Home » HELOA National Conference 2025 Full Programme

HELOA National Conference 2025 Full Programme

Wednesday 15 January

10:00 Registration opens
Arrive from 10:00 onwards that works for you and your travel arrangements. On arrival you will join your group chair for registration as well as networking with your group members.
Bags can be left with the hotel to be collected after check-in.
11:00Group Catch-up
Travel allowing, please arrive by 11:00, to join your group chair for your conference catch up with your group. If you can not arrive before 12:00 then you will be able to register at the conference help desk.
12:00Lunch
13:15Conference opens
13:30Keynote
A VC Perspective on the State of the Sector and What’s Next
Professor Ken Sloan | Harper Adams University
14:15Table networking
A chance to network with those on your assigned table. The tables will be arranged by job role/time in the sector to allow you to meet a range of delegates.
14:45-15:15Refreshment break/Networking/AGM drop in
The refreshment break is a chance to network with delegates and all members of the executive team will be available if you have any questions, in particular, about the upcoming Annual General Meeting and reports.

Workshop 1 (15:15-16:15)

Delivering Unique and Bespoke Outreach Sessions

The Transition to University: The Value of Pre-Entry Support

SUPPORTER SESSION | Supporting Students From Priority Groups Through Their University Journey: Academic Attainment, University Access and Successful Transitions

Postgraduate Led Networking Room

SPONSOR SESSION | The Big Green Quiz: What I’ve Learned About Sustainability in HE Marketing

SPONSOR SESSION | How to Work with External Companies to Deliver Skills-focused Outreach Sessions

EXTERNAL COMPANY SESSION | Stepping Up Without Burning Out

16:15Check in and down time
The HELOA executive team will also be available until 5pm if you have any questions, in particular about the upcoming Annual General Meeting and reports.
16:30-18:30Demo time
This is an optional session. Delegates will have the chance to have a detailed session with some of our conference sponsors to find out more about their products and services.

Stealable secrets from the Blackbullion ecosystem

Datafiltr – the leading Schools and College platform for Higher Education

18:30-20:00Evening Buffet
Served in the main dining room. Come down at a time which suits you best before the evening entertainment starts.
20:00Evening entertainment including the annual HELOA Quiz
The quiz is sponsored by Blackbullion and is optional but super fun.

Thursday 16 January

07:00-09:00Breakfast opens for full delegates
N.B. Full delegates can also use the leisure facilities from 06.30
08:30 Arrival & registration for day delegates and group networking
09:00Conference opens
09:15HELOA Annual Awards – Presentations
The finalists for Best Practice in Widening Participation, Outreach and Access & Best Practice in Student Recruitment will present their entries, and member institutions will vote for the winners.
Voting for awards must be complete by 14:30 via the paper voting form. Reminder: You have one vote per institution.

Workshop 2 (10:00-11:00)

STRATEGIC PARTNER SESSION | Home or Halls? Exploring Prospective Undergraduates’ Decisions to Stay at Home or Move Away for University

Widening Access and Participation Led Networking Room

EXTERNAL COMPANY SESSION | Connection Counts

STRATEGIC PARTNER SESSION | To PG or not to PG? – A data-driven soliloquy on Masters & PhD audiences for 2025

Recruit more students or we’re all F##ked!

Understanding Neurodivergence in Higher Education

SUPPORTER SESSION | New government, same challenges – factors driving student decision-making

11:00 Refreshment break
With opportunity to liaise with HELOA Partners, sponsors and visit the Best Practice Awards Showcase
11:30Keynote – 35 Years Celebratory Progression Panel

To celebrate 35 years of HELOA, we have invited past HELOA Chairs to join us and share their insights and experiences of the sector as well as their HELOA memories! So get ready for a story or two…
The panel will be chaired by the current HELOA Chair, Reena Littlehales and HELOA Vice-Chair (Finance), Fiona Curry.

Jonny Atkinson-White

Jonny Atkinson-White | Customer Success Manager | Revolution Viewing Ltd | HELOA Chair: 2019 – 2023

Joining HE in 2013 Jonny quickly took up the role of VC Training in the North West & Northern Ireland group. Fast forward 10 years later and he was stepping down after 4 year as HELOA Chair at his 10th HELOA conference. The motivation to take on these roles and eventually the lead of the organisation came from the amazing members, the will of people who want to improve themselves and support their friends and colleagues in the process. 

HELOA uniquely provides great opportunities and genuinely wants everyone to do the best for the students we support. Jonny loves the philosophy that you get back what you put in, and this is never more true than with HELOA. The skills and opportunities he got in return for the effort he gave, saw him start the chair role as a recruitment officer and develop into an events and hybrid delivery manager. Without HELOA Jonny would not have had as much opportunity to build experience in strategic decision-making, budgets and leadership. The chance to work with 100s of HEIs and their members has been vital as he has moved into a role supporting the sector, now working with 27 Higher Education Institutions to deliver leading virtualised personalised experiences through the Vepple platform.

