Category: Blog

  • New HEPI Report: Rethinking student voice: how can higher education design effective student governance?

    New HEPI Report: Rethinking student voice: how can higher education design effective student governance?

    Author:
    Darcie Jones

    Published:

    The new report Rethinking Student Voice: How higher education must design effective student governance (HEPI Report 195), written by Darcie Jones exposes a key issue within university governance: the marginalisation of student governors.

    With financial pressures intensifying across the sector, thee stakes for effective governance have never been higher. Yet, despite being core stakeholders within universities, many students on governing boards feel sidelined by opaque processes and exclusive norms. The evidence within this report reveals a persistent gap between symbolic representation and meaningful participation.

    However it’s not all bad news, the report also highlights what is possible when the student voice is taken seriously. Using examples of effective practice it demonstrates the transformation value of empowered student governance.

    Drawing on extensive evidence and sector insights, the report sets out clear, actionable reforms – from accessible governance culture, to improved recruitment, induction and development. They provide a pathway from why student perspectives and voices can be embedded at the heart of decision-making within universities.

    You can read the press release and access the full report here.

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  • 10 of the Best School Marketing Ideas to Boost Enrollment in 2025

    10 of the Best School Marketing Ideas to Boost Enrollment in 2025

    Reading Time: 16 minutes

    In today’s highly competitive education landscape, schools at every level, from K–12 academies to public universities, must embrace modern, digital-first marketing strategies to attract and retain students. The era of relying solely on word-of-mouth or physical brochures is long gone. Today’s families and prospective students are browsing school websites, scrolling through social media, and watching virtual campus tours before they fill out an inquiry form or attend an open house.

    To stay relevant and competitive in 2025 and beyond, schools need to meet their audiences where they are: online. That means showing up with targeted, compelling content and a clearly articulated value proposition. This is especially true for private and independent institutions, where high tuition fees and rising parental expectations demand a more persuasive, proactive approach to enrollment marketing.

    So, how can your school stand out in an increasingly crowded space?

    In this article, we break down 10 of the most effective marketing strategies for schools, with a strong emphasis on digital tactics. From strengthening your web presence to leveraging alumni stories and optimizing for SEO, these proven approaches help build awareness, trust, and engagement. Each strategy includes real-world examples from schools and colleges around the world to inspire your next campaign.

    Whether you’re marketing a small language institute or a large university, these strategies are adaptable to your goals and designed to drive results.

    Struggling with enrollment and retention?

    Our innovative marketing strategies can help you generate more leads.

    1. Understand Your Audience and Craft Your Message

    A strong school marketing strategy begins with clarity: who exactly are you trying to reach, and what do they need to hear from you? Whether you’re a K–12 school or a higher ed institution, knowing your audience inside and out is essential. That means digging deeper than just age or location. Consider their priorities, concerns, motivations, and communication preferences.

    Creating audience personas helps bring these insights to life. Is your ideal family looking for academic rigor, a supportive community, or flexible scheduling? Are your prospective students career changers seeking fast-track credentials, or teens drawn to innovation and student life? When you define who you’re speaking to, you can tailor your messaging to resonate and avoid generic outreach that falls flat.

    Your next step is to articulate your school’s unique value proposition. What makes you different? Highlight that core message consistently across all channels. For some schools, it might be small class sizes and a nurturing environment. For others, it could be career outcomes, cutting-edge labs, or global learning opportunities.

    Finally, data can deepen your understanding of your audience. Track behavior, segment leads, and personalize your outreach accordingly. The more relevant your message, the more likely it is to convert.

    Example: Oregon State University (OSU). OSU’s enrollment team uses a CRM (Slate) to segment prospective students by factors like academic interests, intended majors, and geographic location. This lets OSU deliver tailored messages to each audience segment. For example, sharing engineering content with STEM-interested prospects or inviting nearby students to local events. By defining clear audience personas and emphasizing OSU’s unique offerings (like its “Beaver Nation” community and research opportunities) in communications, OSU ensures its outreach resonates more and converts better than one-size-fits-all marketing.

    HEM Image 2 (1)HEM Image 2 (1)

    Source: Oregon State University

    In a nutshell, how do you create a marketing strategy for a school? A strong school marketing strategy starts by defining your goals and audience, then clarifying your unique value proposition. Choose the right channels: website, SEO, social media, email, events, etc., all while keeping messaging consistent. Implement your plan, track performance with analytics, and adjust as needed to improve enrollment results.

    2. Turn Your Website into a Top-Performing Recruiter

    Your school’s website is more than just a digital brochure. It’s your hardest-working recruiter, available 24/7. In most cases, it’s the first real impression you make on prospective students and their families. If it’s outdated, hard to navigate, or slow to load, visitors may bounce before they ever reach your inquiry form. On the other hand, a fast, intuitive, and compelling site can drive real results: inquiries, campus visit bookings, and applications.

    To make your website enrollment-friendly, focus on these key areas:

    • Navigation and user experience: Make it easy for visitors to find what matters most: admissions, tuition, programs, and deadlines, within one or two clicks. Prioritize clarity and mobile optimization, since the majority of users now browse on their phones.
    • Engaging content: Use vibrant photos, student stories, and program highlights to showcase your school’s personality and value. Don’t just state facts; tell stories that build emotional connection.
    • Clear CTAs: Every page should lead users to the next step, whether it’s “Book a Tour” or “Start Your Application.” Make buttons visible, and forms short and intuitive.
    • SEO and visibility: Build search-friendly content using keywords like “STEM high school Toronto” or “MBA in Montreal.” This boosts your visibility when families search online.

    Example: South Seattle College. This college launched a fully redesigned, mobile-responsive website to serve as a “24/7 digital front door” for prospective students. The new site features simplified navigation (with intuitive menus and audience-specific landing pages), fast load times, and engaging content like student stories and virtual tour videos. Key information: admissions steps, programs, costs etc., is now accessible within one or two clicks. After the revamp, South Seattle College saw improved user engagement and more inquiries, validating that an optimized website can effectively guide visitors from interest to application.

    HEM Image 3 (1)HEM Image 3 (1)

    Source: South Seattle College

    3. Meet Students Where They Scroll: Social Media Engagement

    If you’re wondering how to effectively reach today’s students, social media is your answer. Teenagers, young adults, and even their parents spend hours every day scrolling through platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. That’s why a modern marketing strategy for schools must go beyond occasional polished posts. It also requires consistent, authentic, and engaging content that brings your school community to life online.

    Social media allows prospective students to virtually experience your school before they set foot on campus. They can witness student life, explore your values, and interact with your team through comments and DMs. It’s a space where schools can showcase achievements, run virtual events, answer questions, and create lasting impressions, all within the platforms students already use. Social media engagement fosters emotional connection, builds trust, and nudges prospective students closer to applying.

    Here are some proven tactics to strengthen your social media presence:

    • Student Takeovers: Give students the reins of your Instagram or TikTok for a day to showcase a “real life” perspective of your campus.
    • Interactive Campaigns: Launch challenges, quizzes, or hashtag contests to generate user content and boost engagement.
    • Alumni & Academic Outcomes: Share stories of success to inspire and build credibility with prospective students and their families.
    • Paid Targeted Ads: Reach niche audiences with specific messaging using Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok ad campaigns.
    • Responsive Community Management: Monitor comments and messages daily. Prompt, friendly responses go a long way in reinforcing your school’s reputation.

    Above all, be authentic. Today’s students crave realness. A spontaneous student dorm tour recorded on a phone often outperforms a high-production video. Showcasing your campus culture in a way that’s natural and not overly scripted can drive stronger connections and higher conversions.

    Example: Randolph-Macon Academy (R-MA). This college-prep boarding school brings campus life directly to student prospects through interactive social media campaigns. On Instagram, R-MA runs “Takeover Tuesday” events where a student cadet literally “takes over” the school’s Story for the day, posting candid glimpses of classes, dorm life, and activities. This unfiltered, student-eye view generates high engagement from peers. R-MA also leverages LinkedIn to celebrate outcomes with a recent post that 100% of its senior class earned college acceptances and over $15 million in scholarships. By showcasing real student experiences and achievements on the platforms teens (and their parents) already use, R-MA humanizes its brand and builds trust.

    HEM Image 4 (1)HEM Image 4 (1)

    Source: Facebook

    4. Bring Your Campus to Their Couch: Virtual Tours and Online Events

    For many families, a campus visit is a pivotal moment in the school decision process. It’s their chance to imagine themselves in your hallways, dorms, and classrooms. But not every prospective student can visit in person, whether due to distance, cost, or scheduling. This is where virtual tours and online events come into play, offering an immersive, flexible way to connect with your audience.

    Virtual campus tours can now offer interactive 360° experiences that let students “walk” the grounds from their laptop or phone. These tours help build familiarity and emotional connection, especially for international or out-of-state students who might otherwise never see your campus. To boost engagement, add clickable info points, video testimonials, or even voiceover guides.

    Online events like virtual open houses or themed webinars allow families to meet admissions teams, ask questions, and hear directly from current students, all from home. They not only replicate key elements of in-person experiences but also allow for on-demand access after the event.

    Example: Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU). ENMU launched an upgraded 360° virtual tour that lets prospective students explore the campus from anywhere in the world. This immersive tour includes interactive 360° views of key locations (from dorms to labs), pop-up info points with photos/videos of traditions, and even student-narrated segments sharing personal stories. A voiceover guide leads viewers through the experience, making it feel like an actual guided tour. ENMU’s chancellor noted the virtual tour “makes a potential student feel like they are on campus” and has become invaluable for out-of-state and international recruits. The tour’s engaging features (clickable videos, student testimonials embedded at certain stops) have driven higher web engagement and helped ENMU widen its reach beyond those able to visit in person.

    HEM Image 5 (1)HEM Image 5 (1)

    Source: ENMU

    5. Let Video Tell Your Story: Content Marketing That Connects

    There’s a reason platforms like YouTube, Instagram Reels, and TikTok dominate attention spans. Video provides an immersive, emotional, and memorable experience. For schools trying to reach prospective students and families, video marketing is one of the most powerful tools available. Whether it’s showcasing campus energy, highlighting academic strengths, or sharing personal student journeys, video content brings your story to life in a way text and photos simply can’t.

    To make the most of this format, consider these video types:

    • Campus Tour Highlights: Condense your full tour into a 2–3 minute walkthrough with student narration. Post it on your homepage and YouTube channel for first-time visitors.
    • Student Testimonials and Success Stories: Capture authentic, unscripted interviews with students or alumni. These peer voices create trust and make your school’s impact tangible.
    • Faculty and Program Spotlights: Let your passionate educators shine. A quick feature on a robotics project or an art studio session can attract students with similar interests.
    • Event Recaps: Turn school events into fast-paced highlight reels for Instagram and Facebook. It shows your community is vibrant and active.
    • Explainer Videos: Break down complex topics, like admissions or financial aid, into short, helpful animations or on-camera guides.

    Authenticity beats polish. Videos filmed on smartphones by students or “vlog ambassadors” can feel more relatable than professional productions. Consistent content, especially when optimized with keywords on YouTube, also improves discoverability in search.

    Example: Academy of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences (AAPS, Canada). AAPS relies heavily on short-form video content to showcase student life and outcomes viscerally. The college regularly produces “Student Success Story” videos – for example, a 2-minute clip of an alum describing how AAPS training led to their new career in clinical research. It also shares behind-the-scenes footage of lab sessions and student projects on its YouTube channel and Instagram. These authentic clips (often featuring actual students and instructors) put a human face on AAPS’s programs and build credibility.

    HEM Image 6 (1)HEM Image 6 (1)

    Source: YouTube

    In short, video marketing allows your school to connect emotionally and visually with prospective students, meeting them where they already spend time. If you want to advertise in a way that engages and inspires, video is essential.

    6. Be There 24/7 with Smart Chatbots and Live Chat

    Imagine a student browsing your website at midnight, wondering, “Does this college offer scholarships for international students?” If no one’s there to answer, that potential lead might bounce and never return. This is where chatbots and live chat tools step in, transforming your website into a 24/7 support hub.

    Modern AI-powered chatbots go far beyond basic FAQ responses. They’re now capable of delivering personalized answers based on user input, guiding visitors to the right pages, and capturing lead information in real time. In fact, some bots can handle up to 80% of standard inquiries, freeing your admissions team to focus on complex cases or high-touch prospects.

    Schools use chatbots to address questions about tuition, program options, campus life, deadlines, and more. Better still, if a query goes beyond the bot’s programming, it can prompt a human follow-up, keeping the conversation going instead of losing the lead.

    Live chat is another powerful layer. Having staff available during business hours to chat in real time, whether on your site or via Messenger, feels like having a front-desk greeter online. Quick answers build trust and reduce friction in the inquiry process.

    Example: Arlington Central School District (New York). This K–12 district rolled out an AI virtual assistant named “AlwaysOn – Admiral Al” across all its school websites to ensure families can get information anytime. The friendly chatbot (branded with the high school’s mascot) offers 24/7 multilingual support, answering common questions about programs, enrollment procedures, event schedules, and more in English or Spanish. If the question is too specific, “Admiral Al” even lets the user submit an email query right within the chat, guaranteeing a human follow-up by the next business day. The district implemented this tool to improve customer service for busy parents and saw immediate benefits – families could instantly find out, say, how to register a new student or the date of graduation, without calling the office.

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    Source: Arlington Central School District

    To make your chatbot successful, keep it friendly and transparent (let users know it’s a virtual assistant), program it with up-to-date FAQs, and offer a handoff to a real person when needed. For international recruitment, consider a multilingual bot to expand your global accessibility.

    Ultimately, integrating chatbot and live chat tools into your school’s marketing strategy ensures you never miss a lead because of timing. Today’s students expect immediate answers. With the right tools, your school can be ready.

    7. Leverage Testimonials and Reviews (Let Your Community Do the Talking)

    Word-of-mouth has long been a trusted marketing strategy for schools, and in today’s digital world, it has taken on new forms, testimonials, reviews, and social proof. These are powerful tools that lend credibility to your school’s messaging by showing that real families and students have had positive experiences.

    Start by gathering testimonials from students and parents. A few genuine quotes or short videos can build trust quickly. Display these across your website, especially on admissions pages and brochures. A heartfelt statement like, “After enrolling here, my daughter blossomed academically and socially,” resonates more than polished ad copy.

    In parallel, encourage online reviews on platforms like Google or Facebook. Higher ratings improve visibility and ease prospective families’ doubts. Politely prompt current families to share feedback after positive experiences, such as school events or parent meetings.

    Social media also plays a role. Repost authentic student or alumni praise, and consider launching hashtags to gather testimonials organically.

    Example: Discovery Community College (Canada). This career college amplifies positive word-of-mouth by actively sharing student reviews on social media. For example, Discovery CC monitors its Google Reviews, and when a 5-star review comes in, the marketing team creates an Instagram post thanking the student by name and highlighting their feedback. One such post reads: “Thank you for your wonderful Google review, Jessi! We’re glad you had an amazing experience training to be a health care assistant!” – accompanied by a screenshot of the review. By publicly celebrating real student voices, the college not only boosts morale but also provides authentic social proof to prospective students scrolling by.

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    Source: Instagram

    Letting your community advocate for you builds trust faster than any ad campaign, and it costs nothing.

    8. Nurture Leads with Email Marketing and Personal Touches

    What is the best marketing for independent schools? Independent schools succeed with targeted, budget-friendly inbound marketing. The best approach is a strong online presence: a content-rich, search-optimized website, active social media that highlights student life, and helpful emails or blogs that build trust. These tactics attract the right families and strengthen community engagement.

    Once an inquiry is made, the follow-up becomes mission-critical. One of the most effective marketing strategies for schools includes consistent, personalized nurturing, especially through email and SMS.

    Email remains a powerful tool when tailored. Instead of generic blasts, use segmentation to send relevant content. For instance, a prospect interested in Nursing should receive a series featuring faculty profiles, student success in healthcare, and clinical placement details. Someone focused on Athletics? Highlight sports facilities, team achievements, and balancing academics with sports.

    Drip campaigns work best: Day 1, a welcome email; Day 3, value-focused content; Day 7, a testimonial or event invite. Marketing automation tools like HubSpot or Mailchimp make this scalable and adaptive based on user behavior.

    Complement email with timely SMS reminders for events or deadlines. Use sparingly for impact.

    Finally, add a personal touch. A call or handwritten note after a campus visit or audition can leave a lasting impression. These gestures build trust and demonstrate care, key ingredients in a family’s final decision. Effective nurturing turns interest into action and inquiries into enrollments.

    Example: University of South Carolina (USC). USC’s admissions team adds a decidedly personal touch to lead nurturing by picking up the phone to congratulate admitted students. These informal chats help admitted students feel valued and give them a chance to voice any concerns. USC also involves faculty and current students in the follow-up process; for instance, an admitted engineering major might get an email or call from an engineering professor or student ambassador.

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    Source: Facebook

    9. Host Events (On-Campus and Virtual) That Educate and Inspire

    Hosting well-crafted events is one of the most effective ways to turn interest into enrollment. On-campus events like open houses and shadow days allow families to experience your community firsthand. Keep them interactive, offer student-led tours, informal chats with faculty, and performances to showcase school spirit. These real-world interactions make your school more memorable.

    Virtual events also carry weight, especially for international or out-of-town prospects. Live webinars, themed Q&A panels, and online workshops let families connect from anywhere. Consider sessions like “How to Write a Great Application Essay” or alumni panels sharing career outcomes.

    Each event is also a content opportunity. Record webinars, collect quotes, and share visuals across your channels. Personalized follow-ups (“Thanks for attending, here’s what’s next”) help nurture those leads further.

    Example: University of North Texas (UNT). UNT offers an array of admissions events designed to welcome and inform prospective students, including both in-person programs and online sessions. One flagship initiative is the UNT Admissions Webinar Series – live virtual information sessions “designed just for students who haven’t applied yet.” These free webinars walk attendees through what makes UNT unique, tips on the application process, and key deadlines, all from the comfort of home. Admissions counselors appear on camera to answer questions in real time, so participants leave with personalized info and confidence about next steps. For those who can visit campus, UNT also hosts large open-house events like “UNT Preview,” a conference-style open day with academic fairs, tours, and even an on-site Application Station where students can apply and get the fee waived.

    HEM Image 10 (1)HEM Image 10 (1)

    Source: University of North Texas

    10. Showcase Outcomes and Alumni Success (Paint the Long-Term Picture)

    When families invest in an education, whether paying private tuition or college fees, they want proof that it leads to success. That’s why one of the most compelling marketing strategies for schools is to showcase outcomes. You’re not just selling a school experience; you’re selling what it makes possible.

    For K–12 and college-prep institutions, highlight metrics like college acceptance rates and scholarship totals. Randolph-Macon Academy (R-MA), for example, proudly advertises a 100% college acceptance rate and over $15 million in scholarship offers for its 2025 graduates. That kind of evidence quickly signals ROI to prospective families.

    Example: Randolph-Macon Academy (R-MA). R-MA prominently advertises its student outcomes to give families confidence in the long-term ROI of its program. For example, the academy proudly announced that 100% of its Class of 2025 earned college acceptances, collectively securing over $15 million in scholarships and 18 appointments to prestigious U.S. Service Academies. This kind of outcome data is highlighted on R-MA’s website and social media, signaling to prospective parents that an R-MA education leads to tangible success. The school also regularly publishes lists of colleges and universities its graduates attend (Ivies, top public universities, military academies, etc.), and shares alumni spotlights – like profiles of graduates who have become pilots, doctors, or entrepreneurs. By showcasing these results, R-MA helps future students (and their parents) visualize their own potential trajectory and trust that the tuition investment will pay off in opportunities.

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    Source: LinkedIn

    Vocational or language schools should spotlight relevant results: job placement rates, certifications earned, or skill development gains.

    Don’t just rely on stats. Share alumni stories that reflect diverse paths: scientists, entrepreneurs, activists, artists. Feature them on your blog or social channels, and invite them to participate in webinars or info sessions.

    On your website, dedicate a section to “Success After Graduation,” including employer logos, testimonials, or infographics. And use social media to celebrate alumni news. These stories build credibility, trust, and vision, which help future students imagine their path through your school.

    Turning Strategy into Enrollment Success

    In today’s dynamic and competitive education landscape, schools can no longer rely on traditional tactics or word-of-mouth alone. To thrive, they need a strategic, student-centric marketing approach that speaks to modern families across digital platforms. The ten strategies outlined in this article, from optimizing your website and leveraging social media to showcasing alumni outcomes, offer a blueprint for schools to increase visibility, build trust, and convert interest into enrollment.

    Whether you’re a K–12 academy, career college, language school, or university, the key is to meet prospective students where they are, communicate your unique value clearly, and guide them confidently through their decision-making journey. When implemented with authenticity and consistency, these strategies not only help fill seats, they strengthen your school’s brand and foster lasting relationships with students and families. In short, great marketing helps the right students find their right-fit school.

    Struggling with enrollment and retention?

    Our innovative marketing strategies can help you generate more leads.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Question: How do you create a marketing strategy for a school?

    Answer: A strong school marketing strategy starts by defining your goals and audience, then clarifying your unique value proposition. Choose the right channels: website, SEO, social media, email, events, etc., all while keeping messaging consistent. Implement your plan, track performance with analytics, and adjust as needed to improve enrollment results.

    Question: What is the best marketing for independent schools?

    Answer: Independent schools succeed with targeted, budget-friendly inbound marketing. The best approach is a strong online presence: a content-rich, search-optimized website, active social media that highlights student life, and helpful emails or blogs that build trust. These tactics attract the right families and strengthen community engagement.



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  • University lands: mapping risks and opportunities for the UK higher education sector (Part 2)

    University lands: mapping risks and opportunities for the UK higher education sector (Part 2)

    Join HEPI tomorrow (Thursday 11 December 2025) from 10am to 11am for a webinar on how universities can strengthen the student voice in governance to mark the launch of our upcoming report, Rethinking the Student Voice. Sign up now to hear our speakers explore the key questions.

    This blog, kindly authored by Thomas Owen-Smith, Principal Consultant, William Phillips, Data Analyst, and Pippa Wisbey, Consultant, all of at SUMS Consulting, is part of a three-part mini series on UK universities’ approaches to land use.

    Today’s blog focuses on risks. You can find part one of this series, which introduces the work, here.

    The risk landscape

    Most readers will be familiar with the current conditions for the UK’s universities. Proximate financial risks – potentially existential for some institutions – understandably focus minds on the here and now.

    Whatever system emerges from the current turmoil will need to be more resilient than what it replaces.

    While the gathering risks in the economic and geopolitical theatre are familiar, on longer horizons – and let’s remember that many universities like to emphasise their longevity of foundation and core mission – the greatest risks are those stemming from the disruption to world’s climate and natural systems.

    These risks are generally slow onset. Until they become acute, causing loss, damage and danger to human health and safety.

    Solely the “physical” risks that we have modelled may cause hundreds of millions of pounds of loss and damage to universities each year (estimated at a potential £166.8m annually, based on moderate estimates), as extreme weather becomes more frequent.

    These do not account for “transition risks” and “systemic risks”, which have less direct linkages to physical location and would manifest in disruption to their supply chains, national infrastructure and so on.

    While impacts of extreme weather would likely be spread across multiple institutions, financial impacts of this order are material – particularly for those institutions which are most exposed.

    Climate impacts might manifest not only in damage to buildings and other infrastructure, but also loss of valuable equipment and disruption to critical business – carrying further costs for institutions – and impacts on the health, wellbeing and safety of their staff and students. Insurance costs are also expected to rise, and in the most exposed cases, some assets may become uninsurable.

    Securing future resilience is therefore very much a long-term game.

    Mapping risks

    Physical risksrelate most closely to the location (“exposure”) of assets. As hazards (storms, heatwaves and the like) become more frequent and more severe, loss, damage and costs increase – further exacerbated by institutions’ vulnerabilities.

    Using our mapping tool, institutions can explore both observed patterns of temperature and rainfall at their location, and modelled patterns for 2C and 4C of global temperature rise – both plausible scenarios for the second half of this century.

    They can also explore datasets containing granular local-level data around flood risk and heat islands. While these have not yet been modelled for future climate conditions, it is safe to assume that flooding and extreme heat events will become more frequent and more extreme, as winters become wetter and summers hotter and drier across most of the country.

    Under current conditions, 197.5 hectares (ha), constituting 3.2% of mapped lands are at high or medium risk from flooding, while 4,102.1 ha (or 64.2%) are at high or medium risk of extreme heat stress.

    The instances where floods or extreme heat risk incurring the greatest costs for institutions, is where their built estate is in high-risk areas. By our mapping, 92.1 ha (or 1.4%) of university estates are areas where high or medium flood risk coincides with built environment; and 2,898.6 ha (or 45.4%) are built environment with high or medium heat risk.

    Of course, flood risk and heat islands are not totally independent variables from land cover. Built areas can exacerbate both flood risk by reducing the scope for water absorption, and heat islands due to their high retention of heat compared to non-built surfaces.

    Responding and adapting to risks

    Many institutions have already begun to respond to climate and environmental risks, and sector organisations have developed guidance on adaptation and resilience.

    Those institutions that haven’t yet done so can use our mapping tool as an initial pointer to frame detailed site-specific risk and vulnerability assessments. Following UK Government guidance, we recommend using scenarios of 2C and 4C global temperature rise.

    Better understanding of this picture for the specifics of university sites will also allow for options assessment around adaptation measures (including land-based approaches such as increased areas of non-built space or green infrastructure) to mitigate heat island effects; or if it is unavoidable, manage conditions of high heat through more cooling (which brings increased energy use).

    The same stands for institutions that have a large built area in flood-prone zones. Understanding the current risk (which is likely to be on the radar already for many of these institutions) and how it might develop with the changing climate opens into exploring options for response. Nature-based solutions such as extending wetlands or porous ground surfaces can potentially mitigate flood risks in some areas. That said, institutions may wish to consider relocating valuable equipment, high-use areas or strategic activities if situated at the most risky sites.

    While adaptation will carry upfront costs for institutions, national-level modelling indicates that the projected costs of loss and damage without adaptation will be substantially greater, and most adaptation measures have a high benefit to cost ratio if they are undertaken in good time.

    In other words, spending sooner will save later.

    The bigger picture

    In the big picture, reducing the risks around increased exposure to physical hazards also underlines the necessity for every organisation to reduce its own impacts on climate change and nature loss – the ultimate drivers of the deteriorating risk environment.

    In part 3 of this mini-series, we will explore opportunities that universities’ estates may offer to do that, some of which also offer other benefits to institutions’ financial position and core mission.

    SUMS Consulting will host a webinar from 11:00 to 12:00 on Thursday 22 January 2026. The webinar will include a walkthrough of the report and online tool, and panel discussion featuring Nick Hillman OBE (Director of HEPI). Register here.

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  • 34 Effective Student Engagement Strategies to Boost Learning

    34 Effective Student Engagement Strategies to Boost Learning

    Introduction: Why student engagement strategies matter

    For instructors, it’s clear when student engagement strategies are needed, especially when facing blank stares, eyes focused on cell phones, and a lack of participation. These are telltale signs that students are not engaged during class. But why is student engagement so important? Student engagement is a broad concept that encompasses both the physical and psychological energy students dedicate to learning, as well as their motivation and emotional connection to academic material.

    This article covers 34 student engagement strategies suitable for any college-level course, intended for instructors seeking practical tips and research-backed guidance on building classroom engagement. As a comprehensive guide to boosting student engagement, it highlights collaborative learning and digital interaction as key approaches to increase participation, understanding and enjoyment in both online and traditional educational settings.

    Audience: This guide is designed for college instructors and educators who want to address disengagement and improve learning outcomes in their courses.

    Why strategies matter: Student engagement is crucial for academic success and overall learning outcomes. Higher levels of student engagement are associated with improved academic performance. Engaged students are more likely to persist in their studies and achieve their educational goals. Engagement in learning activities enhances students’ motivation to learn—and students who are engaged in their learning are more likely to develop critical thinking skills.

    Key benefits of student engagement:

    • Fosters critical thinking and deeper understanding
    • Improves academic performance and learning outcomes
    • Increases student persistence and achievement of educational goals
    • Enhances motivation and sense of belonging

    In an era where technology permeates virtually every aspect of our lives, distractions are an ever-present concern. And this means that engagement strategies for students are becoming even more essential in modern college courses. So how do instructors build learning environments that are engaging, lively and motivated? They have to incorporate strategies to build community, connection and a love of learning.

    Engaged students are typically more curious about a subject—perhaps even more passionate about it. Encountering new ideas can spark motivation and lead to deeper engagement, as students find joy in exploring innovative concepts and approaches. Increasing student engagement is crucial for enhancing students’ confidence, comprehension, and overall learning experiences. While some students may be motivated primarily by the pursuit of good grades, true engagement involves a desire to learn for its own sake and a deeper sense of intrinsic motivation. Increasing engagement can help improve student motivation and, in turn, boost student progress and achievement.

    Student engagement is closely linked to student achievement. Numerous studies have found that when instructors use strategies that are explicitly designed to get students’ attention—and to actively engage them in the learning process, including quick, low-order activities to hold students attention during brief periods of inactivity—test scores and graduation rates increase, and learning objectives are more likely to be met, which makes understanding how to engage students even more important for instructors.

    Here, we provide 34 strategies to bring creativity, collaboration and participation to your classroom.

    Table of contents

    1. How student engagement strategies can fit in your classroom
    2. What are student engagement strategies?
    3. Creating a positive classroom environment
    4. Student engagement strategies for your teaching
    5. Student engagement activities based on your curriculum
    6. Engagement strategies for critical thinking
    7. Giving students autonomy
    8. Student engagement strategies for assessments
    9. Classroom engagement strategies using your presentation skills
    10. Using technology to enhance learning
    11. Student engagement strategies to encourage collaboration
    12. Student engagement strategies to build communication skills
    13. Fostering deeper learning and understanding
    14. Conclusion: The lasting impact of student engagement
    15. References

    How student engagement strategies can fit in your classroom

    In a classroom where engagement is emphasized, students are asked to participate more rigorously in the learning process and sometimes even in course design. Lectures still exist, but they now incorporate multimedia, technology and class participation. In hybrid and online learning environments, this can mean polling, classwide discussions and competitive activities. Integrating digital tools such as laptops, tablets and videos directly into lesson content can further enhance student engagement and make lessons more dynamic and relevant to digitally literate students. These approaches are highly effective for boosting student engagement by increasing participation, understanding and enjoyment in both online and traditional educational settings. These engaging, relevant activities for students can energize your classroom and take learning to a new level, wherever it takes place.

    By engaging in hands-on activities, students learn to support, trust and listen to each other, while developing important skills like collaboration and communication—skills that can’t be learned from a textbook, interactive or not. Learning to get along with peers, for example, isn’t something you can pick up through memorization.

    Transition: Next, we’ll define what student engagement strategies are and explore key terms and approaches that underpin effective engagement in the college classroom.

    What are student engagement strategies?

    Student engagement strategies are activities, tactics and approaches that serve as a core educational practice for effective teaching. Educators can leverage these strategies during and after class to keep students invested in their learning. They can be used to increase active learning, participation and collaboration in the classroom—and can be everything from simple changes made in your next class to a complete revamp of your curriculum, course delivery and assessment methods.

    Key definitions and interconnections:

    • Active learning techniques include group work, inquiry, hands-on experiments and role-playing.
    • Using group work and collaboration gives students a welcome break from solo bookwork, allows them to express their ideas and provides opportunities to encounter and explore new ideas, which can deepen engagement.
    • Inquiry-based learning gives students ownership by allowing them to explore their own questions.
    • Creating a positive climate involves building strong teacher-student relationships and fostering a safe environment.
    • Engaging with students’ interests builds strong relationships and rapport while enhancing their learning experience.
    • Using varied active-learning strategies can engage a broader population of students.
    • Using diverse engagement opportunities can help reach students with varying learning preferences.

    The following strategies are effective methods for engaging diverse learners and can be adapted to fit various educational settings. Here are some creative strategies for engaging students in learning—ranging from small changes to more substantial pedagogical shifts.

    Transition: With these definitions in mind, let’s look at how to create a positive classroom environment as the foundation for engagement.

    Creating a positive classroom environment

    A positive classroom environment is the foundation for promoting student engagement and building a thriving learning community. When students feel welcomed, respected and supported, they are more likely to participate actively and take ownership of their learning.

    Arranging the classroom for collaboration

    Teachers can foster this environment by thoughtfully arranging the classroom to encourage collaboration—such as grouping desks for small group work or creating spaces for student-led discussions. Displaying inspirational quotes and showcasing student work on classroom walls not only celebrates achievements but also helps students feel valued and connected to the learning process.

    Encouraging collaborative learning

    Encouraging collaborative learning is another key strategy. By providing opportunities for students to work together in small groups, teachers promote active participation and help students develop strong relationships with their peers. This sense of community makes students more comfortable sharing ideas and taking academic risks.

    Modeling positive interactions

    Teachers who model positive interactions and set clear expectations for respectful communication further contribute to a supportive classroom environment. Ultimately, a positive classroom climate is essential for keeping students engaged, motivated and eager to learn.

    Transition: Once a positive environment is established, instructors can implement specific engagement strategies in their teaching practice.

    Student engagement strategies for your teaching

    1. Active learning: Create a teaching and learning environment primed for student participation, such as calling on students to answer a question, individual reflection and group problem-solving. Encourage students to take on active roles in collaborative learning environments, where they can teach or practice concepts with their peers. When students explain concepts to other students, it not only reinforces the explainer’s understanding but also benefits the rest of the class by clarifying ideas and promoting inclusive participation. Incorporate open-ended questions that may have more than one correct answer, allowing students to demonstrate comprehension beyond simple recall. Be mindful that distractions and feelings of exclusion can impact students’ working memory and learning outcomes.

    Use case: Donna Smith, Instructor of Mathematics at Sierra College, used Top Hat to create a connected, engaging learning experience for students learning asynchronously. Leveraging Top Hat’s streamlined platform with features to customize course content, Smith uses more than 14 different question types to assess student learning as the course progresses. Next term, she plans to embed interactive questions between lecture videos, so students have the opportunity to practice course concepts right after learning them. Key takeaway: Flexibility and anonymity in questioning can support first-generation students and encourage participation.

    2. Participatory teaching: This student-centered approach to pedagogy accounts for the different skills, backgrounds and learning styles of students. The focus of participatory teaching is on self-regulation and self-reflection; specific strategies include using different teaching methods and varying means of assessment, which adds a greater level of flexibility, a key part of any engagement strategies for online learning. When asking questions, provide wait time to allow students to think and formulate thoughtful responses, which can enhance participation and engagement.

    3. Flip the classroom: Flip the traditional lecture-homework relationship. Students study the subject matter independently and outside class through tools such as pre-recorded videos. Class is then spent on student-centered learning such as working through problems, debating or group work. When engaging in group work, encourage students to collaborate on the same topic to enhance understanding and ensure everyone is included. After posing questions, allow students sufficient wait time to reflect before responding, which supports deeper engagement.

    4. Technology in the classroom: Students expect to be constantly connected and want immediate feedback. Online and mobile technology can be used to provide active learning activities and to keep students engaged outside the classroom.

    5. Classroom management strategies: Classroom strategies help instructors build a distraction-free environment. As an instructor, you can build in student engagement by asking learners to help shape classroom rules. As an activity in the first week of classes, decide on a set of shared values and create a set of guidelines, like active listening, what respectful disagreements look like and how to create a safe space for questions. Incorporate physical activity into the classroom to maintain engagement and alertness. Structure participation in such a way as to promote inclusivity and equitable involvement from all students. Design classroom environments to support students and their individual needs, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to succeed. Using humor throughout lessons lightens the mood and makes for a more enjoyable learning experience.

    6. Writing: Exercises such as journaling and one-minute papers can help keep students engaged in class as well as improve thinking skills. These activities allow students time to reflect and engage more deeply with the material.

    7. Culturally responsive teaching: This strategy ensures students see themselves reflected in course readings, activities and lesson plans. Faculty might bring in diverse guest speakers to give a lecture on a niche topic. Alternatively, educators might ensure a certain percentage of their required readings are authored by scholars from under-represented populations. Use relevant examples from students’ cultural backgrounds and real-life experiences to illustrate concepts and promote engagement.

    Transition: With foundational teaching strategies in place, the next step is to align engagement activities with your curriculum for maximum impact.

    Student engagement activities based on your curriculum

    Instructors can start lessons with engaging hooks to capture students’ interest and set the stage for active participation throughout the session.

    8. Set expectations: At the beginning of a course, ask students what they expect from you and then try to meet those expectations. Students are more engaged when they have a good relationship with the instructor. It’s also important to recognize and engage individual students, considering their unique learning experiences, characteristics and needs to promote equitable learning outcomes.

    9. Integrated curriculum: Combine disciplines rather than compartmentalizing subjects. Some medical schools, for example, have moved away from teaching subjects in isolation such as physiology and anatomy and moved toward studying organ systems where students learn the physiology and anatomy associated with that system.

    Use case: John Redden, Associate Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology at the University of Connecticut, is a long-time Top Hat user and has leveraged the platform to offer a consistent and equitable hybrid learning experience. Key takeaway: Giving students control over their schedules and diversifying teaching and assessment methods supports engagement and equity.

    10. Think-pair-share: Think-pair-share encourages students to work together to solve problems.

    • Students take a few moments of individual reflection to gather their thoughts on a given topic.
    • Then, have them discuss their thoughts with a peer.
    • Next, have the pair of students form a group with another pair and encourage the group of four to inquire about one another’s opinions.
    • Make sure all students share their ideas during group discussions to maximize participation and engagement.

    Download Now: The Best Classroom Activities for College Classes [Free]

    11. Make the course relevant: Students want courses to be relevant and meaningful. Use real-world examples to teach. Where the course is relevant to a specific occupation, ensure it’s aligned with the current needs of the occupation.

    12. Cooperative learning: Encourage students to work together by arranging them in partners or small groups to help them achieve learning goals. Group work can include assignments, discussions, reviews and lab experiments—even having students discuss a lesson with their peers.

    13. Authentic learning experiences: Encourage active engagement in the classroom by having students tackle real-world problems and attempt to come up with a solution through methods such as inquiry and experimentation. Ideally, the solution will benefit others or the community. Experiential learning—when students learn from reflecting on their real-world learning experience—is a further development of this, and is an effective teaching strategy.

    14. Social media: Potential uses for social media include sharing relevant content, posting instructional videos on YouTube and facilitating ongoing discussion groups. However, strict guidelines for use must be put in place and enforced.

    15. Quick writes: During each lesson, ask students to write down their questions, thoughts and points of clarification. This is an easy-to-implement way to encourage students to think critically and analytically about the course content.

    Transition: To further promote higher-order thinking, the next section focuses on engagement strategies for critical thinking.

    Engagement strategies for critical thinking

    Promoting critical thinking in the classroom is essential for deeper learning and academic achievement. Engagement strategies that encourage students to analyze, evaluate and synthesize information help them move beyond surface-level understanding.

    Techniques for fostering critical thinking

    • Ask open-ended questions that require students to justify their reasoning, interpret data, or solve real-world problems.
    • Incorporate real-world examples and case studies, prompting students to apply theoretical concepts to practical situations.
    • Use instructional strategies such as think-pair-share, jigsaw reading, and Socratic seminars to encourage discussion, debate and reflection on complex issues.
    • Require students to engage in thoughtful dialogue and collaborative problem-solving.

    By requiring students to engage in thoughtful dialogue and collaborative problem-solving, teachers help them develop the critical thinking skills needed for success in the modern age. These strategies not only increase student engagement but also foster a classroom culture where deeper learning and meaningful academic achievement are the norm.

    Transition: Empowering students with autonomy is another powerful way to enhance engagement, as explored in the next section.

    Giving students autonomy

    Empowering students with autonomy is a powerful way to enhance student engagement and motivation. When students are given choices in their learning process—such as selecting topics for projects, choosing how to present their work, or setting personal learning goals—they feel a greater sense of ownership and investment in their education. This sense of agency encourages students to take an active role in their learning environment, leading to deeper learning and understanding.

    Strategies for student autonomy

    • Provide learning menus, choice boards, or opportunities for self-directed projects.
    • Allow students to work at their own pace and reflect on their progress through self-assessment.
    • Support student autonomy to create a classroom environment where students are motivated to learn and achieve their best.

    Transition: Assessment is another key area where engagement strategies can make a significant difference, as detailed in the following section.

    Student engagement strategies for assessments

    16. Prepare for class before class: Students get more out of class time if they’re familiar with the material before they arrive. Exercises such as pre-class quizzes ensure they’re knowledgeable enough to contribute.

    17. Assess early and often: Frequent quizzes for formative assessment (for “fun”) work well alongside traditional midterm and final exams. Frequent testing reduces the temptation for students to cram and forces them to space out their learning, which leads to better retention. Having the first test within the first few classes also helps prevent students from falling behind—boosting student achievement early. Use formative assessments to hold students accountable for their learning, encouraging consistent participation and responsibility.

    18. Assess attendance: Student attendance can improve grades as well as engagement. Consider making attendance part of their overall assessment. Many learners enter university without proper study skills and first-year students can benefit from the structure of mandatory attendance.

    19. Problem-based or project-based learning: Students are tasked with solving a problem or completing a project, but the focus is on the end product, allowing students to determine what resources are needed to solve the problem or complete the project.

    Instructors should also regularly self assess their use of student engagement strategies, using tools like self-assessment tables, to identify which approaches they currently use and which could be adopted to improve classroom inclusion.

    Transition: Presentation skills and classroom delivery also play a vital role in engaging students, as discussed next.

    Classroom engagement strategies using your presentation skills

    20. Use visual representations: Engage students with animations, 3D representations and concept maps, all of which can help them visualize complex subjects. Instructors should also focus on paying attention to individual students’ engagement and needs when using visual tools, ensuring that every learner benefits from these strategies.

    21. Inquiry-based learning: To answer questions posed by the instructor or by the students themselves, a learner undertakes his or her own research to arrive at an answer. Inquiry-based learning can be as simple as watching video lectures, or more involvement could come from designing and performing an experiment. Encouraging participation from one student at a time during inquiry-based activities helps foster an inclusive environment where each individual feels valued and supported.

    22. Use simulations: Games or role-playing place students in an imaginary setting defined by the instructor, providing for an interactive, participatory learning experience.

    23. Tell stories: Wherever possible, tell stories to illustrate concepts when giving lectures. This helps students to process course concepts in their own words and move past rote memorization. For example, you might ask them to paraphrase a story or definition, explain a concept in their own words, tell a story that relates to it, or provide analogies to further illustrate a course concept. Encouraging one student at a time to share their perspective or story can promote inclusivity and ensure that every voice is heard.

    Use case: Steve Joordens, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, has devoted much of his career to the issue of student distraction and its ephemeral counterpart, student engagement. And if he’s learned one thing about engagement, it’s that there’s more than one way to foster it. So he set about trying to name the different techniques, which led Joordens to create a taxonomy of student engagement, complete with its own handy label: RIFS, an acronym for “Relevant, Interesting, Fun, Social.”

    Key takeaways:

    • Relevant: Answering the well-worn student grouse, “Why are we learning this?” Classroom activities such as problem-based or work-integrated learning can enhance any course material’s relevance.
    • Interesting: Personalized learning strategies in the classroom encourage students to take greater ownership over their own education, which develops a stronger sense of intrinsic motivation.
    • Fun: Making the classroom experience enjoyable helps keep students’ minds relaxed and open.
    • Social: Encouraging students to interact and learn from each other as well as from their instructors or their readings. Tactics such as response systems and peer assessments foster more social interaction in learning.

    Transition: Technology is another powerful tool for enhancing engagement, as explored in the next section.

    Using technology to enhance learning

    Integrating technology into the classroom is a highly effective way to boost student engagement and promote deeper learning. Technology offers students interactive and immersive experiences, such as virtual field trips, simulations, and educational games, which make learning more dynamic and memorable.

    Leveraging digital tools

    • Use online platforms to facilitate collaboration and communication, enabling students to participate in discussions, share resources and work together on projects regardless of location.
    • Provide students with real-time feedback, track progress, and identify areas where additional support is needed.
    • Encourage critical thinking and creativity by allowing students to explore complex ideas in innovative ways.

    By leveraging digital tools, teachers can create a learning environment that supports student engagement, fosters deeper learning and prepares students for success in the modern age.

    Transition: Collaboration is also essential for engagement—let’s look at strategies that encourage students to work together.

    Student engagement strategies to encourage collaboration

    24. Snowball discussions:

    • Continue combining groups until the class is back together
    • Randomly assign students in pairs with a discussion question.
    • After a few minutes, combine the pairs to form groups of four.
    • After another five minutes, combine groups of four to form a group of eight—and so on.

    25. Philosophical chairs:

    • Read a statement that has two possible answers—agree or disagree—out loud to your class.
    • Ask students to move to one side of the room or the other, depending on whether they agree or disagree with the statement.
    • Once all participants have selected a side, encourage students on either side to argue in favor of their position.
    • This way, students can visualize where their peers’ opinions lie, compared to their own.

    26. Affinity mapping:

    • Place students in small groups and pose a general question or problem to them that has many possible answers, such as “How would the history of the United States be different without Teddy Roosevelt” or “How would society be different if the Internet was never invented?”
    • Have students write their ideas on small index cards or on an online discussion thread.
    • After ten minutes, ask students to group their similar ideas into categories, then label the different groupings and discuss how each idea fits.
    • Suggest that students consider how the categories are related.
    • This allows students to participate in critical thinking by analyzing ideas and organizing them in relation to one another. 

    27. Concentric circles:

    • Ask students to form two circles: an inner circle and an outer circle.
    • Each student on the inside is paired with a student on the outside. Have them sit facing each other.
    • Pose a question to the broader group and ask the pairs to discuss their responses.
    • Have students on the outside circle move one space over after five minutes so they’re standing in front of a different peer.
    • Repeat the process for a few rounds, asking a new question each time and exposing students to their peers’ different perspectives.

    28. Make it personal:

    • After a lecture unit or lesson concludes, arrange learners into discussion groups or online breakout rooms.
    • To encourage students to reflect on their personal connections to the material they are learning, ask them questions like “How did this change your initial understanding of the concept” or “Describe your initial reaction to this idea.”

    29. Socratic seminar:

    • To prepare for a discussion, ask students to review a textbook chapter or a separate reading and develop higher-order thinking questions to pose to their peers.
    • During class, ask an open-ended question to introduce the activity.
    • Have students continue the conversation, encouraging their peers to use evidence-based claims, based on course concepts or texts.
    • Students are encouraged to share the floor with their peers, however, there doesn’t need to be a specific order for speaking.

    Transition: Communication skills are also vital for student success; the next section highlights strategies to build these skills.

    Student engagement strategies to build communication skills

    30. Brainwriting:

    • To build rapport and respect in your classroom, give students time to reflect on their learnings in writing, following a challenging course concept.
    • Using guided prompts or leaving it open to your students’ interpretation, have them share their thoughts and questions in a conversation with peers during class time or through an online discussion thread.
    • Knowing how to keep students engaged throughout the duration of class ensures that they will be able to understand course concepts on a deeper level.

    31. Concept mapping:

    • Collaborative concept mapping is a way of visually organizing concepts and ideas, in order to better understand how they are related.
    • In small groups, students can use this exercise to go over past work or to brainstorm ideas for future assignments and projects.
    • For face-to-face classes, have students place sticky notes and chart paper on the classroom walls.
    • For online classes, the digital whiteboard feature in Zoom allows students to map out ideas and connect concepts.

    32. Debate:

    • Pose an issue or topic to your class.
    • Place students into groups according to the position they hold on the topic.
    • Ask each group to develop some arguments or examples to support their opinion.
    • Put each group’s idea on a virtual whiteboard or piece of chart paper, to be a starting point for a classwide discussion.
    • To conclude, encourage students to debate the strengths and weaknesses of each group’s argument, to help students improve their higher-order thinking and analysis skills.

    33. Compare and contrast:

    • Place students into groups and ask them to focus on a specific chapter in their textbook.
    • Encourage them to find similarities and differences between ideas that can be found in course readings and external sources, like articles and videos they may find.
    • This way, students benefit from sharing resources and learning from one another’s perspectives.

    34. Assess/diagnose/act: This activity helps strengthen students’ problem-solving abilities and can spur more dynamic discussions. Propose a topic or controversial statement, then follow the steps below to start a discussion:

    1. Assessment: What is the main problem or issue?
    2. Diagnosis: What is its root cause?
    3. Action: How can we, as a group, solve the issue?

    Transition: To ensure these strategies lead to meaningful learning, it’s important to focus on fostering deeper understanding, as described in the next section.

    Fostering deeper learning and understanding

    To foster deeper learning and understanding, teachers must go beyond surface-level instruction and create opportunities for students to engage in critical thinking, analysis, and reflection.

    Combining direct instruction with practice

    • Combine direct instruction with guided and independent practice to help students build a strong foundation while encouraging them to apply new knowledge in meaningful ways.
    • Use scaffolding, think-alouds, and self-assessment to help students connect prior knowledge to new concepts and develop a deeper understanding.

    Making learning relevant

    • Incorporate real-world examples and case studies to make learning relevant and show students how their knowledge applies outside the classroom.
    • Use project-based learning, service-learning and experiential learning activities to give students hands-on opportunities to solve problems and make connections to the real world.

    These approaches not only increase student engagement but also help students develop essential skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication. By providing students with varied and authentic learning experiences, teachers support deeper learning and prepare students to thrive in the modern age.

    Transition: The following sources inform these strategies for engagement and deeper learning.

    Conclusion: The lasting impact of student engagement

    Student engagement is a broad concept that extends far beyond simple participation—it is the driving force behind meaningful learning, academic achievement, and the development of essential skills in individual students. When teachers encourage students to take an active role in the learning process, they create a classroom environment where collaborative learning, real-world applications and technology come together to make lessons relevant and memorable.

    Promoting student engagement requires a thoughtful blend of instructional strategies, such as think-pair-share, group work, and open-ended questions. These approaches not only hold students accountable for their learning but also encourage them to reflect on their understanding and connect course material to real-world situations. By providing students with relevant examples and opportunities to share their ideas, teachers help students feel valued and motivated to stay engaged.

    A supportive learning environment is central to increasing student engagement. When students feel included and respected, they are more likely to participate actively, think critically, and pursue deeper understanding. Engagement strategies that foster emotional engagement, critical thinking and active participation lead to higher levels of motivation, persistence and overall academic achievement.

    Teachers play a vital role in promoting student engagement by designing classroom activities that are interactive, inclusive and aligned with learning goals. By prioritizing collaborative learning and giving students the chance to take ownership of their education, educators can transform the classroom into a space where deeper learning and academic success are the norm.

    Ultimately, making student engagement a central idea in educational practice benefits both students and teachers. When learning is relevant, interactive and fun, students are more likely to thrive academically and reach their full potential. By following these engagement strategies and fostering a positive classroom environment, teachers can ensure that all students feel supported, motivated, and empowered to learn and grow—creating a lasting impact on their educational journey.

    References

    1. Ojalvo, H. E., & Doyne, S. Five Ways to Flip Your Classroom With The New York Times. [Blog post] New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2019 from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/five-ways-to-flip-your-classroom-with-the-new-york-times/
    2. Evans, C., Muijs, D. & Tomlinson, M. (2015). Engaged student learning: high-impact strategies to enhance student achievement. [White paper] Retrieved May 15, 2019 from: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/engaged-student-learning-high-impact-strategies-enhance-student-achievement
    3. Twelve Best Practices for Student Engagement and Retention. [White paper] Retrieved May 15, 2019 from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania: https://www.mansfield.edu/academic-affairs/upload/Twelve-Best-Practices-for-Student-Engagement-and-Retention-2012.pdf
    4. Quevillon, K. (2017). Student Attendance Matters, Even If Lectures Are Online. Ask Harvard. [Blog post] Retrieved May 15, 2019 from Top Hat Blog: https://tophat.com/blog/student-attendance-harvard/
    5. Inquiry-Based Learning. Retrieved May 15, 2019 from Queens’ University, Kingston: https://www.queensu.ca/ctl/teaching-support/instructional-strategies/inquiry-based-learning

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What exactly counts as “student engagement?”

    In this context, “student engagement” refers to students’ active participation and investment in their own learning. That includes not just attending class, but interacting with course content (e.g. doing readings, watching lectures), contributing in discussion, applying ideas to assignments or problem sets and reflecting on materials—whether in class, online, or during self-study.

    Why is engagement important—can’t students just passively learn by reading or listening?

    Research and teaching experience show that active engagement helps students better understand, retain, and apply concepts. Engaged students learn more deeply, develop critical thinking, and often perform better academically. Passive learning tends to result in poorer retention and less ability to apply knowledge outside the classroom.

    Which strategies work best for large lecture courses vs small seminars?

    Many engagement strategies can be adapted to both settings. For large lectures, tools like interactive polls, low-stakes quizzes, clicker questions, or online discussion boards help engage many students at once. In smaller seminars, group discussion, peer-review, collaborative assignments, or open discussion foster deeper interaction and student voice. Blended approaches—combining lecture, active learning, and ongoing formative assessments—often work well regardless of class size.

    How much time does it take for instructors to implement these engagement strategies?

    It depends on the strategy. Some activities like adding a quick in-class poll or discussion prompt may take only a few minutes. Others, like redesigning assignments around active learning or setting up peer review, require more planning up front. However, many instructors find the extra effort pays off: engaged students are often more motivated, more likely to participate, and may require less remedial support later on.

    Related pages

    Learn more about Top Hat’s student engagement software.

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  • University lands: mapping risks and opportunities for the UK higher education sector (Part 1)

    University lands: mapping risks and opportunities for the UK higher education sector (Part 1)

    This blog, kindly authored by Thomas Owen-Smith, Principal Consultant at SUMS Consulting, and William Phillips, Data Analyst at SUMS Consulting, is part of a three-part mini series on UK universities’ approaches to land use.

    Today’s blog introduces the work.

    Where we are

    With the economic and policy developments of the last 18 months, the UK’s higher education institutions now face a heady mix of acute challenges and an emergent agenda around the contributions they are expected to make towards the country, its economy and society.

    The sector is already seeing mergers, amongst a range of potential measures to reduce costs. That a prominent recently merged institution is keeping its constituent campuses is not really surprising: for most universities, their mission and even shifting identities are still broadly bound up with their location.

    Over recent years, this has spoken to agendas such as the Johnson government’s “levelling up” or institutions’ own civic commitments. And place remains prominent in the current government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, in which Mayoral Combined Authorities will be central actors in integrated regional planning for many areas, and of course in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper.

    We know that universities are critical economic players nationally and regionally, due to their scale and the value created by their education, research and convening power.

    We also know that universities cover a lot of space. A sense of this is reported in quant data terms each year in the (now voluntary) HESA Estates Management Record which, although it does not cover all providers, can be deployed for powerful analysis at the aggregate level.

    How we use our land is a national question that cuts across a range of issues including economic development, food security and a healthy environment for people and nature, amongst many others.

    These questions are about “where” as well as “how much”.

    For university estates we have the numbers, but until now we have not had much of a sense of where certain things are, happen or could potentially happen.

    We have sought to change that.

    In our new report published today, we have used public and open-source datasets and methods to map the UK higher education sector for the first time.

    Overlaying the boundaries for 174 institutions (those with data on Open Street Map) onto geospatial datasets (that is, datasets which contain a geographic or spatial component which brings the “where”) has allowed us to explore perspectives about universities’ estates and how they use them – which would not be possible without geospatial data.

    The list of institutions, representing a mix of more traditional institutions reporting to HESA as well as some alternative providers, does not constitute the whole sector (or all of its known lands). But we believe the coverage is sufficient to allow for grounded discussion of sector patterns.

    We explore the data over four strategic themes for institutions and at aggregate (sector) level:

    1. State of the sector’s land
    2. Risks
    3. Opportunities
    4. Value.

    The report is accompanied by a mapping tool which allows user to explore these questions for themselves.

    Purely in the direct financial terms we have modelled, “risks” and “opportunities” are to the tune of tens or hundreds of millions of pounds annually for the sector. And the wider dimensions of opportunities speak not only to universities’ contributions to environmental sustainability, but also to their role as critical players in regional economies and systems.

    As such, this work has implications for a range of points in institutions’ thinking. These, of course, include approaches to risk, estates management, capital and strategic planning; but also core mission questions such as regional development, skills, innovation and industry partnership.

    Over this series of blogs we will explore the strategic themes mentioned, starting today with the state of the sector’s land.

    Due to the complexity of the topics involved, we have not been able to treat every risk and opportunity area in all the detail they deserve. But we do hope to inspire new ways of thinking about universities’ lands and locations and how these fit into their wider strategic context, including trade-offs and opportunity costs.

    We also point to examples of institutions which are already engaging with these questions, to resources from sector organisations such as AUDE, EAUC and Nature Positive Universities, and to our own work supporting institutions across a range of topics relevant to this work.

    State of the sector’s land

    Our mapping of UK universities’ core estates covers a total area of 6,390.1 hectares (ha).

    This does not cover the full extent of the HE estate due to limitations of the data available. (The 2023 HESA Estates Management Record reports a total of 7,293 ha “total grounds area” for 135 reporting institutions and a larger “total site area” – roughly the same size again – outside the core estate). But it does achieve more than 80% coverage of core estates.

    While our mapped area constitutes just 0.026% of the UK’s land surface, it equates to a town the size of Guildford, Chesterfield or Stirling.

    Of this area, 3,796.8 ha (nearly 60%) is built environment (buildings or artificial other surfaces), 1,893.6 ha (around 30%) is grass, 646.4 ha (around 10%) is covered by trees and 52.8 ha (a little less than 1%) is water and waterlogged land.

    We also used machine learning to develop a typology of institutions based on their land use profiles. This identified three clusters of institutions, each of which stands out for possessing a higher proportion of one of the three core land use types (built, grass, trees) than the other two clusters.

    • Cluster 1 (95 institutions, covering 1,205 ha) is highly urban, containing universities that are at least 80% and typically around 90% built land cover.
    • Cluster 2 (60 institutions, covering 3,679 ha) is made up of universities with a relatively high grass cover (typically around 35%), still with a high built cover (around 58%).
    • Cluster 3 (19 institutions, covering 1,506 ha) is comprised of universities that have a high proportion of non-built land (around 61%) and notably high tree cover (around 25%).

    The various profiles of land use and institutions present different types of risks and opportunities, which we will explore over the coming days.

    SUMS Consulting will host a webinar from 11:00 to 12:00 on Thursday 22 January 2026. The webinar will include a walkthrough of the report and online tool, and panel discussion featuring Nick Hillman OBE (Director of HEPI). Register here.

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  • Defining quality is a thorny problem, but we shouldn’t shy away from the Government’s intention to make sure every student gets the best deal

    Defining quality is a thorny problem, but we shouldn’t shy away from the Government’s intention to make sure every student gets the best deal

    Join HEPI for a webinar on Thursday 11 December 2025 from 10am to 11am to discuss how universities can strengthen the student voice in governance to mark the launch of our upcoming report, Rethinking the Student Voice. Sign up now to hear our speakers explore the key questions.

    This blog is kindly authored by Meg Haskins, Policy Manager at the Russell Group.

    You can read HEPI’s other blog on the current OfS consultation here and here.

    Quality is one of the most frequently used, yet least clearly defined, concepts in higher education. For decades, debates have rumbled on about how best to measure it, and yet the term continues to be used liberally and often vaguely. From university marketing promising a “high-quality student experience” to political critiques of so-called “Mickey Mouse courses,” the term is everywhere – but its precise meaning remains elusive.

    Quality matters: to students making significant financial and personal investments; to staff who take pride in their teaching and research; to funders and policymakers; and to the UK’s global reputation. If we’re asking students to take out significant loans and trust that higher education will act as a springboard into their futures, we must not only deliver quality but also demonstrate it clearly, transparently and in ways that support ongoing improvement.

    The OfS consultation is the sector’s golden opportunity to define how this is done.

    The Russell Group supports a more integrated and streamlined quality assessment system – one that reduces duplication, improves clarity and actively supports efforts to enhance quality further. But integration must not come at the expense of flexibility within the model. The system needs to make space for narrative contextualisation rather than reductive judgements.

    Heavy reliance on benchmarking is particularly concerning. It risks disadvantaging institutions with a historically strong absolute performance and limiting meaningful differentiation. To ensure fairness, absolute values must carry greater weight, and there should be transparency on benchmark thresholds and definitions of “material” deviation, especially outcomes which will have regulatory and funding consequences.

    So far, ministers have been light on detail about what change they’re actually expecting to see on quality assurance. Ideas of linking quality measures to recruitment numbers or fee levels have caused concern, which is understandable given that the system for measuring quality is untested. But we shouldn’t fear greater scrutiny. Students, taxpayers and the public deserve clarity about what quality looks like in real terms – and reassurance that it is being delivered at a high level and consistently.

    Demonstrating quality is something Russell Group universities have always taken seriously, and is now under increasing public scrutiny in the face of rhetoric from certain political quarters about “rip-off degrees”. As such, our universities have taken steps to measure and robustly evidence the quality of our provision. Beyond regulatory metrics, graduate outcomes surveys, the TEF and professional body accreditations, our universities embed quality assurance through multiple levels of governance, including academic boards and senates, independent audits, annual and periodic module and programme reviews, and student feedback mechanisms. This has led to continuous improvement and enhancement of quality at our universities, reflected in the strength of their outcomes.

    Crucially, high quality is not about selectivity or league tables. The Secretary of State is rightly clear in her ambition for all young people to have a wide range of excellent options across different institutions, levels and qualification types. But this choice needs to go hand-in-hand with quality, which is why we need baseline expectations across all institutions and swift regulatory action where these standards aren’t met.

