I have finished the week (and am about to start some leave) in Ghent, Belgium (a country the size of Belgium) where I’ve been privileged to participate once again in the Flemish HE sector’s project on student participation and share experiences from HISA/UHI. Much to learn from Flemish practice.

Some really useful research from Josh and I am looking forward to getting stuck in. Nice to see @thinkuhi.bsky.social cited as a model.

We've got a vacancy for a Corporate and Governance Manager. Find out more and how to apply bit.ly/4nxnvP4

I enjoyed reading this piece by @jimdickinson.bsky.social not for the core point (about English student funding) but the wider examination of practice including the trip down memory lane of the Cubie report. Takes me back to my student officer days and the great campaigning we did on this in '99.

This is the really interesting (if grim) beginning of what I am sure will be a big and important series.

Based in our @uhiinverness.bsky.social office today (forgot to take a photo on my way in). Lots of meetings, but always nice when here to bump into so many staff and students. Really thrilled (and proud of team) about our recent successful by-election here. hisa.uhi.ac.uk/news/article...

WE ARE NOW PODCASTERS 👏 Check out our episode from the RAISE Conference on NStEP to date, next steps and the future of student engagement in Ireland open.spotify.com/episode/3ozJ...

Quite the story.

As ever, this is very good. Not all mergers or reform processes go smoothly, to plan, to time etc, and not all of them are entirely focussed on students as focus let alone agent. For instance we are arguably still, a decade later, settling the dust of college regionalisation.

Merging the Universities of Kent and Greenwich creates the UK’s most geographically spread-out higher education institution, does it, #r4today? I think the University of the Highlands and Islands wants a word. www.uhi.ac.uk/en/

Have just read on the BBC that "the UK's first 'super-university', stretching across an entire region" is to be creaed by merging the universities of Kent and Greenwich, and I'm thinking it's a shame they've never heard of the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Fascinating to see institutional collaborations and transformations move seemingly at pace...

We are underway with (day 1 of our) @uhiinverness.bsky.social main campus Welcome Fayre! Lots of clubs, societies, services and community groups, and a real buzz all round. It’s busy on the HISA stall too.

Head - and virtual notepad - ringing with ideas, links, contacts and more as I head home after a very enjoyable #RAISE25. Well done the @raise-network.bsky.social team for throwing together such a fabulous conference. It's a busy time of year but always worth stepping back, reflecting and learning.

Intrigued by @uofglasgow.bsky.social’s new strapline. #RAISE25

The final part of #RAISE25 is a panel of sector voices including my HISA colleague Aimee, plus @jimdickinson.bsky.social. Good to hear their thoughts on the big and sometimes very scary issues facing student engagement in our sector.

Lovely and empowering workshop from @unabridgedopinions.com on how to communicate, and how to ask the right questions of those we support. Thanks Jennie and nice to see you albeit on-screen! #RAISE25

In a workshop about power, and… more Arnstein! #RAISE25

A good opening session at day 2 of #RAISE25 - an in-depth dive into student voice at @uofglasgow.bsky.social including a very honest student panel. Nice to hear SRC President Duncan argue that "you said, we did" is dated. Firm agree: we are (or should be) way beyond such transactionalism... I hope!

Loved being a part of day 1's closing keynote panel with Ashley Storer-Smith and Jill LeBihan with whom I've enjoyed working on a @qaa.ac.uk-funded UK-wide student rep audit. Also enjoyed getting one or two responses on improving my lightbulb moment, back of the envelope grid. #RAISE25

So lovely to catch up with so many people at #RAISE25, some whom I’ve not seen for years. Good to have a mini-reunion with old @sparqs-scotland.bsky.social colleagues Megan and Stef too!

Really enjoying the parallel sessions so far. The "campfire" format is a somewhat unconventional format but really generates good conversations. I've enjoyed learning lots of interesting snippets and things to look up or follow up, including BPP's student rep self-efficacy survey. #RAISE25

ARNSTEIN’S LADDER KLAXON! #RAISE25

The opening keynote for #RAISE25 from Professor Rebecca Freeman around #studentvoice and the change in the #HigherEducation sector.

I’m at #RAISE25 at @uofglasgow.bsky.social today. Very impressive venue - someone described it as like the United Nations, but hopefully without the vetoes. Lovely to meet so many old sector friends - and some new ones. Thrilled also that there are three HISA contributions to the agenda!

