register to attend the event, here.
Tuesday 21 March
9:30am – 12:30pm
Edinburgh Napier Merchiston Campus
With the rising cost of living and housing crisis in Edinburgh facing today’s students, you are invited to join Shelter Scotland and Edinburgh Napier University for a rights based awareness session focusing on how to appropriately support students experiencing homelessness or housing issues, including evictions and the private rental sector.
This event is aimed at Further and Higher Education staff and we welcome attendance from colleagues across the sector and local institutions, and particularly encourage colleagues who are involved in supporting students in any capacity to come along.
The event will take place at Edinburgh Napier’s Merchiston Campus, with a 9:30am arrival for a 10:00am start. It is anticipated that the event will last for roughly 2.5 hours with an end time of 12:30pm.
Attendance will be limited due to capacity of the venue, so if you would like to come along, please register sooner rather than later for a place on Eventbrite.
Education, Learning and Corporate Parenting
Training event Tuesday 14th March 2023, 10am – 2pm
Online – Teams
Join Who Cares? Scotland for an online collaborative training event for Corporate Parents across Scotland. The Training and Education team will share some of the insights gained from our Care Experienced members about their experiences of education and learning, and how Corporate Parents can better support them.
The Training and Education Team will be joined by colleagues from Who Cares Scotland’s ‘Communities That Care’ Team, who will share insights from their work in schools. The team’s whole-school approach ensures that Care Experienced children and young people are nurtured and supported in their schools by educating entire schools about what care experience is and helping them develop empathy and understanding towards their Care Experienced pupils.
You can book via this link: https://www.whocaresscotland.org/event/education-learning-and-corporate-parenting-training/
Articulation Matters – Wednesday 22 March 2023 4pm – 5pm
SCAPP’s Articulation Working Group invite you to the 3rd session of Articulation Matters. This is an opportunity for you to join members of the group for an informal chat over coffee about anything related to Articulation to ask questions, raise concerns, share news with practitioners involved in articulation work. This session is open to both SCAPP and non SCAPP members, from college, university, careers, voluntary sector organisations. Please feel free to forward to relevant staff in your organisation.
This will be a useful session for you if you are involved in roles or responsibilities such as student advice and guidance, careers advice, curriculum mapping, contributing to Outcome Agreements, development and delivery of articulation arrangements, teaching and learning of programmes, evaluation and monitoring of trends and routes, promotion and recruitment of articulation and progression opportunities for students, evaluation and analysis of articulation trends and routes, and similar.
We look forward to seeing you for lively and interesting discussion.
A Teams meeting link will be sent to you nearer the time but please keep this event in your diary.
Register here for Articulation Matters
The College Development Network (CDN) have announced the theme and details of their 2-day Virtual conference, and roadshow events.
This year’s theme explores: ‘Developing Practice Across Tertiary Education.’
In addition to the two-day Virtual College Expo, CDN are excited to be extending College Expo this year by introducing the College Expo Roadshow, which includes three lively face-to-face panel sessions hosted by colleges around Scotland.
College Expo Roadshow Timetable
Tuesday 28 March (1330-1600)
Student Experience
Borders College, Galashiels Campus
Chair: Jon Vincent, Principal, Glasgow Clyde College
Discussion will focus on approaches that have been developed and implemented to meet student mental health and wellbeing needs over the past 12 months, as students have typically returned to on campus delivery.
Find out more and register here
Thursday 20 April (1330-1600)
Professional Learning
Forth Valley College, Falkirk Campus
Chair: Professor Ken Thomson OBE, Principal, Forth Valley College
Discussion will focus on the topic of professional learning, specifically on what approaches are in place across the sector. This is an opportunity to explore how we can make professional learning most effective, taking into consideration challenges identified in the CDN Workforce Survey – time, access to materials, lack of budget.
Find out more and register here
Thursday 25 May (1330-1600)
Curriculum Design
UHI Inverness
Chair: Simon Hewitt, Principal, Dundee and Angus College
Discussion will continue to focus on what the future of curriculum design is beginning to look like in a post-Covid world, taking on board learning from the past 24 months as well as recent developments.
Find out more and register here
Virtual College Expo
Virtual College Expo offers inspirational keynotes, interactive workshops, and thought-provoking seminars…
And is coming to your screen on
Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 June.
Watch this space for Virtual College Expo Programme and Sponsorship Opportunities.
Stand Alone are hosting the following Online Conference relevant to working with Estranged Students in Higher Education:
Moving on after Graduation – How can estranged HE students be better supported?
28 March 2023 10am – 3pm
The need for support for estranged students to get the best out of their higher education journey starts at pre-entry stage but does not suddenly end with graduation. Stand Alone’s report ‘What Happens Next’ published in 2019 highlighted some of the barriers and challenges estranged students and graduates face when transitioning out of Higher Education into employment or from undergraduate to postgraduate study. This research still holds true today.
This Stand Alone online conference delves into the difficulties estranged students face to move on into the next step of their journey such as facing homelessness after graduating, taking up graduate employment or further study and what some universities are already doing to help reduce the disadvantages estrangement can bring with it.