Joe Bradbury-Walters

Joe Bradbury-Walters | Head of Outreach | National Film and Television School | HELOA Chair: Jan 2019 – Sept 2019

I have been in outreach for nearly 20 years now, It’s been called different things along the way. I started as a school, then Education, Liaison Officer at the University of Portsmouth, By the time I left, I was a Recruitment and Outreach Officer. I moved on to the University of Surrey and led a team there as Widening Participation and Outreach Manager.

From there, I became head of Outreach at the National Film and Television School. Throughout my career I have loved the creativity of what we do. I was lucky in all of my roles to create new programmes, in my current role, from scratch as outreach was not formally done in my institution before I started. I became a member of HELOA back in 2005. At my first meeting, I was overwhelmed with the knowledge and confidence in the room and never would imagine I would be any more than a spectator at occasional meetings. The fact that I ended my HELOA career as UK Chair still blows my mind (even if my legacy is that I had the shortest term of all UK Chairs!).

My favourite part of being involved in HELOA was without doubt the people. That knowledge and confidence I saw at that first meeting was more accurately passion. I was always in awe of HELOA colleagues for the amount of work and enthusiasm given, especially taking into account they are volunteers it was amazing to be around such a special group of people.

Robbie Pickles

Robbie Pickles | Director of Global Student Recruitment and Admissions | Keele University | HELOA Chair: 2017 – Jan 2019

Robbie is Director of Global Student Recruitment and Admissions at Keele University where he leads the teams responsible for admissions, recruitment, marketing, and widening access activities. Since finishing his first role as President of the Students’ Union at Lancaster, all of his roles have been in student recruitment and outreach, including at Oxford, Sheffield, Lancaster, and Bath. There are very few Travelodges he hasn’t stayed in!

Robbie spent five years on the HELOA Executive from 2014 to 2019, first as HELOA Vice-Chair Finance and then as UK Chair. During this time HELOA started its transition to charity status, and its membership increased substantially – partly due to a large increase in the size of the sector.

My favourite thing about being part of HELOA is the chance to meet so many brilliant people: our fantastic members, our brilliant partners, and people up and down and all around the country with an interest in Higher Education. It’s a great privilege to do a job where we aren’t stuck at a desk, and get to be the face of our institutions. Over the years I’ve seen so many colleagues get promoted, change institutions, or start new and brilliant careers in a wide variety of sectors, and I believe HELOA is often the foundation and springboard that drives those opportunities.

Mike Nicholson

Mike Nicholson | Director of Recruitment, Admissions and Participation | University of Cambridge | HELOA Chair: 2005 – 2007

Mike joined the University of Cambridge in October 2021, having previously worked as Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach at the University of Bath (2014-21) and University of Oxford (2006-2014), and Head of Undergraduate Admissions and Student Recruitment at the University of Essex (1998-2006). He is Chair of the UCAS Council, the stakeholder advisory group that advises the UCAS Trustee Board on sector issues. He is also a Trustee and Treasurer of the Council of International Schools (Chairing the Finance Committee) and a Trustee of the AQA Exam Board and chairs their Higher Education Advisory Group. He has recently joined the Sutton Trust’s Education Advisory Board, and the Rethinking Assessment Advisory Board.

Mike has been National Chair of HELOA twice (2005-07, 2014-17) and was the first Secretary of the Anglia region when the group was established. He supported the development of the new practitioners’ course when working at the University of Essex. HELOA is one of the few national organisations that enables early career staff to take on national roles, and this provided Mike with his earliest opportunity to develop his awareness of HE sector issues beyond his home university. Mike graduated in 1990 from the University of Sheffield with a degree in English and History and attended Allegheny College, Pennsylvania for a year as an exchange student. He was the first member of his extended family to go to university, after attending state-funded comprehensive schools in Gateshead.
Liam Owens

Liam Owens | Pro Vice-Chancellor (Marketing, Student Recruitment and Student Administration) | Edge Hill University  | HELOA Chair: 2010 – 2014

Liam was appointed as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Marketing, Student Recruitment and Student Administration) in October 2023. Liam first joined Edge Hill in 2007. During his 16 years at the University, he has held many senior roles including the Director of Student Recruitment and Administration. Liam provides strategic leadership for the University’s recruitment activity, including international recruitment. He is also responsible for Marketing, Admissions, Careers, Corporate Communications, Academic Registry and The Arts Centre.

He represents the University on external Boards including People and Skills Workstream Group with Lancashire LEP, Skelmersdale Ambassador Board and works collaboratively with Wigan Council, Wigan and Leigh College and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Hospital as part of a recently established Civic University Agreement and partnership group.

He served as Group Chair of HELOA Northwest between 2007-2010, before serving two terms as UK Chair from 2010-2014. 

Panel Chairs
Image of Reena Littlehales

Reena Littlehales | HELOA Chair | Undergraduate Student Recruitment and Access Officer, Keele University

Reena is currently a Student Recruitment and Access Officer at Keele University, who studied her undergraduate in Drama and English Literature between 2012 and 2016 and more recently completed her MA in Education and Social Justice where she researched the lack of ethnic minority students progressing into Postgraduate Research study. She has previously held posts at University of Gloucestershire, Edge Hill University, University of Leicester, and University of Reading, primarily focusing on Widening Participation.

