Wonkhe presents
The Secret Life of Students 2025
Students getting better
Shaw Theatre, Pullman London St Pancras Hotel
Get DirectionsUK higher education continues to strive to live up to its globally respected reputation for rigorous academic standards, innovative research, historic institutions and high rankings, even as financial pressures bear down on the scale of what can be offered to students, and the sector’s scope to respond to a changing educational landscape. Reimagining curriculum and academic support and streamlining delivery can take the sector so far, but at some point the cracks begin to show.
While some may claim that the future of higher education lies in a great unbundling and fragmentation, we’d argue that reports of the death of the full-time three-year degree have been greatly exaggerated. With a new government commitment to access and student success, within the framework of a regional regeneration agenda, there’s an opportunity to build a different vision for a full-time student experience, one that acknowledges all the dimensions of students’ lives – their learning, their work, and their health – and seeks to imagine a student experience that can meet every student’s distinct needs and future potential.
As Wonkhe’s unique student experience event returns for its seventh year, we’ll try to climb out of the doldrums over the student experience debate, asking the question – what would it take for the UK to offer the world’s best student experience? Bringing together policy makers and experts with sector leaders and managers, as well as student leaders and students’ union managers, we’ll get beyond trying to discern “the student interest” and work towards an ambitious, positive vision for students’ participation in higher education.
We’ll also spend some time interrogating some of the wicked problems associated with particular groups of students in higher education: disabled students, postgraduate researchers; students who live locally (or less locally) to their campus; and those coming to the UK to study as international students to explore how thinking about distinctive student experiences can uncover new perspectives on all students’ lives.
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. And at every stage we’ll be asking for your ideas, to create a shared optimistic vision for the future, and to think through how to make it real in practice. The Secret Life of Students is the essential event for anyone working on policy and delivery for students.
Event information
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, a delegate list and guide to the event before the day.
Agenda
9.30 A new vision for the student experience
Jim Dickinson introduces the day with a tour of what we know about the student condition, and the kind of vision for student futures the evidence is pointing to.
10.10 Student story
10.15 Learning, work and life – creating the conditions for a better future
Chris Millward, Amira Campbell and Rille Raaper digest and discuss what needs to change to build a fresh, positive vision for students that recognises all dimensions of their lives and ambitions.
11.00 Break for refreshments and networking
11.30 Student story
11.35 Deep-dive: international students
In a fireside chat with Sanam Arora we discuss how UK HE can sustain its appeal to international students and ensure it lives up to its promise to offer a truly international experience.
12.00 The future that students want to see
Students’ union representatives Jimena Alamo, Alvina Imran, and Jorgen Clemmensen-Floholm share their insight about what students want from their experience and the kind of changes they are seeking to make their vision a reality. Higher education expert and academic Liz Thomas responds.
12.50 Lunch
1.50 Student story
1.55 Deep-dive: disabled students
With increasing numbers of students arriving with or experiencing disability during their studies, Abigail Hamer and Anna Freed think through what it takes to make the student experience inclusive by design.
2.20 What is a world-class learning experience?
Active, authentic, inclusive, research-led, interdisciplinary, flexible…incorporating sustainability, intercultural awareness, digital fluency, global citizenship…and maybe even fun? There’s lots of aspirational chatter about the future of learning, but what happens when aspiration meets reality? Higher education leaders Sam Grogan and Helen King explore how to build learning environments fit for the future.
3.00 How to make a student city work
Students’ experience is geographical: it happens in accommodation, on public transport, in their GP’s surgery, in work, and in the voting booth. Students and graduates bring economic and cultural benefits to their regions yet they are rarely considered as objects of policy. Susan Kenyon and Joel Dowson draw on research and practice to ask how universities can influence regional policymakers to attract and retain students and graduates.
3.30 Break for refreshments and networking
4.00 Student story
4.05 Deep dive: postgraduate researchers
Matthew Beach identifies the key pain points for PGRs, and we think through what their experience can teach us about the kind of self-directed research-led student experiences that many aspire to weave throughout the higher education learning experience.
4.30 From vision to reality – how higher education can prepare for the future
Realising a new vision means letting go of how things used to be and finding new ways of thinking, doing and delivering. Drawing on research conducted with Advance HE on how higher education institutions are navigating complex and uncertain futures, Charles Knight and Darcie Jones assess what change could look like in practice – and what higher education needs to do right now to start bringing the future into being.
5.10 Students will change the world
Jacob Blasius, executive director of the Global Students’ Forum, offers a global vision and perspective to round off the day.
5.30 Close of event: join us for a drinks reception at the Shaw Theatre followed by our evening after-party in a local venue.
Default title
Wonkhe presents
The Secret Life of Students 2025
Students getting better
Shaw Theatre, Pullman London St Pancras Hotel
Get DirectionsUK higher education continues to strive to live up to its globally respected reputation for rigorous academic standards, innovative research, historic institutions and high rankings, even as financial pressures bear down on the scale of what can be offered to students, and the sector’s scope to respond to a changing educational landscape. Reimagining curriculum and academic support and streamlining delivery can take the sector so far, but at some point the cracks begin to show.
While some may claim that the future of higher education lies in a great unbundling and fragmentation, we’d argue that reports of the death of the full-time three-year degree have been greatly exaggerated. With a new government commitment to access and student success, within the framework of a regional regeneration agenda, there’s an opportunity to build a different vision for a full-time student experience, one that acknowledges all the dimensions of students’ lives – their learning, their work, and their health – and seeks to imagine a student experience that can meet every student’s distinct needs and future potential.
As Wonkhe’s unique student experience event returns for its seventh year, we’ll try to climb out of the doldrums over the student experience debate, asking the question – what would it take for the UK to offer the world’s best student experience? Bringing together policy makers and experts with sector leaders and managers, as well as student leaders and students’ union managers, we’ll get beyond trying to discern “the student interest” and work towards an ambitious, positive vision for students’ participation in higher education.
We’ll also spend some time interrogating some of the wicked problems associated with particular groups of students in higher education: disabled students, postgraduate researchers; students who live locally (or less locally) to their campus; and those coming to the UK to study as international students to explore how thinking about distinctive student experiences can uncover new perspectives on all students’ lives.
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. And at every stage we’ll be asking for your ideas, to create a shared optimistic vision for the future, and to think through how to make it real in practice. The Secret Life of Students is the essential event for anyone working on policy and delivery for students.
Event information
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, a delegate list and guide to the event before the day.
Agenda
9.30 A new vision for the student experience
Jim Dickinson introduces the day with a tour of what we know about the student condition, and the kind of vision for student futures the evidence is pointing to.
10.10 Student story
10.15 Learning, work and life – creating the conditions for a better future
Chris Millward, Amira Campbell and Rille Raaper digest and discuss what needs to change to build a fresh, positive vision for students that recognises all dimensions of their lives and ambitions.
11.00 Break for refreshments and networking
11.30 Student story
11.35 Deep-dive: international students
In a fireside chat with Sanam Arora we discuss how UK HE can sustain its appeal to international students and ensure it lives up to its promise to offer a truly international experience.
12.00 The future that students want to see
Students’ union representatives Jimena Alamo, Alvina Imran, and Jorgen Clemmensen-Floholm share their insight about what students want from their experience and the kind of changes they are seeking to make their vision a reality. Higher education expert and academic Liz Thomas responds.
12.50 Lunch
1.50 Student story
1.55 Deep-dive: disabled students
With increasing numbers of students arriving with or experiencing disability during their studies, Abigail Hamer and Anna Freed think through what it takes to make the student experience inclusive by design.
2.20 What is a world-class learning experience?
Active, authentic, inclusive, research-led, interdisciplinary, flexible…incorporating sustainability, intercultural awareness, digital fluency, global citizenship…and maybe even fun? There’s lots of aspirational chatter about the future of learning, but what happens when aspiration meets reality? Higher education leaders Sam Grogan and Helen King explore how to build learning environments fit for the future.
3.00 How to make a student city work
Students’ experience is geographical: it happens in accommodation, on public transport, in their GP’s surgery, in work, and in the voting booth. Students and graduates bring economic and cultural benefits to their regions yet they are rarely considered as objects of policy. Susan Kenyon and Joel Dowson draw on research and practice to ask how universities can influence regional policymakers to attract and retain students and graduates.
3.30 Break for refreshments and networking
4.00 Student story
4.05 Deep dive: postgraduate researchers
Matthew Beach identifies the key pain points for PGRs, and we think through what their experience can teach us about the kind of self-directed research-led student experiences that many aspire to weave throughout the higher education learning experience.
4.30 From vision to reality – how higher education can prepare for the future
Realising a new vision means letting go of how things used to be and finding new ways of thinking, doing and delivering. Drawing on research conducted with Advance HE on how higher education institutions are navigating complex and uncertain futures, Charles Knight and Darcie Jones assess what change could look like in practice – and what higher education needs to do right now to start bringing the future into being.
5.10 Students will change the world
Jacob Blasius, executive director of the Global Students’ Forum, offers a global vision and perspective to round off the day.
5.30 Close of event: join us for a drinks reception at the Shaw Theatre followed by our evening after-party in a local venue.
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Speakers
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![]( "Christopher Millward is Professor of Practice in Education Policy, University of Birmingham.")
Christopher Millward
Professor of Practice in Education Policy, University of BirminghamChristopher Millward is Professor of Practice in Education Policy, University of Birmingham.
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![]( "Amira Campbell is the President of NUS.")
Amira Campbell
President NUSAmira Campbell is the President of NUS.
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![]( "Liam White, President, Surrey Students Union")
Liam White
President, Surrey Students UnionLiam White, President, Surrey Students Union
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![]( "Rille Raaper is Director of Research, University of Durham.")
Rille Raaper
Director of Research, University of DurhamRille Raaper is Director of Research, University of Durham.
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![]( "Jimena Alamo, President at the SU, University of Bath")
Jimena Alamo
President at the SU, University of BathJimena Alamo, President at the SU, University of Bath
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![]( "Alvina Imran is the President, Salford SU.")