The day will focus on:
1. Identifying the issue. Estranged graduates and current students will speak about their experiences and discuss what they think higher education and employers can and need to do better.
2. Solutions. Best practice examples from within the higher education sector on helping estranged students build their employability skills and providing support for estranged graduates.
3. What next?
Confirmed speakers:
Sunday Blake, Associate Editor, WonkHE
Annie Gainsborough, Senior Consultant, Gradconsult
Student Panel with current estranged students and graduates
You can read the event flyer, here.
Find further details and register here.
The programme for the day is here
Wednesday 29th March 10am – 11am
Online Event
Are you a university looking to find out how to set up a rent guarantor scheme? Join us for a free hour long workshop to explore how lack of a rent guarantor can affect care experienced and estranged students, and to hear from colleagues already delivering successful schemes.
Being a care experienced or estranged student shouldn’t mean being disadvantaged when it comes to finding somewhere to live at uni. Most students are asked for a rent guarantor to secure accommodation, but not all students have someone to ask. That’s why we‘ve launched the Be Our Guarantor Campaign.
SCAPP are pleased to invite our members to an interactive session aimed at inspiring, connecting and sharing practice to inform next steps for widening access for primary-school aged, care-experienced learners:
Tuesday 28th March, 10am – 11:30pm (Online)
The Hub for Success and partners will share an insight into Learning Explorers, a recent pilot with P7 classes in Edinburgh. This project aims to reach back earlier to inspire all children, including those from a care experienced background, to be curious about college and university. The pilot was co-designed and delivered with several college and university partners, the local authority, and Hub Student Ambassadors.
This practice sharing event aims to inspire and make connections between professionals who are interested in widening access work with younger learners. We will encourage participants to share experiences and explore and discuss opportunities for widening access at earlier stages in the education journey.
Please register to receive the meeting invite here.
We ask that you join the session from a location where you can participate in discussions and breakouts.
Wednesday 19th April
1pm – 2pm, Online Webinar
The NERUPI Network (Evaluating and Researching University Participation Interventions) is a partnership of more than 70 HEIs designed for widening participation professionals working together to create a new approach to evaluation using their praxis-based (theory and practice) framework which helps to plan, develop and evaluate their programmes and activities.
Annette Hayton, convenor of NERUPI, has kindly offered to host a one hour webinar for SCAPP where she will outline the work of the NERUPI network, the NERUPI framework and how it can be used to support practitioners and evaluators in designing, evaluating and demonstrating impact of their work. This will be of interest both to practitioners who have already started planning an evaluation or equally who are not currently involved in evaluation but with an ambition to do so. This webinar is part of SCAPPs WP Evaluation Matters work.
Please register on Eventbrite to receive an invitation for this online event.
April 26th & 27th 2023 (online) – Save the date
The Open University
The Open University are very pleased to invite you to ‘Save the Date’ and submit an abstract(s) for presentation at their 7th International Biennial Access, Participation and Success Conference taking place Online on 26th and 27th April 2023. Full details and links to the abstracts submission form and the conference website are provided below.
Call for Papers giving additional abstracts information for anyone needing to view in an Accessible format.
Please feel free to share this with colleagues who might not be on our current distribution lists.
3rd – 4th May 2023
Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre, Birmingham
The TASO Annual Conference will take place in-person, with a conference on Day 1 and a more in-depth workshop focussed on evaluation skills and responding to new regulations on Day 2.
21 – 23 June 2023
University of Glasgow
Registration is now open for Higher Education Reform 2023 hosted by CR&DALL at the University of Glasgow from 21-23 June 2023. Please visit this website for more details
The theme of the conference is the “Sustainable Development Goals: Their potential and relevance for higher education policy and reform”, and organisers are delighted to welcome five world-leading keynote speakers: Dr. Hilligje Van’t Land, Secretary General of the International Association of Universities (IAU), Professor Sir Peter Scott, UCL, Professor Charles Nherera, University of Zimbabwe, Professor Michele Schweisfurth, University of Glasgow and Professor Nematollah Azizi, University of Kurdistan.
Full details of the speakers and fee schedules are available on the website, as well as details of how to submit an abstract with a deadline of 6 March 2023.
28-30 June 2023
University of Derby
Registration is now open for the FACE conference at the University of Derby from 28-30 June 2023. Please visit this website for more details
This year’s conference focus is co-constructing education for all. FACE want to open up opportunities for delegates to share research and best practice where co-production and co-creation have been key facets of the construction of programmes, activities and research aimed at widening access and participation onto, through and beyond post-16 and post-18 learning.
As such the three conference themes are:
Full details of the event, fee schedules are available on the website, as well as details of how to submit a paper with a first all closing date of 24 February 2023, and second call closing date of 21 April 2023.
2023 SCQF online workshop dates:
Monday 13th – 17th March 2023 SCQF Week 2023 Recognising Skills and Qualifications for the Future
Tuesday 21st March 2023 – My Skills, My Future Workshop (in person)
Tuesday 28th March 2023 – Would you Credit It? (Online)
Thursday 30th March 2023 – An Introduction to Recognition of Prior Learning (Online)
For further information about these and other workshops and resources please see the SCQF website.