A lovely day in Perth helping at our Welcome fayre - great work from our local team there as students found out about our clubs, socs and other opportunities, community groups and college services. Good to talk to lots of staff and students too.

Currently preparing your SEAP? We're pleased to publish our updated 'SEAP practical guide to student partnership', designed to support meaningful student engagement throughout the process of developing your annual SEAP submission as part of the TQEF. www.sparqs.ac.uk/resource-ite...

A sunny morning for a train journey. I’m off to @uhiperth.bsky.social first for our Welcome Fayre, then to Glasgow in advance of tomorrow’s @raisenetwork.bsky.social conference. Lots of work to do on the train. So who all on here is coming to #RAISE25?

A fabulous Welcome Fayre at UHI House today primarily for our health science students. Lots of clubs and societies joined, community groups met, great chats with loads of students, and I managed not to quite eat all of the Islamic Society’s baklava.

This is very good from the @wonkhe.bsky.social team especially because this extract chimes with my sadness that universities keep beating students over the head with their "belonging" stick. Belonging happens after a very long list of institutional behaviours. wonkhe.com/blogs/for-st...

A busy but fun day yesterday of class inductions to promote HISA, and meeting curriculum managers to talk about promoting SVRs. Now today our UHI House welcome fayre. Then off tomorrow to @raisenetwork.bsky.social via our Perth campus. Phew! More re our Welcome Week at hisa.uhi.ac.uk/about/welcom...

A hundred years ago, a new technology was going to eliminate the physical teacher: radio. We have heard it all before…

Interesting piece as ever from Jim. Unclear that what the article highlights is about partnership - it’s more about regs than the spaces of meaningful co-creation - but it rightly points out that many things could be better.

New Post: ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’: Is student activism dead? www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/08/28/w...

I was at Highland Theological College’s Dingwall campus yesterday for student inductions. Lovely to talk to so many students and staff about everything from AI in learning to academic societies, chat to the (shared CATE award winning!) library team, and leave some HISA goodies in the common room!

A busy Sunday afternoon helping out at the Inverness halls move-in weekend. Lovely to meet lots of new students and apprentices and tell them all about the great things they can get involved in.

I’m intrigued at the story behind this sign…

Good to be working at our @uhiinverness.bsky.social office for a few days - an exciting time of year with lots of prep for welcome weeks, class induction talks and more.

This is an excellent piece. Makes a point I am increasingly sure defines my view of the sector: experiences we might say are difficult or require help/liberation are actually (also) points of learning and expertise for the rest of us. Everyone is an expert in, if nothing else, their life experience.

Great opportunity for anyone with project management experience who fancies a slice of island life... We would love to develop cool new projects that bring some Islands Deal benefits to Orkney! www.uhi.ac.uk/en/staff/vac...

A great day at @uhimoray.bsky.social today - meeting our local HISA team and college staff. Lots of ideas to mull over for the coming academic year of supporting students and building their voice(s).

@thinkuhi.bsky.social is 2nd in Scotland in the National Student Survey 2024-25 for overall satisfaction in the history category & @uhihistory.bsky.social team received 10 Highlands & Islands Students Association nominations & highly commended awards in 4 different categories. Well done! #UHI

"Rather than asking students to become more resilient, the more important question is how institutions can reduce the need for resilience in the first place." Fab piece. Lots for me to learn here about neurodiversity, but the point about resilience is important more widely too. I do hate the term.

For the fourth year in a row, postgraduate students say UHI is the BEST in Scotland for student satisfaction! In the national 2025 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey we’ve achieved an overall satisfaction rate of 91%, the highest of any Scottish university: bit.ly/4oAS6fV #ThinkUHI

The draft programme for @raisenetwork.bsky.social's conference in September is now live. Looks good (and not just because I'm down). Eek! Just realised September is next month. Where did the summer go? www.raise-network.com/programme-2025

Campus looks somewhat different, unsurprisingly, from my visits during my Masters in Student Engagement! Though that building was still there I think...

This is excellent. So much done by clubs and societies (particularly academic societies) is rooted in human interaction and experiences, and (the article rightly argues) is unreplaceable by AI. That's got to be worth something.

I can never understand why efforts to improve peer review don’t learn from the decades of educational research about how to do good, robust, constructive assessment and feedback. What would happen if we treated peer review as pedagogy? New in @wonkhe.bsky.social wonkhe.com/blogs/peer-r...

I've found a new discussion prompt for my next student engagement workshop.