Date: 04th February 2026
Location: Leeds Beckett University
Please note this event is for Members onlyBooking is now open for our popular in-person event specifically for evaluators. The sessions will include expert input as well as interactive activities, giving participants the opportunity to discuss practice and exchange ideas. This year we will explore two key areas:
• ethical approaches to evaluation and the process of gaining ethical approval
• the changing role of the evaluator
Morning sessions will provide evaluators with valuable practical opportunities to work together to consider ethical approaches to research and evaluation. Dr Richard Davies, University of Hertfordshire, will consider what it means to think ethically when undertaking evaluations. Robyn Long and Ruth Stirton, Sussex University, will focus on navigating regulatory requirements, working through practical and regulatory constraints to identify opportunities to design ethical evaluations.
In the afternoon Annette Hayton and Joanne Moore will explore organisational approaches to evaluation evidence and evaluation styles and the implications for evaluators' skills and competences. We will consider strategies for evaluators leading beyond authority to engage with evaluation stakeholders and extend evaluation capacity. The focus will then turn to engagement of practitioner's in evaluation and the new NERUPI/Cosmos practitioner evaluation resource.
This event is free to NERUPI members and will run from 10:30 - 15:30, with registration from 10:00.
Richard is the programme lead for the MA Education programmes at the University of Hertfordshire. His background is in the philosophy of education, with a particular focus on ethics. He was the lead author of the TASO guidance on research ethics. He has been a reviewer and Chair of ethics committees for over 25 years.
Ruth is as Associate Professor in Healthcare Law at the University of Sussex. Her research focuses on regulatory systems and the gap between regulation as written and regulation as experienced. Her interest in APPs is in the issues that evaluators are dealing with in the implementation of the OfS requirements. She has worked in NHS Research Ethics, and university Research Ethics, chairing various Research Ethics Committees since 2005. She was Chair of the Social Sciences and Arts REC at the University of Sussex 2020-2024. In her (somewhat limited) free time, Ruth is also a multi-media artist.
Robyn leads the research and evaluation strategy for the University's Access and Participation Plan, working across the full lifecycle of access, success, and progression activities and interventions, and whole provider strategic change projects. Alongside the centrally delivered provision, Robyn works closely with academics in all faculties to support evaluation of Faculty Student Experience and Outcomes Plans, looking at APP, TEF, and B3 metrics.
Robyn oversees a programme of training and development for staff to build a learning culture across the organisation. This work builds wider capability in conducting evaluations, supporting Professional Services teams and collaborating with academics undertaking Scholarship of Teaching and Learning research to support our students experience and outcomes.
Alongside this work, Robyn also supports evaluation strategies for wider institutional portfolios, including the University Strategy, and various programmes and projects that feed into TEF and REF.
Pre-session reading:
Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research, fifth edition (2024)
Research ethics guidance – TASO