This blog post is written by Andrew Cooper, HELOA UK Vice-Chair (Membership & Administration).
Firstly, I would like to say a big hello and thank you to everyone who voted to elect me as the Vice Chair for Membership and Administration. It’s a big role to ensure that everyone’s view from across the membership is heard and I’m looking forward to working with you all shortly.
A key reason I ran for this position as I have enjoyed the benefits HELOA has given me over the years and want to share and give back to the organisation. One of the first things I will be reviewing is what membership looks like as well as reviewing and shaping our code of conduct and best practice, to ensure we are offering the best advice and guidance to students in a professional and passionate way.
The sector has and still is going through massive changes but ultimately our roles still serve the same purpose of supporting students to make informed decisions. From a student point of view, there are over 350 different higher education providers and initially they don’t know the difference between large and small, city and campus, publicly funded or non-publicly funded institutions. No matter who we work for, we appear to our key stakeholders to be offering informed information about HE,
We will shortly be welcoming associate members to reflect the changing landscape of HE and to ensure the high quality that all HELOA members share is spread out across the sector. Some associate members will be returning face to HELOA, some have recently supported training events and shared best practice, which again we all do. There will be slight differences, with full members being able to stand for elected positions and have voting rights at AGM to steer the direction of HELOA, but by broadening our horizons we can ensure that Student Recruitment, Outreach and WP for across the sector live up to the mission and values of HELOA.
Our new associate members will be able to join in our lively discussions to share best practice across the sector, through group meetings and on our social media channels. They will also be able to attend our wide range of training events that we run throughout the year (National, PDC, NPC and webinars) as well as submit entries for the annual HELOA awards. I will work with new institutions to ensure that all members benefit from their inclusion and to ensure that the mission and values of HELOA are upheld.
Again, thank you. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on all matters HELOA, including on what you like to see from us and about our best practice and code of conduct policy, in the coming months as we progress into a new academic year.