Wonkhe presents

The Secret Life of Students 2024

Surviving and thriving

12 March 2024, London

Shaw Theatre, Pullman London St Pancras Hotel

Get Directions

So much of students’ lives takes place under the radar – yet its students’ encounters around campus, their confidence in independent learning, and the pressures of juggling their work and personal commitments that shape how they engage with learning and teaching. To really enable students to thrive requires knowing about the full extent of their lives, not just the bits that universities can most readily see and touch.

Yet time and money are in short supply for universities and students – and with no let up on funding in sight, carefully choosing interventions that will help students to both survive and thrive has become both more important and even tougher. Deepening our collective understanding of what is in universities’ gift to influence and how to do the things that make a difference, is vital.

As Wonkhe’s unique student experience event returns for its sixth year, we’ll be interrogating the contemporary higher education policy questions through the student lens – bringing together sector leaders and managers, as well as student leaders and students’ union managers, to figure out how to respond in the student interest.

What role should universities and SUs play in stoking, or calming, conflict on campus? What are the expectations that we should place on students themselves to create a good learning experience? How are they learning – and how can we both measure it and support it – outside of the classroom?

On the day we’ll round up key findings into the student experience from the past year, and launch exciting new findings on the student experience beyond the classroom. It’s the essential event for anyone working on policy and delivery for students.

Venue

The Secret Life of Students takes place at the Shaw Theatre, a short walk from Euston, Kings Cross and St Pancras train stations. All delegates will receive full joining instructions, including further venue and access details.

Agenda 

9.30 Welcome and introduction from Team Wonkhe

PART 1: Campus cultures – are students thriving?

9.40 What do we know about the conditions that help students thrive? 

The latest and most powerful insights on the student condition from Wonkhe and Cibyl’s Belong student survey platform and from across the HE sector.

Jim Dickinson

10.10 Student story – loneliness among international students

10.15 An agenda for student health 

What if poor mental health was a symptom rather than a cause of students’ struggles? The more we uncover about students’ lives the more we find links between students’ living conditions, sleeping and eating, their learning environments, and their mental state. In this session, we’ll explore what a holistic agenda for student health might look like – both for higher education providers and for the policymakers who increasingly seem to assume that all of this is primarily universities’ problem.

Dominique Thompson, John de Pury

11.00 Break & refreshments 

11.30 Student story – social confidence and navigating other students

11.35 Balancing the free speech-inclusion see-saw 

The Office for Students is simultaneously introducing regulation  around harassment and misconduct which expects higher education providers to protect students from harms on the basis of protected characteristics, and implementing legislation designed to ensure anyone can say whatever they like, within the law. In the abstract, it should be possible to champion both free speech and inclusion, but as the culture wars show no signs of abating, media scrutiny continues to ramp up, and hot-button issues provoke strong feelings in all sorts of quarters, how can universities achieve this complex balancing act of values and duties?

Kirsty Sedgman, Smita Jamdar, Andy Winter

12.30  Lunch & open recording of The Wonkhe Show podcast

PART 2: Learning in the real world

1.30 What do we know about what’s shaping how students spend their time? 

The latest and most powerful insights on the student condition from Wonkhe and Cibyl’s Belong student survey platform and from across the HE sector.

Livia Scott

1.45 Student story – part-time work and struggling to make ends meet

1.50 What are the consequences of student time poverty and what can be done about it?

Students are undertaking more paid work alongside study, and have more complex lives – in practice, straining to cram a full-time study load into part-time hours. A realistic student finance package could ease the burden, but given nobody’s expecting one of those any time soon, it’s essential to get real about the natural consequences of the issue – including students stretching the accepted use of generative AI tools to produce assessed work to their very limits. Is there a version of the future that can design a learning environment that engages with reality?

Mark Peace, Eve Alcock

2.35 Student story – how students are completing assignments now

2.40 Academic support, meaningful learning, and student agency

Rebuilding student learning communities post-pandemic, during a cost of living crisis, as generative AI puts pressure on traditional forms of study and assessment, requires radical thinking. We’ll hear from some of the people who are formulating new ways of supporting student academic development, rethinking what counts as meaningful learning, and creating the conditions for students to play a more active role in building and driving their own thriving learning communities.

Jean Mutton, Cathy Minett-Smith, Adam Zeidan

3.30 Break & refreshments

4.00 Student story – attendance regulations and dodgy part-time work 

4.05 Reimagining Student Futures two years on

In 2022 the UPP Foundation Student Futures Commission set out recommendations to help UK higher education rebuild student belonging and engagement following the Covid-19 pandemic. Two years on, we take stock of how the pandemic has changed higher education, and think through what remains to be done.