Within her roles, she is dedicated to helping students make informed choices about their educational journey drawing on her own experiences as a student who met multiple WP criteria and always credits outreach practitioners for her journey into HE. In addition to her roles in HE, Reena also volunteers with HELOA, previously holding roles in the Training team and now as the current UK Chair leading the association. Within this role, Reena leads the UK Committee, develops the charity’s strategy in line with its mission to support students and its members and attends meetings across the HE sector as a representative of HE professionals in student facing roles such as Student Recruitment, Access, Widening Participation and Marketing.

Fiona Curry | HELOA Vice-Chair (Finance) | Strategic Lead, Access and Participation, University of Cumbria

Fiona started her career in the Ambassador scheme at the University of Kent, studying English, American Literature and Drama, before working there as an EU/UK Student Recruitment Officer after graduating. Since then, she’s relocated South West, and then North West, working to build partnerships with schools and colleges across the South West at the University of Gloucestershire in their Outreach team, and then leading on partnerships in Cumbria and East Lancashire working at UCLan. She’s been proud to work to support all students, particularly those underrepresented in universities and experiencing disadvantage, to access opportunities in education and succeed.

She’s been actively volunteering since 2018, when she became a school governor in Tewkesbury for three years, and with HELOA since 2020, first in their partnerships team working with non-commercial partnerships. She was offered her first HELOA role just before the pandemic, and worked with the wider team virtually up until September 2021 when they were first able to meet in person. Since she became a HELOA member in her first job, she’s found huge value of learning, exchange of ideas and support and friendship through HELOA which she attributes massively to allowing her to work in her adult dream job (who knows about these jobs when you’re in Primary School?!) in her dream location today.

12.30-14.45Networking what works for you sessions
+ Business Expo and Lunch
Delegates will be split into group A and group B.

Workshop 3 (14:45-15:45)

The Power of Collaboration

SPONSOR SESSION | Empowering Access: Understanding Disadvantaged Students’ Priorities in University Research

The Dragon, The Thistle and The Shamrock

Approaches for Undergraduate to Postgraduate Progression

Regional Recruitment: Improving your engagement

EXTERNAL COMPANY SESSION | Optimising Engagement: How university advisors can avoid wasting time in secondary schools, sixth forms and colleges

16:00 Wellness Hour
An optional session to give you chance to try something new, relax or unwind while also having the chance to network with other delegates.

Options include a book swap, board games, a ceilidh, craft room, jog, yoga, use of the hotel pool, leisure facilities and gym as well as a walking tour of Stratford upon Avon. 
17:00Downtime
Full delegates can use the leisure facilities till 9pm.
19:00 Awards and ‘HELOA’s 35th Birthday’ Gala Dinner
The evening starts with a drinks reception sponsored by Unifrog from 18:30, doors open at 19:00 – We ask that all delegates are seated by 19:15 for the awards presentation to start. The awards and gala will be followed by a disco.

Friday 17 January

07:00-09:00Breakfast opens for full delegates
N.B. Full delegates can also use the leisure facilities from 06:30.
09:00Arrival and registration for day delegates
By 09:15Check out for full delegates
N.B. Bags can be left with the hotel until conference close.

Workshop 4 (09:30-10:30)

STRATEGIC PARTNER SESSION | Maximising UCAS resources for 2025 Discovery events and beyond

SUPPORTER SESSION | Transforming WP Engagement: Insights from the Gen Z Student Lifecycle

Right Queer, Right Now.

“It’s not our fault if they don’t apply”: debunking myths about the postgraduate pipeline

Getting The ‘Reel’ Student Insight: Utilising and Nurturing Students Content Creators to Support Student Recruitment Efforts on Social Media.

EXTERNAL COMPANY SESSION | Own Your Space

Leadership Led Networking Room

10:30 Refreshment break

Workshop 5 (10:45-11:45)

Student Recruitment Led Networking Room

Guardians of Healthcare – A co-designed Widening Participation and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion project, exploring the barriers of Scottish working-class boys into caring professions

SUPPORTER SESSION | Engaging schools and colleges: The Power of Language Before Your Event and Effective Presentation Skills During It

STRATEGIC PARTNER SESSION | Postgraduate Student Finance – the facts, the figures and then what?

SPONSOR SESSION: Bridging the Gap: Aligning Student Recruitment with Career Advisors’ Insights on Student Decision-Making

International Recruitment 101

EXTERNAL COMPANY SESSION | How To Market Courses That Just Won’t Grow

11:45 Refreshment break
12:00 Keynote
Making Every Penny Count: Helping Students Conquer University’s Financial Challenges
Tom Allingham | Save The Student
12:45Conference closes
13:00Networking lunch
or
Grab & Go sandwich available
*Programme correct at time of publication. Sessions are subject to change.