The University of Hertfordshire has a proudly diverse student population. Reducing the awarding gap for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Students is a strategic objective in the University’s move to advance race equality, with a target of decreasing the gap by 50% by July 2025.
The University developed an Institutional action plan which reflects the need to take a whole-university approach to tackling structural inequalities from the Board of Governors and Chief Executive’s Group, down to individual members of staff.
Within this work will be shared some of the University’s activities to address awarding gaps, considering actions at Institutional, departmental, programme and individual levels.

Quality assurance and enhancement process - it ensures a continuous improvement in the effectiveness of the learning experience of students at every HE institute. Recent globalization and the rapid digitalization concept has made enormous changes within the education and the industry. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) in the UK has embedded various learning and teaching priorities as an integrated element in the institution's strategic plan. Efforts to evaluate current strategies and make incremental changes through digital strategy engagement with the curriculum and practice.
The present research will explore various factors enhancing learning experience in the University of Sunderland in London (UoSiL), the impact of digital strategy to enhance learning experience in the UK-HE Environment, will analyse learning challenges and opportunities for UoSiL students from disadvantaged community background, and analyse the impact of digital strategy to enhance learning experience for UoSiL students from different community backgrounds.
The study made us of a mixed methodology, qualitative/quantitative, with a deductive approach. The research has been conducted through online questionnaire held with students at UoSiL, with a sample of 112 students.
The findings have revealed that learning experience can be enhanced through digital strategy despite all the various challenges affecting the higher education sector. Digital strategy can also help to fix the skill barriers that disadvantaged and BAME students are experiencing in the educational context.

The study highlights the importance of the agency’s assistance and the role of an agent in the application process. Both the candidates and the University seem to benefit from the cooperation. Applicants rely on agencies as those are a trusted source of information and are available whenever support or advice are needed.
While many universities are mainly focusing on younger cohorts, some institutions see the potential of mature students and aim at attracting those. Although mature students seem to be highly motivated, they may need more support and flexibility. Providing guidance and service tailored to meet their needs poses a big challenge.
Primary data for this study were gathered using both surveys and interviews. Two questionnaires were designed and administered by emailing candidates and agents. Simultaneously, the researcher conducted several interviews to confirm the credibility of the findings. When collecting data about 50 prospective students were interviewed and another 90 completed the survey.

Effective partnership within the higher education sector has a great impact on building sustainable economic growth and a knowledge economy that would result in the creation of employment in wider society. Similarly, a partnership could promote racially, and ethnically diverse players present within higher education.
This could facilitate an appropriate bond between institutional and learners’ achievements. Since many higher educational institutions recruit students from diverse cultural backgrounds, shared ethnicity could really break the distance between the students and teachers and bring them closer towards academic success which would ultimately improve the social skills and knowledge amongst the learners.
It was also identified that the impact of poverty on the ability to engage in education also plays a major factor in the students’ academic and social performance. The immigration status of students is also shown to contribute to engaging into the education which subsequently impacted overall performance.

The aim of this theoretical review is to examine the themes and trends in technology acceptance and adoption in the higher education sector. Faced with the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), higher education institutions across the globe have been forced to reassess their strategies in order to facilitate student retention and operational continuity.
In this case, various technologies and innovations have been adopted by institutions shaping a new normal for both teachers and learners. However, within this forced environment, both teachers and learners have struggled to adapt as observed by challenges experienced in student engagement, retention, and motivation.
Inspired by these events, the paper presents findings through a systematic literature review of works published from 2019 to 2022 to unravel: (1) How has technology acceptance/adoption been examined by scholars at different phases of the pandemic in the context of higher education?; (2) What research approaches have been adopted to examine technology acceptance/adoption and who has been studied in the context of higher education?; (3) What factors influence learners' adoption and continuation of use of teaching and learning technologies in an online learning environment?; (4) What factors influence teachers adoption and continuation of use of teaching and learning technologies in an online learning environment?
The final sample size considered through the three-phase screening process is 169 peerreviewed articles published from 2019 to 2022. Key themes emerging from this systematic literature review can be categorised as: Forced adoption of T&L technologies, E-learning as a means of enhancing learning during the pandemic, Contextual factors and adoption intentions, and Is it truly a level playing ground for the teacher and the learner?
The paper concludes with critical reading of these findings with future considerations for higher education providers as we emerge out of the pandemic.

Achieve for Students programme, is led by the Digital Learning Team at the University of Sunderland in London and aims to enable students to become more comfortable around digital technology and their studies.
According to the UoSiL digital skills survey for students (478 students participated, February 2022), 24% of the students require assistance with technology. Lack of digital skills was considered as the second highest barrier to the adoption of technology (for 204 out of 478 respondents), after internet connection.
The same survey suggested that students would like to see more one-to-one sessions and workshops/webinars where they could develop their digital skills. “How to” videos and guides were also exceedingly popular among the answers. In addition, students would like to see more interactivity through their learning, such as engaging with quizzes.
This led to the design of a programme, where students’ digital skills will be enhanced to suit their needs. Students who will participate in the pilot are co-designers of the programme. Two live sessions are being held on campus; the first session introduces the programme to the students and their role in it. Before attending the first live session, students will self-assess their digital skills by completing the Jisc Discovery tool. After that, they will each follow a personalised learning path based on their preferences and the recommendations from the Jisc Discovery tool report and the Digital Learning team. The last session will invite self-reflection as well as final feedback on the programme.
Interesting results emerged from the student digital skills survey, the experiences from designing a programme where students co-create the curriculum, as well as preliminary progress on the “Achieve for students” pilot.