Richard Brabner, Mary Curnock Cook, Tim Jones, Simeon Anyalemechi

5.00 Close of event & drinks reception – all welcome 

For any questions, email events@wonkhe.com.

Default title

Wonkhe presents

The Secret Life of Students 2024

Surviving and thriving

12 March 2024, London

Shaw Theatre, Pullman London St Pancras Hotel

Get Directions

So much of students’ lives takes place under the radar – yet its students’ encounters around campus, their confidence in independent learning, and the pressures of juggling their work and personal commitments that shape how they engage with learning and teaching. To really enable students to thrive requires knowing about the full extent of their lives, not just the bits that universities can most readily see and touch.

Yet time and money are in short supply for universities and students – and with no let up on funding in sight, carefully choosing interventions that will help students to both survive and thrive has become both more important and even tougher. Deepening our collective understanding of what is in universities’ gift to influence and how to do the things that make a difference, is vital.

As Wonkhe’s unique student experience event returns for its sixth year, we’ll be interrogating the contemporary higher education policy questions through the student lens – bringing together sector leaders and managers, as well as student leaders and students’ union managers, to figure out how to respond in the student interest.

What role should universities and SUs play in stoking, or calming, conflict on campus? What are the expectations that we should place on students themselves to create a good learning experience? How are they learning – and how can we both measure it and support it – outside of the classroom?

On the day we’ll round up key findings into the student experience from the past year, and launch exciting new findings on the student experience beyond the classroom. It’s the essential event for anyone working on policy and delivery for students.

Venue

The Secret Life of Students takes place at the Shaw Theatre, a short walk from Euston, Kings Cross and St Pancras train stations. All delegates will receive full joining instructions, including further venue and access details.

Agenda 

9.30 Welcome and introduction from Team Wonkhe

PART 1: Campus cultures – are students thriving?

9.40 What do we know about the conditions that help students thrive? 

The latest and most powerful insights on the student condition from Wonkhe and Cibyl’s Belong student survey platform and from across the HE sector.

Jim Dickinson

10.10 Student story – loneliness among international students

10.15 An agenda for student health 

What if poor mental health was a symptom rather than a cause of students’ struggles? The more we uncover about students’ lives the more we find links between students’ living conditions, sleeping and eating, their learning environments, and their mental state. In this session, we’ll explore what a holistic agenda for student health might look like – both for higher education providers and for the policymakers who increasingly seem to assume that all of this is primarily universities’ problem.

Dominique Thompson, John de Pury

11.00 Break & refreshments 

11.30 Student story – social confidence and navigating other students

11.35 Balancing the free speech-inclusion see-saw 

The Office for Students is simultaneously introducing regulation  around harassment and misconduct which expects higher education providers to protect students from harms on the basis of protected characteristics, and implementing legislation designed to ensure anyone can say whatever they like, within the law. In the abstract, it should be possible to champion both free speech and inclusion, but as the culture wars show no signs of abating, media scrutiny continues to ramp up, and hot-button issues provoke strong feelings in all sorts of quarters, how can universities achieve this complex balancing act of values and duties?

Kirsty Sedgman, Smita Jamdar, Andy Winter

12.30  Lunch & open recording of The Wonkhe Show podcast

PART 2: Learning in the real world

1.30 What do we know about what’s shaping how students spend their time? 

The latest and most powerful insights on the student condition from Wonkhe and Cibyl’s Belong student survey platform and from across the HE sector.

Livia Scott

1.45 Student story – part-time work and struggling to make ends meet

1.50 What are the consequences of student time poverty and what can be done about it?

Students are undertaking more paid work alongside study, and have more complex lives – in practice, straining to cram a full-time study load into part-time hours. A realistic student finance package could ease the burden, but given nobody’s expecting one of those any time soon, it’s essential to get real about the natural consequences of the issue – including students stretching the accepted use of generative AI tools to produce assessed work to their very limits. Is there a version of the future that can design a learning environment that engages with reality?

Mark Peace, Eve Alcock

2.35 Student story – how students are completing assignments now

2.40 Academic support, meaningful learning, and student agency

Rebuilding student learning communities post-pandemic, during a cost of living crisis, as generative AI puts pressure on traditional forms of study and assessment, requires radical thinking. We’ll hear from some of the people who are formulating new ways of supporting student academic development, rethinking what counts as meaningful learning, and creating the conditions for students to play a more active role in building and driving their own thriving learning communities.

