Events
UKAT offers conferences, webinars and other events throughout the year, both online and in various locations around the UK. These events provide professional development opportunities for personal tutors and academic advisors who are invested in helping students achieve academic success.
The UKAT Annual Conference is the major event of the year and provides an opportunity to learn in general sessions from experts in the field, gain knowledge and review best practices with colleagues in concurrent sessions, and participate in interactive workshops. The variety of learning formats also may include poster sessions, exhibitor presentations, and formal and informal networking opportunities.
Upcoming Events
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Engaging the Mid-Level Advising/Tutoring Practitioners: Offering Guidance, Support and Strategies for Retention in the Field
Thursday 17 February 2022, 14:00 - Thursday 17 February 2022, 15:30
OnlineGavin Farber, Temple University, USA
The field of higher education is competitive. Academics and personal tutors face personal and professional challenges. Retention in the profession has become more difficult for several reasons including burnout, work-life conflict, and loss of passion. In 2016, Marshall, Garner, Hughes, & Lowery’s US study found the industry lost 41.7% of student affairs practitioners between one to five years of service and 21.7% left after eight to ten years (p.152). These revolving issues have occurred since the 1970s and have only re-emerged as the next generation of academic, personal tutoring and student services practitioners are developed.
There are moments that make it feel impossible to cope with the daily stressors of our jobs. As academics and personal tutors, we serve as “helping professionals” trained to put others first and place own personal struggles on the sideline. Research over the last three decades, identified why practitioners leave the field. Burnout is one issue experienced by some academic advisors. It was first researched and defined as “‘to fail, wear out or become exhausted by making excessive demands on energy, strength, or resources,’” (Freudenberger, 1974, p.159). Throughout the academic calendar, professionals work through high volume times such as open days, registration, and exams.
When recognition and reward are unavailable to this group, it can be difficult to find appreciation in their jobs. When a vertical path is unavailable at an institution, it could be horizontal movements that afford the best opportunities for aiding in professional development. Gain insights on how you can forge a rich, rewarding career independent of the conventional “climbing the ladder” approach and can engage in your own #HorizontalBranding on and off campus.
Join the conversation!
References
Freudenberger, H.J. (1974). Staff burn-out. Journal of Social Issues, 30(1), 159-165.
Marshall, S.M., Gardner, M.M., Hughes, C. & Lowery, U. (2016). Attrition from student affairs: perspectives from those who exited the profession. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 53(2), 146-159.
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AdvanceHE Inclusive Learning & Teaching EDI Workshop Series
Tuesday 1 March 2022 - Tuesday 1 March 2022
OnlineThe series focus is on gaining practical experience of connecting EDI with teaching and learning in the context of post-pandemic pedagogy and creating structural EDI change in teaching and learning. Created as a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning these two-part workshops are aimed at institutions and individuals wanting to build an evidence-based support structure for inclusive teaching and learning.
- Introduction to EDI in Teaching and Learning
- Inclusive and Equitable Assessment and Feedback Workshop
- Inclusive Curriculum
- Inclusive Student Engagement and Partnership
- Leading on Inclusive Teaching and Learning.
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UKAT Annual Conference 2022
Monday 4 April 2022, 00:00 - Wednesday 6 April 2022, 00:00
OnlineReimagining Personal Tutoring
In recent months we have adopted many new and innovative ways of supporting our students and their learning. Necessity has been the driver which has accelerated the pace of change, resulting in us quickly making changes that might ordinarily have happened over a longer period of time. Some of these changes will have had a positive effect, others may have been less successful at addressing the varying individual challenges that many students have faced. They may have produced anticipated benefits and revealed other unexpected benefits. Whatever we have tried in recent months, we have adopted new ways of doing academic advising and personal tutoring, and learned much from the experience which can help us reimagine how we do advising and tutoring in the future.
Based on our collective recent experiences, this conference will explore how we might reimagine advising/tutoring so that it is more relevant to students, more effective at helping all students and institutions to achieve their intended outcomes, and more efficient in its operation. The conference will focus on five key themes:
- Digital technology - how can our experiences of the widescale adoption of digital technology and the pivot to online learning inform the future role of technology in advising and tutoring?
- Identity – how can advising and tutoring support student and cohort identity development?
- Community – how can advising and tutoring support learning communities, and build the sense of belonging that is important to student success?
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – what role does advising and tutoring have in enhancing equality and inclusion in higher education, and in enhancing success for all students?
- Student-Centred Transformation – higher education is transformative, but how can advising and tutoring empower students and give them agency in the transformation that they experience through their education?
Delegate registration will open early in 2022.
Events in italic typeface are not provided by UKAT but are 3rd party events which may be of interest to UKAT members