    If the sector embraces greater scrutiny in this way, then metrics must be robust, transparent and fair. Streamlining and clarifying processes should reduce duplication and burden, while maintaining a strong focus on enhancement.

    The regulator has both carrots and sticks at its disposal. While it is positive to see an intention to reward high-quality provision, benchmarking that obscures excellence could inadvertently punish those delivering the strongest outcomes – surely not the government’s intention.

    Particularly worrying is the idea that the OfS could start deriving overall ratings from a lower individual aspect rating. This compresses results and risks obscuring examples of high-quality provision, adding little value for students. Even more concerning is the proposal to reclassify the Bronze ratings as a trigger for regulatory intervention. This could redefine the baseline for compliance as a form of failure in quality, and blur the line between judgements of excellence and regulatory compliance – a muddled message for providers and confusing for students.

    Ultimately, the goal must be a more outward-facing quality model – one that strengthens public and ministerial trust, reinforces the UK’s global credibility, and upholds the reputation for excellence that underpins our higher education sector.

    By positioning higher tuition fees as one side of a “deal,” the Government is challenging the sector to demonstrate, clearly and confidently, that students are receiving both a high-quality experience and high-quality outcomes in return. That deal will only be credible if quality is defined fairly, measured transparently, and assessed in ways that support enhancement as well as accountability.

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  • Top Hat Graded 2025: Empowering Teaching, Inspiring Learning

    Top Hat Graded 2025: Empowering Teaching, Inspiring Learning

    In 2025, educators and students didn’t just adapt to AI—they elevated it. With Ace, Top Hat’s AI-powered assistant, classrooms became more interactive, practice became more purposeful and great teaching scaled farther than ever before. The data we collected as part of Top Hat Graded 2025 tells a powerful story: when instructors lead with curiosity and students learn with confidence, technology becomes a catalyst for deeper engagement. We’re thrilled to share the results of our annual report below.

    → Free Template: Simplify course evaluations this term

    AI offered a powerful way to enhance your teaching

    Instructors used Ace to lighten the load without lowering the bar. Whether generating draft assessment questions, designing in-class activities, or creating practice prompts aligned with their course materials, educators treated Ace as an assistant—never a substitute—for their own judgment.

    Students, in turn, benefitted from more timely feedback, more consistent practice opportunities and more engaging learning experiences overall. Case in point: more than 107,000 students used Ace this year—a 114 percent increase compared to last year.

    From ideation to instruction, Ace helped educators focus on what they do best: teaching with creativity, clarity and care.

    Students loved generating practice quizzes 

    Ace’s practice engine became a cornerstone of student learning in 2025. Powered by course content—lecture slides, readings, assessments and more—Ace generated on-demand practice sessions that helped students study continuously, not just cram before exams.

    These sessions supported retrieval practice, concept reinforcement and self-paced review, all while giving students instant feedback designed to build confidence and mastery. The convenience mattered too: students could launch a personalized practice session in just one click from any content page. Practice became proactive, not reactive—and students embraced the shift.

    Faculty saved time on course preparation

    Ace’s question-generation tools made it faster and easier for instructors to build high-quality assessments, polls, discussion prompts and in-class activities. By analyzing uploaded content, Ace drafted questions tailored to course learning goals, while always giving instructors full control to edit, refine or regenerate. This translated into more interactive class time, more frequent knowledge checks and richer opportunities for active learning across every discipline.

    Educators and students embraced interactive learning tools

    This year, instructors leaned into Top Hat’s interactive quiz tools more than ever—using AI to spark engagement, check understanding and create meaningful moments of active learning. Across every discipline, educators built richer assessments, more dynamic in-class activities and countless opportunities for students to think critically.

    In total, 14,312,874 questions were created on Top Hat in 2025. Multiple choice questions topped the charts, with instructors generating 9,085,213 of them—the most widely used format for pulse checks, polls and final exams. Long answer prompts also saw impressive growth, with 1,746,370 questions created to encourage explanation, reflection and deeper reasoning.

    Looking ahead

    Top Hat Graded 2025 is more than a collection of numbers—it’s a testament to how educators and students reimagined what learning can look like with the right tools. Ace helped accelerate course preparation, scale personalized practice and enrich classroom interactivity, but the inspiration behind every improvement came from you.

    Here’s to another year of bold teaching, engaged learning and innovation—together.

    → Get a FREE template for collecting end-of-term student feedback

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  • Towards an educational gain approach to TEF

    Towards an educational gain approach to TEF

    This blog was kindly authored by Johnny Rich, Chief Executive of Push and Chief Executive of the Engineering Professors’ Council.

    You can read HEPI’s other blog on the current OfS consultation here.

    The Office for Students is currently consulting on plans to use the Teaching Excellence Framework to regulate fees and student numbers. There are two problems with this. Firstly, the TEF is a poor measure of what deserves to be rewarded. Secondly, even if it weren’t, using fees as rewards will damage the higher education sector.

    Paul Ashwin has already dismantled the notion that TEF has the heft for such heavy-lifting. He correctly criticises its broad institution-wide sweep, its data time lags, its susceptibility to gaming and so on. At its heart, the TEF is largely dependent on metrics that are, at best, questionable proxies of how effectively universities perform their core educational purpose. These are then reflected in four cliff-edged, unnuanced ratings.

    Hanging fees on this hook is a weighty burden, and it’s a hook that’s stuck to a wall with Blu-Tack. 

    But before we dismiss the idea faster than a toddler being offered broccoli, it’s worth considering what it would take to make it easier to swallow. Palatable, even.

    To this end, it’s worth taking a step back. The purpose of teaching – especially excellent teaching – is surely to see that learning is achieved. And, given that the current framework relies so heavily on outcomes as the indicators of teaching excellence, surely what TEF is really trying to appraise is how well universities support learning gain.

    In the early days of TEF, until 2019, HEFCE explicitly led a hunt for a holy grail metric or algorithm for ‘learning gain’. The quest concluded that learning gain was not a simple one-dimensional thing. Rather than being an attribute of a course (let alone a whole university), it was inherently a measure of a relationship between a student and the education they receive. A function rather than a point on a graph.

    No single metric would work for different courses, different institutions and different students.

    Having one overall TEF rating per institution with little room for context creates a driver that creates risk for universities that might want to try anything new.

    Instead of universities asking themselves how their educational experience might be improved for their students, the safer question is What gets gold? Let’s copy that or Let’s stick with that.

    And instead of thinking about how they could diversify to offer something innovative to students who have been traditionally underserved by higher education, it’s less risky to try to recruit whatever students are historically most likely to succeed.

    That has a cooling effect on innovation and diversity in the sector, especially when coupled with the effect of rankings, which drive institutions to emulate the so-called ‘best’ and to count what’s measured rather than measure what counts, as Prof Billy Wong brilliantly explained in his recent HEPI blog. It is ironic that one effect of the marketisation of higher education has been to increase homogeneity across the sector, rather than competition driving universities to seek out niches.

    We need to return to the quest for a multi-dimensional measure of learning gain – or, as it is now being called, ‘educational gain’ – the distance travelled by the student in partnership with their institution. Prof Wong’s blog accompanied the publication of a paper outlining just such a new approach. This – or something similar – could give the OfS the load-bearing hook it wants.

    In the spirit of offering solutions, not just criticisms of the OfS’s plans, I propose that, instead of a TEF with stakes stacked high like a poker chips, the OfS could define a ‘suite’ of metrics (most of which already exist and some of which are already used by the TEF) that it would regard as valid measures of different dimensions of educational gain. These would be benchmarked by socio-economic background, region, discipline mix – or whatever is relevant to the metric in question.

    Each institution regulated by the OfS would need to state which measures from the suite it thinks should be used to judge its educational gain. Some would veer towards employment metrics, others would champion access and value-added, and others would aim for progression to further study as a goal. Most, I suspect, would pursue their own multi-faceted mix.

    Whatever selection they make would be based on the institution’s mission and they would not only have to say which measures should be used, but what targets they believe they should achieve.

    The OfS’s role would be, in the first instance, to assess these educational gain ‘missions’ and decide whether they are sufficiently ambitious to deserve access to fee funding and, subsequently, to assess over time whether each institution is making satisfactory progress towards its targets.

    This is not as radical it may sound. The OfS already operates a similar approach in inviting universities to define goals from a preset list in their Access and Participation Plans, although in that instance the list is made up of risks rather than targets.

    If the OfS feels the bronze/silver/gold signalling of the TEF is still important, it could still give awards based on level of achievement according to the institutions’ own sufficiently ambitious terms of success.

    This would encourage, rather than dampen, diversity. It would be forward-looking rather than relying on lagged data. And it would measure success according to a sophisticated assessment of the distance travelled both by institutions and by their students.

    If this were the hook from which OfS wanted to dangle funding carrots, it would drive excellence through each autonomous institution being encouraged to consider how to improve the education it individually offers and to chase that, instead of palely imitating familiar models.

    However, even with this educational gain-driven version of TEF, that still leaves the second problem I mentioned at the start.

    How would using the TEF to regulate fees damage the sector?

    On the one hand, ‘gold’ universities would win higher fees (relative to other institutions at least). Given they are succeeding on the fees they’re already receiving, it would seem an inefficient use of public funding to channel any more money in their direction, as apparently they don’t need it to deliver their already excellent teaching.

    On the other hand, for those universities that are struggling, a lack of financial resource may be a significant factor either in their lower assessment or in gaining ground in future. Denying funding to those that need it most would condemn them to a spiral of decline.

    The effect would be to bifurcate the system into the gold ‘haves’ and the bronze ‘have-nots’ with the distance between the two camps growing ever more distant, and the silvers walking a tightrope in between, trying to ensure they can fall on the side with the safety net.

    An education gain-based approach to TEF wouldn’t solve this problem, but – as I’ve outlined – it could provide a system to incentivise and regulate excellence that would mean the OfS doesn’t have to resort to creating a binary divide through a well-intentioned, but inefficient and unfair allocation of limited resources.

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  • Overrepresentation of female teachers and gender differences in PISA 2022: what cross-national evidence can and cannot tell us

    Overrepresentation of female teachers and gender differences in PISA 2022: what cross-national evidence can and cannot tell us

    Over the weekend HEPI published blogs on AI in legal education and knowledge and skills in higher education.

    Today’s blog was kindly authored by Hans Luyten, University of Twente, Netherlands ([email protected]).