Jean Mutton, Cathy Minett-Smith, Adam Zeidan

3.30 Break & refreshments

4.00 Student story – attendance regulations and dodgy part-time work 

4.05 Reimagining Student Futures two years on

In 2022 the UPP Foundation Student Futures Commission set out recommendations to help UK higher education rebuild student belonging and engagement following the Covid-19 pandemic. Two years on, we take stock of how the pandemic has changed higher education, and think through what remains to be done.

Richard Brabner, Mary Curnock Cook, Tim Jones, Simeon Anyalemechi

5.00 Close of event & drinks reception – all welcome 

For any questions, email events@wonkhe.com.

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Tickets

You can choose to pay by card or invoice during the booking process. If you wish to pay by invoice, you can book now and send us a PO number later. Group discounts are available, email events@wonkhe.com

Photo’s from last year’s event:

Speakers

  • Mary Curnock Cook

    Chair, UPP Foundation Student Futures Commission

    Mary Curnock Cook CBE is an independent education expert serving in a non-executive capacity on a number of Boards. From 2010-2017, Mary was Chief Executive of UCAS. Earlier in her career she held executive and non-executive positions in the education, hospitality, food and biotech sectors. Mary Chairs the governing body of the Dyson Institute, and … Continued

  • Dominique Thompson

    Director, Buzz Consulting and author of The Student Wellbeing Series and How to Grow a Grown Up

    Dominique is a multi-award winning GP, young people’s mental health expert, TEDx speaker, author and educator, with over two decades of NHS clinical experience. Dom now works as an independent mental health consultant and speaker, whilst holding roles including; President-elect of the Student Health Association, membership of the UK government’s Higher Education Mental Health Implementation … Continued

  • Kirsty Sedgman

    Senior lecturer, University of Bristol, and author of On Being Unreasonable

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  • Andy Winter

    Director of Student Support Services, University of Sheffield

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  • Smita Jamdar

    Partner and Head of Education, Shakespeare Martineau

    Smita leads the team that works to shape the universities and colleges of the future by providing strategic advice and sector specific insight across all their legal needs. Smita is a recognised leader in her field, specialising in constitutional, governance and regulatory advice which helps educational institutions thrive in a rapidly changing landscape. She has … Continued

  • John de Pury

    Independent health policy expert and consultant

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  • Eve Alcock

    Director of public affairs, QAA
  • Mark Peace

    Professor of Innovation in Education at Manchester Metropolitan University

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  • Tim Jones

    Pro vice chancellor (students), University of Worcester

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  • Simeon Anyalemechi

    President, University of Salford Students' Union

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  • Richard Brabner

    Executive chair, UPP Foundation

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  • Adam Zeidan

    Secretary General, Tampere SU, Finland

    Adam is Secretary General of Tampere SU, Finland.

  • Jean Mutton

    Jean Mutton

    Service Designer for the Higher Education sector

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  • Cathy Minett-Smith

    Dean of learning and teaching, UWE Bristol

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  • Sabiha Khan

    VP Education at UWE Students Union

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  • Hannah Mortimer

    Union Affairs Officer at University of Manchester SU

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  • Jimena Alamo

    President at the SU, University of Bath

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  • Duncan Abrahart

    President, Leeds Conservatoire Students' Union

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  • Mark Leach

    Founder & Editor in Chief, Wonkhe and former Labour adviser

    Mark Leach is the founder, Editor in Chief and CEO of Wonkhe. Mark worked in policy, politics and public affairs in and around UK higher education and founded Wonkhe in 2011 while working as a jobbing policy wonk in the sector. The first part of his career took him to the National Union of Students, … Continued

  • Debbie McVitty

    Editor, Wonkhe

    Debbie McVitty, Editor, Wonkhe

  • Jim Dickinson

    Associate Editor, Wonkhe

    Jim is an Associate Editor at Wonkhe and takes a particular interest in the student experience, university governance, and regulation – and leads our work with students’ unions. His career background is in support for student leadership. He has held senior roles at the National Union of Students – where he led on SU development, … Continued

  • Livia Scott

    Community and Policy Officer, Wonkhe

    Livia Scott is Wonkhe SUs’ Community and Policy Officer. A history student who has completed both an undergraduate and postgraduate degree, Livia served as the full time elected Education Officer at Newcastle University Students’ Union in 2021/22. A former peer mentor, at Newcastle Livia led on work to promote the student interest as we emerged … Continued

Tickets

You can choose to pay by card or invoice during the booking process. If you wish to pay by invoice, you can book now and send us a PO number later. Group discounts are available, email events@wonkhe.com

Photo’s from last year’s event: