Speaking for English Studies in UK Higher Education 1

A series of workshops aimed at building capacity within the discipline for leadership and and influence

The English Association, University English and the Institute for English Studies are co-hosting a new series of workshops in 2021 titled ‘Speaking for English Studies’ aimed at building capacity within the discipline for leadership and influence, both within our institutions and across the sector more widely.

The workshops are aimed at colleagues who are seeking to influence decision-making and strategy at higher levels of their own institution and/or within sector bodies. You may already hold a leadership role within a department or a larger unit (e.g. School or Faculty); you may be thinking about taking on such leadership roles in the future; or you may be undertaking advocacy work for the discipline beyond the institution. This first event will focus on decision-making with HEIs; later events will address other areas of the sector (e.g. policy-making).

The aim is to draw on the expertise of colleagues with experience of senior management, sector leadership and advocacy to build a toolkit to enable all of us to make the best case we can for English Studies. These events will provide a better understanding of university governance; the arguments that work; the data used for priority-setting and strategic planning; the national bodies we can work with.

The topics of the first event are: ‘University Architecture, Strategic Planning, and QR’. This will include presentations on ‘University Architecture’ to get a better understanding of which roles and bodies shape decisions within an HE institution; on ‘The Role of Strategic Planning’ to gain a better understanding of why and how universities do this, how they work with external consultancy groups in this context and how the available data informs strategic and financial planning; and on QR as a key part of the dual support system, to get a better understanding of the way it may be developed as a tool of strategic planning.

Our speakers will be: Julie Sanders (Deputy VC and Provost, Newcastle University), with Simon Donoghue, Director of Strategic Planning and Change, Newcastle University (previously lead consultant at SUMS Consulting), and David Amigoni (until recently, PVC Research, Keele University). 

The Institute of English Studies (IES), is an internationally renowned research centre specialising in the history of the book, manuscript and print studies, textual scholarship, digital editing and new critical approaches to literary history. We offer postgraduate programmes, summer schools, and short courses. We host major collaborative research projects, provide research training in book history and palaeography; and facilitate new and emerging research in all areas of English Studies.

University English, formerly The Council for College and University English (CCUE), was founded in 1993 to promote the study of English in higher education, and to provide opportunities for English lecturers to meet colleagues from other institutions and discuss matters of shared concern. University English is the main professional body consulted by funding bodies and other agencies when they wish to gauge the views of the English subject community.

The aim of the English Association is to further knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the English language and its literatures and to foster good practice in its teaching and learning at all levels.