    Across many education systems, secondary-school teaching remains a predominantly female profession. While this fact is well known, less is understood about whether the gender composition of the teaching workforce relates to gender differences in student achievement at the system level. My recently published paper, Overrepresentation of Female Teachers in Secondary Education and Gender Achievement Gaps in PISA 2022 (Studies in Educational Evaluation), takes up this question using recent international data.

    The study investigates whether gender differences in reading, mathematics, and science among 15-year-olds vary according to the extent to which women are overrepresented among secondary-school teachers, relative to their share in each country’s labour force.

    Data and analytical approach

    The analysis draws on two international datasets:

    1. PISA 2022: Providing country-level average scores for 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science. Gender achievement gaps are operationalised as the difference between the average score for girls and that for boys.
    2. Labour-market data: Measuring the proportion of women among secondary-school teachers in each country and the proportion of women in the wider labour force.

    Female overrepresentation is defined as the difference between these two proportions.

    Although the analysis focuses on statistical correlations at the country level, it does not rely on simple bivariate associations. A wide range of control variables is included to account for differences between countries in:

    • Students’ out-of-school lives, such as gender differences in family support;
    • School resources, such as the availability of computers;
    • School staff characteristics, such as the percentage of certified teachers.

    These controls help ensure that the observed relationships are not simply reflections of broader cross-national differences in socioeconomic conditions or school quality.

    Key findings

    Three main results emerge from the analysis:

    First, gender achievement gaps tend to be larger in favour of girls in countries where women are more strongly overrepresented among secondary-school teachers.

    Second, this association holds across all three domains (reading, mathematics, and science), although the size and direction of the gender gap differs by subject.

    Third, the relationship becomes more pronounced as the degree of female overrepresentation increases. Countries with only modest overrepresentation tend to have smaller gender gaps, whereas those with large overrepresentation tend to have wider gaps.

    These findings concern gender differences in performance, not the absolute levels of boys’ or girls’ achievement. The study does not examine, and therefore does not draw conclusions about, whether boys or girls perform better or worse in absolute terms in countries with different levels of female teacher overrepresentation.

    Interpreting the results

    The analysis identifies a robust statistical association at the country level, after accounting for a broad set of background variables. However, as with any cross-national correlational study, it cannot establish causality. Other country-specific characteristics (cultural, institutional, or organisational) may also contribute to the observed patterns.

    It is also important to note that the study addresses a different question from research that examines the effects of individual teachers’ gender on the achievement of individual students. Earlier classroom- and school-level studies often find little or no systematic effect of teacher gender on student outcomes. The present study, by contrast, examines the overall gender composition of the teaching workforce and its relation to system-level gender achievement gaps.

    Implications

    Although the findings do not directly point to specific policy interventions, they suggest that the gender composition of the secondary-school teaching workforce is a feature of educational systems that merits closer attention when interpreting international variation in gender gaps. Teacher demographics form part of the broader context within which student achievement develops, and system-level gender imbalances may interact with other structural characteristics in shaping performance differences between girls and boys.

    Final remarks

    The full paper provides a detailed description of the data, analyses, and limitations. It is available open access at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2025.101544

    I hope this summary brings the findings to a wider audience and encourages further research on how system-level characteristics relate to gender differences in educational outcomes.

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  • WEEKEND READING: Knowledge and skills in higher education: coherence, conflict or confusion?

    WEEKEND READING: Knowledge and skills in higher education: coherence, conflict or confusion?

    Join HEPI for a webinar on Thursday 11 December 2025 from 10am to 11am to discuss how universities can strengthen the student voice in governance to mark the launch of our upcoming report, Rethinking the Student Voice. Sign up now to hear our speakers explore the key questions.

    This blog was kindly authored by Dr Adam Matthews, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham.

    Skills have dominated the policy and political discourse in recent years. In a recent HEPI blog, Professor Ronald Barnett observed how the education policy world has been dominated by the language of skills, whilst academic discourse has focused on education and knowledge. Professor Barnett argues that these two discourses are speaking past each other, disconnected and polarising.

    In this blog I look at how skills have come to dominate policy, political and institutional discourse, present some speculations and provocations as to why this might be, and call for precision in language when it comes to knowledge and skills policy. Here, in both simple and more philosophical terms, we are looking at discursive binaries which are concerned with doing (skills) and knowing (knowledge) in higher education.

    The 2025 Post-16 Education and Skills whitepaper is clear in its opening:

    Skills are at the heart of our plan to deliver the defining mission of this government – growth.

    The skills turn in policy and political discourse has, in many cases, sidelined or muted knowledge. This is not the case in academic literature. The Oxford Review of Education, recently published a special issue Knowledge crises and democratic deficit in education.

    Where does this then leave many universities who are, and have been for centuries producers, co-producers and distributors of knowledge? Burton Clark summed up a universities’ core mission well in 1983:

    If it could be said that a carpenter goes around with a hammer looking for nails to hit, then a professor goes around with a bundle of knowledge, general or specific, looking for ways to augment it or teach it to others. However broadly or narrowly we define it, knowledge is the material. Research and teaching are the main technologies.

    This is despite many universities starting life in the 20th century as civic institutions with a focus on the training of professions. Immanuel Kant described these two sides as a Conflict of the Faculties in 1798. In The Conflict of the Faculties, Kant argues that universities contain a necessary tension between “higher” faculties that serve the state’s skills needs and train professionals, and the “lower” faculty of philosophy, which must remain autonomous to pursue knowledge through free inquiry.

    The Post-16 Education and Skills Government white paper, uses the word ‘skills’ 438 times and ‘knowledge’ just 24 times. So, what has happened to knowledge in higher education? Professor Barnett thinks that there is something else going on other than the traditional liberal (education and knowledge) and vocational (skills) polarisation.

    With all of this in mind, I was interested in how universities described their teaching practice in the 2023 TEF submissions (a corpus of 1,637,362 words and 127 qualitative provider submissions). The pattern of a focus on skills continued. Across the whole corpus, in total, ‘skills’ was used 4,785 times, and ‘knowledge’ 1284 times – that means that skills trumped knowledge by a ratio of 3.7.

    I wondered if it made a difference about the type of institution. We might think large, research-intensive universities would be more interested in knowledge in educational terms or, be more balanced on knowledge and skills. So, I divided those numbers up by institution type using the handy, KEF classifications.

    Cluster Skills (per thousand)  Knowledge (per thousand)  Ratio difference 
    All   4785 (2.92)  1284 (0.78)  3.7 
    ARTS (Specialist) 648 (2.28)  220 (0.77)  2.9 
    STEM (Specialist) 384 (4.27)  89 (0.99)  4.31 
    E (Large broad disciplines) 1243 (2.94)  350 (0.82)  3.55 
    J (Mid-size teaching focus) 411 (2.74)  109 (0.72)  3.77 
    V (Very large, research-intensive) 745 (3.28)  184 (0.81)  4.05 
    M (Smaller with teaching focus) 672 (2.9)  197 (0.85)  3.41 
    X (Large, research-intensive, broad discipline) 682 (2.93)  135 (0.58)  5.05 

    As shown above, the pattern holds – skills are being written about more than knowledge.  Institutions in the clusters X and V (large and very large, broad-discipline and research-intensive) show the widest disparity in the balance between knowledge and skills (with the balance in favour of skills). This is surprising as these are the institutions, one might think are more interested in knowledge production alongside and integrated with education.

    Taking a slightly different line of inquiry, the shift does not appear to be drawn within political party lines. In 2022, Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, Robert Halfon spoke at the Times Higher Education Conference as Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (no ‘knowledge’ in his job title) and used the word ‘knowledge’ just once.

    At the turn of the century, the political discourse was dominated by knowledge and a knowledge economy, and then Prime Minister, Tony Blair claimed in 2002 that this was the route to prosperity:

    This new, knowledge-driven economy is a major change. I believe it is the equivalent of the machine-driven economy of the industrial revolution.

    This was just as the internet became accessible to all and globalisation dominated, promising an opening up and democratising of knowledge. As we enter the AI revolution, why have skills become the dominant policy and political narrative? Skills-based or knowledge-rich curricula debate has been linked to the emergence of AI technologies.

    Ideologically, knowledge and skills have produced dividing lines in education systems politically. Moreover, knowledge and skills are hotly contested in binary terms in schooling.

    In 2016, the Conservative Party held that knowledge was the route to economic growth, arguing that higher education played a key part in achieving success as a knowledge economy. In the same year, the UK voted to leave the European Union, kicking off a decade of political instability, coinciding with political orders being disrupted globally.

    During the liberal consensus of the Blair to Cameron era, governments in England aimed to keep taxes low and markets open, whilst expanding the nation’s knowledge capabilities through graduates and research. They had a broad faith in the benefits of growing knowledge and stimulating enterprise, rather than shaping the economy. They also expected communications technologies to empower citizens in a climate of open debate.

    Now, as we enter 2026, the pendulum has swung firmly toward skills dominating policy and political discourse. Rather than swinging between the two polarising discourses, it is important to develop a practical coherence between skills and knowledge.

    Professor Barnett calls for a rebalancing in debates, our language and our practice. Surely, it’s reasonable for educators, students, researchers, policy makers and politicians to expect higher education to consider doing (skills) and knowing (knowledge) as equals rather than sides to be taken. It can be argued that separating these two very human capabilities is not possible at all. However, Skills England have developed a new classifications for skills which could prove useful but needs careful integration with higher education curriculum, knowledge production and pedagogy.

     The question of why the pendulum has swung towards skills at this current moment, I can only speculate and offer provocations to be picked up in the HEPI blog and beyond:

    • The push towards a knowledge economy and 50% of young people attending university failed to result in economic growth (we might argue that the 2008 financial crash, Brexit, pandemic and many other things could have contributed too).
    • Liberalism, globalisation and knowledge came together within the notion of a knowledge economy and society. A populist backlash to knowledge and liberal higher education has resulted in a shift towards skills.
    • A genuine attempt to remedy a left behind 50% of the population who do not pursue a knowledge based academic degree.
    • The internet did not deliver on social or economic positives and growth – as Peter Thiel famously said “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters”.
    • Artificial intelligence is, or could disrupt knowledge and white collar work.
    • Often, knowledge and skills are used as synonyms for each other leading, to confusion.

    Knowing (knowledge) and doing (skills) should be at the heart of economic growth, social change and flourishing societies and not two binaries to be fought over. Precision in the language we use to make these cases needs to be sharpened and made clearer in order to avoid confusion and aid policy and practice.

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