Alvina Imran
President, Salford SUAlvina Imran is the President, Salford SU.
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![]( "Jorgen Clemmensen-Floholm is Policy & Research Coordinator KCL SU.")
Jorgen Clemmensen-Floholm
Policy & Research Coordinator KCL SUJorgen Clemmensen-Floholm is Policy & Research Coordinator KCL SU.
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![]( "Liz Thomas is a higher education researcher and consultant")
Liz Thomas
Higher education researcher and consultantLiz Thomas is a higher education researcher and consultant
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![]( "your default content")
Sanam Arora
Founder and Chairperson, National Indian Students and Alumni Union UKyour default content
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![]( "Anna Freed, Consultant affiliated with Disabled Students UK")
Anna Freed
Consultant affiliated with Disabled Students UKAnna Freed, Consultant affiliated with Disabled Students UK
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![]( "Abigail Hamer is Principal - Legal at the Equality and Human Rights Commission.")
Abigail Hamer
Principal - Legal - Equality and Human Rights CommissionAbigail Hamer is Principal – Legal at the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
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![]( "Molly Pemberton, Social Sciences and Arts College Officer, Sheffield Hallam Students\' Union")
Molly Pemberton
Social Sciences and Arts College Officer, Hallam Students' UnionMolly Pemberton, Social Sciences and Arts College Officer, Sheffield Hallam Students’ Union
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![]( "Matthew Beach is a PhD student and researcher at Queen Mary University of London and a former Sabbatical officer.")
Matthew Beach
PhD student and researcherMatthew Beach is a PhD student and researcher at Queen Mary University of London and a former Sabbatical officer.
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![]( "Sam Grogan is PVC Education and Student Experience, Loughborough University.")
Sam Grogan
PVC Education and Student Experience, Loughborough UniversitySam Grogan is PVC Education and Student Experience, Loughborough University.
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![]( "Helen King is Director of Learning Innovation, Development & Skills, Bath Spa University.")
Helen King
Director of Learning Innovation, Development & Skills, Bath Spa UniversityHelen King is Director of Learning Innovation, Development & Skills, Bath Spa University.
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![]( "Susan Kenyon is Principal Lecturer in Politics, Canterbury Christ Church University.")
Susan Kenyon
Principal Lecturer in Politics, Canterbury Christ Church UniversitySusan Kenyon is Principal Lecturer in Politics, Canterbury Christ Church University.
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![]( "Joel Dowson is Greater Manchester Students’ Partnership Manager for SUs across the region.")
Joel Dowson
Greater Manchester Students’ Partnership Manager for SUs across the regionJoel Dowson is Greater Manchester Students’ Partnership Manager for SUs across the region.
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![]( "Charles Knight Director, Leadership, Governance & Management at Advance HE")
Charles Knight
Director, Leadership, Governance & Management, Advance HECharles Knight is Assistant Director, Knowledge and Innovation at Advance HE
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![]( "Darcie Jones is Education Officer, University of Plymouth Students Union.")
Darcie Jones
Education Officer, University of Plymouth Students UnionDarcie Jones is Education Officer, University of Plymouth Students Union.
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![]( "Paige Rivers, Health, Social Care & Medicine President, Edgehill Students Union")
Paige Rivers
Paige Rivers, Health, Social Care & Medicine President, Edgehill SUPaige Rivers, Health, Social Care & Medicine President, Edgehill Students Union
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![]( "Jacob Blasius is Executive Director, Global Students Forum")
Jacob Blasius
Executive Director, Global Students ForumJacob Blasius is Executive Director, Global Students Forum
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Jim Dickinson
Associate Editor, WonkheJim 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
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![]( "Debbie McVitty is Editor of Wonkhe. Debbie is a former chief of staff at Universities UK, director of policy at the University of Bedfordshire, and head of policy at the National Union of Students, and is a founding member of Wonkhe’s editorial group.")
Debbie McVitty
Editor, WonkheDebbie McVitty, Editor, Wonkhe
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![]( "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, HEFCE, University Alliance, GuildHE as well as a stint in politics as a special adviser to the former Shadow Minister for Universities & Science. Mark began full-time work on Wonkhe in mid-2014 growing it into a thriving business. As CEO, Mark is responsible for running and developing Wonkhe and as Editor in Chief oversees Wonkhe’s editorial platforms. You can read more about everything that Wonkhe does here.")
Mark Leach
Founder & Editor in Chief, Wonkhe and former Labour adviserMark 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
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Livia Scott
Partnerships coordinator, WonkheLivia Scott is Partnerships Coordinator at Wonkhe. 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 from the … Continued
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Mack Marshall
Community and policy officer, Wonkhe SUsMack is Wonkhe SUs’ Community and Policy Officer. After finishing his term as Education Officer at Newcastle University Students’ Union in 2022–23, he worked in student voice and academic representation at The Union, Manchester Metropolitan University. During his time as a student, he was both a course and school rep, working on supporting the student … Continued
