Educational Leaders Forum (ELF)

The Educational Leaders Forum (ELF) aims to enable and sustain Programme Leaders and Subject Coordinators in their crucial role. Sign up for the Educational Leaders Forum (ELF) and join our community of practice.

Educational Leaders Fora (ELF) is an online meeting for all Oxford Brookes University programme leaders and subject coordinators on the first Wednesday of each month. Join us in an interactive discussion about your activities and priorities with key speakers highlighting essential information from across Oxford Brookes and the wider HE sector. Supporting OCAED's ambition to enable and sustain educational and educational innovation leadership, ELF offers a platform for a community of practice that aims to be supportive, productive, and constructive in programme leadership.

After each ELF session, resources are shared through the programme leaders' forum on Google Space. So, if you cannot attend, you can still catch up with the recording, resources and notifications when you can. If you still need to join our Google Space, please email m.kitchener@brookes.ac.uk.

You might also be interested in our leadership and management workshops available via the staff portal to support and enhance your CPD. 

Contact us

Oxford Centre for Academic Enhancement and Development

+44 (0)1865 535100

ocaed@brookes.ac.uk

Forthcoming ELF sessions

Wednesday 6 November, 9.15am - 10.00am

Zephra Webber from the Centre for Academic Development will speak about student evidence-gathering practice: Hidden literacies in the Classroom.

Wednesday 4 December, 9.15am - 10.00am

Abigail Reilly, Director of Organisational Effectiveness and Development will speak about the Leadership and Management Framework. 

Funding opportunity to Develop Educational Academic and Leadership (DEAL)

For programme leaders

DEAL supports OCAED's strategic ambition to enable and sustain educational and academic leadership. It aims to develop your programme leader competence (Lawrence and Scott, 2022) to benefit you, your teaching teams, Brookes, and, ultimately, our students.

Programme Leading is emerging as a role central to contemporary academic career progression (Lawrence, Morrell and Scott, 2023) and one recognised as crucial to institutional success (Lawrence, Moron-Garcia and Senior, 2022; Lawrence, 2024). To enable this kind of educational leadership OCAED hosts an Educational Leaders Forum and the OE&D team has developed a Leadership and Management Framework sympathetic to the role. 

We recognise that educational leaders find funding for academic CPD hard to access because of the demands on their time and energies (Senior, Moron-Garcia and Lawrence, 2022), yet it is integral to your academic career (Lawrence, 2024) and so for the third consecutive year, we are thrilled to open a call for funding specifically for Programme Leaders at Oxford Brookes.

We fund opportunities for programme leaders to:

  • expand educational and academic leadership experience
  • build knowledge of educational and academic leadership
  • nurture self-awareness of individual leadership capabilities.

This may be in the form of: 

  • a small project to enhance your programme/s, or 
  • presentation or attendance at a conference or networking event
  • engagement with other academic CPD that is not provided at Oxford Brookes.

Available funding is up to £500 and must be used by the 1 July.  If your application is successful, you must provide a brief summary (up to 400 words) at the end of your activity. This summary will outline what you have learned from the funded activity, how you will disseminate this information, and the potential impact of your academic CPD.

Note all applications should be supported by your Dean of Education.

Your application will be assessed using the DEAL Funding Rubric

If you have any questions about DEAL, please contact ocaed@brookes.ac.uk.

Timeline

  • Application deadline: Friday 8 November 2024
  • Outcomes announced: by 15 November 2024
  • Complete CPD: up to 1 July 2025
  • Submit a summary: by 31 July 2024.

References

  • Lawrence, J. (2024) From disciplinary expertise to academic artistry: making sense of the shifting professional identity, expertise and artistry of the programme leader. King, H (2024) The Artistry of Teaching in Higher Education: Practical Ideas for Developing Creative Academic Practice. UK: Routledge
  • Lawrence, J. Morrell, L. and Scott, G. (2023) Building a competence-based model for the academic development of programme leaders. International Journal of Academic Development doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2023.2166942
  • Lawrence, J. Moron-Garcia S. and Senior, R. (2022) Supporting Course and Programme Leaders in HE: positioning programme leadership as central to HE success in Lawrence, J. Moron Garcia, S. and Senior, R. (2022) Supporting Course and Programme Leaders: Practical Wisdom for Leaders, Educational Developers and Programme Leaders. UK: Routledge
  • Senior, R. Moron-Garcia S. and Lawrence, J. (2022) Celebrating Programme Leadership: A Manifesto for Sustainable Programme Leadership in Lawrence, J. Moron Garcia, S. and Senior, R. (2022) Supporting Course and Programme Leaders: Practical Wisdom for Leaders, Educational Developers and Programme Leaders. UK: Routledge