This year, April has been a relatively short month for the London Higher team, thanks in the main to the much-needed Easter holiday that fell in the middle of it.
 
Before everyone set their ‘out of offices’ for a few days, we managed to squeeze in our first joint roundtable for senior leaders on 04 April with the London think tank, the Centre for London, held at the University of Westminster, looking at London’s levelling up needs and the role our sector plays in addressing inequalities in the capital. The findings will be used to feed in to a wider cross-sector report being compiled by the Centre for London, but we’ll also be publishing a separate round-up of our priorities later in the spring, so do look out for that one soon.

 
Before that, I had a busy couple of weeks visiting various members and speaking at several events, including the Mills & Reeve annual Spring Conference at the British Library and the Times Higher Education Digital Universities Week; on both occasions showcasing our London Higher Civic Map.
 
I also asked a question to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove (via the Rt. Hon. Chris Skidmore MP), as part of the Lifelong Education Commission, on how London universities can boost the levelling up agenda, not just in the capital but across the country. You can hear his answer here.
 
In addition, we end the term with three big announcements: First, we’re pleased to welcome the University of the Arts London (UAL) as our latest member! Second, we’re proud to have launched the first London Higher Global Majority mentoring programme alongside London Metropolitan University and Minerva (more details below). And third, we’re delighted to announce five climate knowledge partnerships with London Councils involving four of our members. We hope this will be the first of many productive collaborations between London Councils and #LondonHE.
 
Following a meeting with our heads of institutions on 08 April, we sent our draft responses out to various network members for the two DfE consultations that are currently live on (i) HE Reform and (ii) the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE). We’ll be collating your edits until COP on 29 April, after which time we’ll prepare the final versions of our responses for submission on 06 May.
 
On the same day, we’ll no doubt also be digesting the results of the 2022 London local elections, being held this year on 05 May, with all London borough councillor seats up for election as well as mayoral elections in Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Croydon.
 
With growing concerns about the cost of living, escalating tensions in Ukraine and the shadow of ‘Partygate’, we are keen our sector’s asks do not get lost and, so, are getting ready to launch our new #LondonIsLocal campaign next week  to ensure our newly-elected London councillors and mayors are aware of our sector’s strengths and capacity to transform the lives of individuals and local communities. To participat in this campaign, please contact Chloe Bukata on  Chloe.bukata@londonhigher.ac.uk.
 
I look forward to working with you to raise awareness of the transformative power of #LondonHE!

This month’s policy update comes from Sally Burtonshaw, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at London Higher. 

Over the last few weeks the London Higher Policy Team has been living and breathing the DfE Consultations on HE Reform and the LLE. We have recently shared our draft consultation responses with the membership and are keen to hear feedback, reflections and comments on how we can best represent the full diversity of London HE before the final submission on the 06 May. Please share your feedback before Friday 29 April so we can embed this into our final response.

In addition to our publicly available Briefing Note on the proposals, I wanted to share some of the key points from our consultation responses:


Financial Sustainability – Despite arriving in the form of a statement rather than a consultation, we remain concerned about the real term cuts in income in the form of the tuition fee freeze. This comes on top of the loss of London Weighting for institutions in the capital. In addition, we have queried whether London will get fair and equal access to the Stategic Priorities Fund (SPF).
Student Number Controls (SNCs) – We have rejected proposals for SNCs, which double down on the problems we have highlighted in the earlier OfS consultations around a narrow framing of ‘value’ as well as having a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged students. SNCs also risk closing off pathways for study without alternatives, as building vocational and technical qualifications remain an aspiration rather than a reality. 
 
Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MERs) - We have also rejected MERs, highlighting that restricting access to the student loan book is, in essence, imposing entry requirements on the sector and it is disingenuous to suggest otherwise. MERs will have a disproportionate and we argue, unjustifiable impact upon students with protected characteristics, including Black students and those with SEND, who have lower GCSE and A Level attainment.
 
Foundation Years – We welcome the retention of Foundation Years as a critical part of the HE ecosystem, a pathway for disadvantaged learners and a building block of the government's ‘Levelling Up’ agenda. We call for funding levels to be retained in line with undergraduate provision in order to support Foundation Year students to achieve positive outcomes in HE.
 
National Scholarship Scheme – we welcome additional funding for disadvantaged learners but seek clarity on ‘disadvantage’ and ‘high academic attainment’ as criteria for accessing the fund.
Level 4 and 5 Courses – We welcome the growth of Level 4 and 5 provision across all areas, including existing and future HE provision. Further research needs to be done on the needs of learners and employers, and suggest regionally and locally specific pilot programmes.
 

This month’s networks update comes from Darren de Souza, Policy and Projects Officer at London Higher. 

With the DfE consultations on HE Reform and the LLE taking centre stage over the past month, London Higher’s networks have continued to be instrumental in developing a holistic response to proposals, providing a space in which members have been able to freely discuss the consultations in relation to key strategic areas. This was a clear focus at 17 March’s meeting of the EDI Network, as the consultations’ implications for equality, diversity and inclusion in higher education were examined, notably Student Number Controls and Minimum Eligibility Requirements.

 
18 March was a fantastic demonstration of London Higher’s convening power, as Paul Scully MP, Minister for London and Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets, joined a meeting of the London Higher Research Excellence Network. The Minister talked with members on issues including the Levelling Up agenda as relates to London, HE’s role in post-pandemic recovery, and the global appeal of UK universities and research-performing organisations.  
 
On 22 March the Sustainability Network heard from Shakespeare Martineau on campus decarbonisation and retrofitting, before considering London HE’s role in pioneering a better urban food system; this will be the focus of London Higher and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s ‘Circular Food for Campus’ sprint workshop in June. A double-header of meetings on 22 March was rounded off by the Teaching and Learning Network, with a fascinating discussion on current challenges to assessment practice and possibilities for assessment going forwards. We are grateful to Professor Tansy Jessop, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at the University of Bristol, for presenting to the Network and for kickstarting a conversation on shifting away from a ‘transactional’ assessment paradigm.
 
Term 2B was brought to a close with a meeting of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Network on 08 April, which centred on the important issue of safeguarding within higher education institutions.

We would like to place on record our sincere thanks to all our members and invited speakers; Term 2’s meetings have been truly enriched by forthright discussion, institutional insight and collaborative spirit. We look forward to meetings of our Civic, Sustainability, Centres and Policy Networks as we welcome the merry month of May!
 
If you would like to discuss any of our networks, please contact Sally at sally.burtonshaw@londonhigher.ac.uk  or find her on twitter @SallyBurtonshaw, or Darren at darren.desouza@londonhigher.ac.uk or find him on twitter @darren_desouza.

This month’s Chair’s blog comes Darren De Souza, Project and Policy Officer at London Higher, and co-ordinator of the Global Majority Mentoring Programme at London Higher.

London Higher was proud to officially launch our Global Majority Mentoring Programme at our new Offices at Woburn House on Friday 25 March. As an organisation, we are committed to helping to embed equality, diversity and inclusion throughout our work and our membership. Our EDI Network provides invaluable impetus to this, and we recognise that we cannot simply facilitate conversations around these themes; we must contribute meaningfully to the development of a more just higher education sector and capital city.
 
 
The Global Majority Mentoring Programme represents London Higher’s commitment to facilitating progress in this sphere, and it follows on from 2020/21’s North London Leadership Programme (NLLP), a positive action mentoring scheme for Black, Asian and minority ethnic academics and professional services staff run by London Metropolitan University and City, University of London. The NLLP was led by Amaechi Echedolu, Training Officer and Co-Chair of the BAME Staff Network at London Met. Amaechi and I are coordinating the delivery of this pan-London pilot.
 
London Higher and London Met are keen to support the capital’s HE sector to build the pipeline of academic and professional services staff from the global majority across all levels of institutions. By opening access to this programme to the wider London Higher membership we aim to:
 

• Provide an effective platform for improving career progression for global majority staff by matching mentees with mentors who are also from global majority backgrounds.
• Broaden pan-London collaboration with cross-institutional matching, giving mentees a space to seek tailored and confidential support from a mentor outside their own institution.
• Facilitate the opportunity to network with other professionals from the global majority working at institutions across the capital.

 
Amaechi said “The programme will give participants the chance to explore professional challenges, reflect on career progress and develop personal career goals and hear from a wide range of exciting speakers and engage in discussion on topics relevant to those working in London HE. We are thrilled to have started.”
 
We are grateful to programme sponsors Minerva, who will lead one of the programme’s networking sessions; we are excited to work together to diversify the talent pipeline. Running alongside participants’ one-to-one mentoring sessions, we hope that these will spark conversation and collaboration.
 
The launch event was the culmination of months of behind-the-scenes work to develop a framework that seeks to build a more diverse and representative higher education sector in London, and it was inspiring to see participating mentees and mentors engage so enthusiastically after a comprehensive matching process. It was also, however, a springboard that we hope will provoke introspection and a wider examination of equitable practices across our membership, so that talented staff from global majority backgrounds are empowered to succeed and lead within London HE and beyond.
 
For more information on the London Higher Global Majority Mentoring Programme, please email Darren de Souza at darren.desouza@londonhigher.ac.uk.
 

AccessHE is using the spring vacation to look ahead to the final term of the academic year and a lot of work to look forward to with schools and higher education institutions. As well as our AccessHE forum meetings, which will be restarting in the last week of April for their third round. The Disability Forum will be holding a follow-up event to its successful roundtable discussion of library services’ relationship with disability, and planning future work on assistive technology and e-learning resources. We also have collaborative work from the Student Ambassador and Research, Monitoring and Evaluation forums to look forward to, working on best practice for using student ambassadors in evaluation activities. With London schools and young people, we have transitions and careers work ready to start in the summer term, covering everything from medicine to the creative arts.
 
There is also new research and employment skills projects for computer and data science in the pipeline – watch this space for more information on those in future newsletters.

This month’s AccessHE update comes from Emily Dixon, London Programmes and Communications Coordinator at AccessHE