Student engagement is one of the biggest challenges that higher education institutes are facing in recent years. The pandemic and its aftermath escalated this challenge.
This presentation focuses on how the sector can benefit from bringing authenticity and innovative teaching, learning and assessment methods to overcome this challenge.
The Higher Education sector needs a need paradigm change. This presentation highlights the importance of taking the wants and needs of the 21st century into account in designing student learning environments. Link with real-world workplaces is the key to moving away from traditional teaching and learning styles.
The presentation emphasises the importance of using innovative teaching and learning methods, like embedding sustainable development goals into the university curriculum, using Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and simulations on student engagement and satisfaction.
The presentation also highlights assessment's role as an integral part of the student journey. Emphasising a combination of low, medium, and high stakes assessment (activities) to make assessment purposeful and continuous for students. In this way, students engage with the task and learn the concepts.

Mature students may be rich in experience, but they also face challenges in adapting to the pedagogical approaches of learning and teaching.
In recent years, the number of international students in British universities has increased and continues to grow. In the case of international students, it has been observed that they often undergo a process of change and adaptation to the HE culture, and life in the UK. This includes multiple additional cultural adjustments; to the host nation’s culture, the international students’ culture and the subject disciplinary culture. The scale and number of these challenges may affect students' wellbeing and may result in students’ discontinuation of their program of study. Particularly in the case of UK HE, scholars find that there is an emphasis on ‘discussion’ and ‘analysis’ which is not the case in other countries. As a result these students struggle to adapt to both the socio-cultural and pedagogical environment. The facilitation of this adjustment rests in the hands of the institution, the faculty/staff, student body and the student themselves.
The focus of this project is on home and international mature students entering the PG program at the University of Sunderland in London. The analysis of the university data reveals that though various initiatives are in place to support students ability to adjust to and progress in their academic journey, there continues to be a significant withdrawal rate in the PG program.
Inspired by the Researcher Development Framework, our project aims to address these concerns by introducing a collaborative strategy between PAT, support services and faculty, facilitated by an innovative tool to form a series of interventions targeted at developing necessary skills, employability and particularly students' confidence in their abilities so that they can be guided towards module/program completion.
The proposed tool will aim at developing the individuals self-actualisation as PG students within the course by not only focusing on academic skills but also self-development.

The research aims to present the impact of creative thinking techniques on completing and submitting dissertations among University of Sunderland in London (UoSiL) business students. Creative thinking is a skill that can be examined, practiced, and deliberately developed. The research aims to measure the impact of creative thinking techniques on completing and submitting research papers: Identify in what areas students need help; Measure the impact of creative thinking techniques.
The interest in creative thinking started during the war. Since that, significant body of knowledge has been created.
The methodology included collecting data from the third-year students who wrote their research papers. All students were introduced to the creative thinking methodology for five weeks and encouraged to apply the techniques whilst writing the dissertation. The survey comprises of six questions.
From the result emerged that it is highly recommended to introduce creative thinking workshops in all departments. Creative thinking provides a solid balance to critical thinking and helps conduct meaningful business research, solve the obstacles that students may encounter, and form a well-rounded researcher's personality. In addition, creativity in solving problems improves students' confidence in academic writing, which is reflected in a higher percentage of completion and submissions

Defining the problem is the first step towards the thinking process particularly in reflective thinking or inquiry. Since its popularisation over ten years ago, reflective practice has gone through a diverse set of definitions which risks a distortion of meaning.
The term has become both a methodological and conceptual umbrella embracing a plethora of concepts like linking theory and practice (Schon, 1983,1987; Morrison and Ridley, 1988) professional development (Van Manen, 1977), how we think (Dewey, 1933, 1938) and problem solving.
This article is part of a wider research study where I attempt to revisit Dewey’s reflective thought of asking ourselves what is going on and how do we think (Dewey, 1933, 1938). It seeks to examine how the learners’ expression of their own thoughts and feelings allowed them to develop critical thinking skills and improved on their future lifelong learning goals.
In this ongoing practitioner action research study I explore the efforts of a group of top up degree Health and Social Care students in their reflective journal writing from their experiences in a work placement. As part of work integrated learning, stages of a reflective cycle had to apply to their experiences and observations in their job-related task.
Findings suggest that thoughts and feelings create a reflective space which triggers problem solving skills and learners find it easy to express their feelings when they recognise the problem. It is these feelings that activate behaviour and reinforces their thinking

Plato’s allegory of the cave - Can it still be a paradigm for modern leadership? Can it withstand such challenges as the pandemic, the strive for quality of delivery and digitalization?
This research aims to examine whether Plato’s cave can be set as a paradigm for the teacher leader; To establish, whether the allegory can still be a reference point for practical leadership; To raise awareness of the role of the teacher as a leader.
The methodology comprises the Greek-style discussion between two scholars, and includes five practice-oriented reflexivity and reflexive meetings over a period of six months
The results of the paper show that we cannot teach people as the knowledge is already in their heads (objective idealism). Ideally, we explain the world through asking questions: discussion (exactly as this paper was written). University provides educational stimuli for such discussions – we call it education. During those discussions people discover themselves. We build an argument then we discuss it. Students come to classes with established view and perspectives about the world. Reality can be seen from many perspectives.
It is not important what we teachers cover during lectures, what really matters is what students "dis-cover".
Education is about establishing a proper perspective when people bring to the table a collection of their own ideas. A product of the culture they come from.