NERUPI takes great pleasure in inviting all members to its seventh annual convention, which will be an in-person event at the Friends House in London on the 18 September 2025.

In November 2024, the Office for Students (OfS) indicated the deepening of their commitment to collaboration and vision for the future of regional partnership working. The aim is to ensure that no students who are identified as at risk in the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR) are left behind. A new approach to partnerships would support this shared national purpose by coordinating the work of providers in tackling local and regional challenges to achieve a greater collective impact.

John Blake, Director of Access and Participation OfS will be one of the keynote speakers at the Convention and will update us on OfS plans for regional collaboration along with an opportunity to ask more general questions. Participants will also benefit from taking a wider view of regional development and collaboration with our keynote speaker Professor Joyce Liddle from Durham University. We know that NERUPI members already have established partnerships and collaborations and look forward to hearing about your activities as well. We will also get practical with a workshop session on developing a regional APP led by Sam Dunnett, Head of WP at Sussex and the Sussex Learning Network.

Tickets are £180 per person. To reserve your place please use the booking form below. You will be sent a booking confirmation and a link to our online shop where you can complete the payment.

We have allowed two places per organisation but please book by 28th July to secure your places as the NERUPI convention is very popular, with some organisations wanting to send several people. If more than two people want to attend do let us know as we will keep a waiting list and release places on the 28th July.

Call for papers

As well as hearing from our keynote speakers, we want to share the vital work of our members and are looking for practice examples of how working in partnerships is tackling local and regional challenges and supporting equitable opportunities for students. The OfS is focused on enhancing the quality of evaluation of interventions committed to in access and participation plans, as well as to the dissemination and sharing of practice through channels such as presentations at conferences and publications on websites. The NERUPI Convention 2025 will provide an excellent opportunity to showcase and publicise your ongoing or new work. Your Convention 2025 presentation can also, with your permission, be published post-event on the members’ area of NERUPI website as a practice example.

We are looking for examples of your collaborations with HEIs, school, colleges and other organisations. Themes of particular interest include:

• Regional collaboration
• Collaboration with employers
• Collaborations with other sectors and organisations (e.g. third sector and charities)
• Curricular innovations.

We are keen to hear from practitioners, managers, evaluators, careers educators and stakeholders involved in the planning, delivery and evaluation of initiatives in access, participation and progression to employment.

We invite you to share your practice, evaluation and research and to showcase how you are collaborating to deliver your programmes or achieve your strategic goals. We are keen to hear about evaluation of your initiatives: evaluation approaches, results, analysis and learning and encourage exploration and discussion. Remember that this is all about us learning from each other, so we are keen to hear about learning from failures as well as successes.

Guidelines

Your proposal should be a presentation of 20 minutes in duration with 10 minutes for Q&A.

Please get in touch with us at NERUPI@bath.ac.uk if you have any queries. We are happy to discuss your ideas with you.

If you’re ready to submit a proposal, please complete this form and return to us before 17.00 hrs on Friday 20 June 2025.

NERUPI Convention 2025 Presentation Proposal Form