Membership FAQs

As a member you are able to:

• Build relationships with the many institutions involved in HELOA
• Share best practice with staff in similar positions
• Keep up to date with changes in the HE sector
• Get involved with training and development opportunities
• Attend your group meetings
• Attend our annual conference
• Receive the bi-weekly Bulletin newsletter

See the Membership Benefits page for a full list of benefits.

Individual Membership

• Confirm your application for membership with the HELOA primary contact at your institution, complete the HELOA Individual Membership form

Institutional Membership

• Contact the office at office@heloa.ac.uk for details or complete the HELOA Institutional Membership form

Honorary Membership

• Nominations for Honorary Membership are received in advance of the Annual General Meeting which normally takes place early in the calendar year. At the AGM, the nominations are considered by the membership.
• If you wish to nominate a HELOA member for Honorary Membership, please complete the Honorary Membership Nomination Form including a short paragraph (no longer than 300 words) stating your reasons for the nomination.

• The cost of becoming a HELOA institutional member depends on your student numbers.
• Subscription includes 5 individual HELOA members, but additional members can be added.
• Membership fees are a flat rate and therefore, not pro rata based on joining time during the membership year, which runs from 1st September – 31st August.
• The subscription bands are as follows:

Number of Students	Annual Cost
FE Colleges	£324.00
0 – 1000	£324.00
1001 – 5000	£362.00
5001 – 10000	£445.00
10001 – 15000	£483.00
15000+	£515.00
Additional Memberships	£44.00 per person

• Additional HELOA Members (over the 5 included within institutional membership) are £44 per person. Membership is transferable within the institution at no extra cost but, cannot be transferred between institutions.
• Please note there is no fee for Honorary Membership. This is obtained through a nomination process at the Annual General Meeting.

Institutional Membership

• On completion of the institutional membership form, a confirmation email of the details submitted will be received.
• Once processed, the office will send a welcome email with a request for any further information required, followed by an invoice for the membership fee.

Individual Membership

• On completion of the individual membership form, a confirmation email of the details submitted will be received.
• Once processed, the office will send a welcome email with a personal HELOA membership number, details of mailing lists, how personal data is handled and further information on how to get involved with HELOA.
• Any financial remunerations will be organised with the institutional primary contact.

Honorary Membership

• On acceptance of the honorary nomination at the Annual General Meeting, the membership will be processed with the new member receiving a welcome email including their HELOA membership details, how personal data is handled and further information on how to get involved with HELOA.

• Individual members receive a personal HELOA number when their application has been processed. This is received in a HELOA welcome email. This number is required to book onto HELOA events. 
• The Primary Contact may also maintain a list of individual membership numbers for HELOA members of their institution.  
• The HELOA office will notify members of their membership numbers prior to autumn training events and prior to the Annual General Meeting and national conference (December). 
• On request, the office will be able to advise on membership numbers throughout the year. 

Membership fees are due annually and are valid from 1st September – 31st August each year. Institutional and individual membership will continue unless the office has been notified of membership cancellation or the annual fee has not been received by HELOA. 

Honorary Membership – Honorary Membership lasts indefinitely, however members are contacted each year to determine if the individual wishes to continue with their honorary membership and to ensure that personal data is held in accordance with the HELOA privacy notice.

• The primary contact is copied into the HELOA welcome email which is received by all new individual HELOA members. 
• The HELOA office notifies members of their primary contact biannually; prior to institutional renewal details going out to primary contacts (June) and prior to the Annual General Meeting (December).
• When there is a change of primary contact, the office will notify all HELOA members of the institution with the change.  
• The office can also notify members of their institutional primary contact, on request.  

• Each institution nominates one primary contact. The role of the primary contact is to support their institutional members to participate and contribute in HELOA activities and initiatives and is the main administrative contact for HELOA at the institution. 
• The primary contact for each institution must be a member of HELOA. There is no prior experience necessary for this post but HELOA emphasises that the most appropriate post holder, should be an individual who feels that they have the additional time and capacity to facilitate the role.
• The duration of the post should be decided by the members within each institution but should be reviewed annually along with the HELOA institutional membership renewal (1st September).
• For further details on the role of the primary contact, please see the appropriate role descriptor.

Primary Contact Role Descriptor for Full Members

Primary Contact Role Descriptor for Associate Members  

• The role of primary contact can be transferred to another institutional member by completing the Primary Contact form.

• Inform the institutional HELOA members of the HELOA primary contact vacancy and share the appropriate role descriptor:

Primary Contact Role Descriptor for Full Members

Primary Contact Role Descriptor for Associate Members  

• Once a new primary contact has been appointed, complete the Primary Contact form.

When approaching the end of employment with a HELOA member institution, HELOA members should inform both the institutional primary contact and the HELOA office of their membership ceasing and the name of the new HELOA institution. 

When moving to another HELOA institutional member, the member may continue their membership, based on the office receiving approval from the new institution’s primary contact. Any costs relating to this transfer of membership will be incurred by the member’s new institution. The individual will be required to complete a HELOA Individual Membership form to ensure the office holds the correct details and the member will receive a confirmation email once this has been processed. 

When approaching the end of employment with a HELOA member institution, HELOA members should inform both the institutional primary contact and the HELOA office of their membership ceasing.

Determine if the new institution meets the criteria set out in the Standing Orders. Institutional members must agree to accept the Association’s Constitution, abide by its code of practice, pay the annual subscription and agree to the HELOA Privacy Notice. 

See the institutional membership page for further details on joining as an institutional member.

Apply for institutional membership using the HELOA Institutional Membership form.

When approaching the end of employment with a HELOA member institution, HELOA members should inform both the institutional primary contact and the HELOA office of their membership ceasing.

The HELOA office will remove the member’s details, as soon as possible from the central CRM system and mailing lists. For further details on how HELOA handles personal data and retention periods, see the HELOA Privacy Notice. 

To cancel your Honorary Membership, contact the HELOA Office at office@heloa.ac.uk. Following this, your details will be removed from our records and mailing lists.

HELOA operates through a network of nine HELOA groups covering the whole of the UK. It is these groups who communicate, plan, manage and deliver activities and services at a local level. Each group meets at least three times a year which all HELOA members are entitled to attend. To help understand how the groups are structured see the Groups Structure Chart. 

Individual HELOA members are subscribed to their local group mailing list (Jiscmail) where the group committee will share details on group meetings, training, events, HELOA group and UCAS vacancies and ways to be involved with HELOA. 

There are various ways to get involved with HELOA national events 

• There are a range of events run by the national training team each year: Professional Development Conferences, New Practitioners’ Conference, National Conference and webinars. See the training page for further details.  
• Members can also get involved with national training events by expressing an interest in supporting one of the conferences or by suggesting new speakers. To do this, please complete the Expression of Interest/Ideas for HELOA Workshops form and the training team will assess how your session would potentially fit into the program and get in touch. 
• The Annual General meeting (AGM) is held each year where members are invited to attend and share their comments and questions, primary contacts canvas the opinion of their wider institutional members and vote and, in the absence of the primary contact another HELOA institutional member may act as proxy. 
• Keep up to date with what is happening at a national level through the Digest newsletter, social media, the HELOA website and HELOA training emails.

There are various roles you can consider as a HELOA member. 

Institutional Primary contact 

• Each institution nominates one primary contact, who will be the representative of all HELOA members within the institution. This is the main administrative contact for HELOA at the institution.
• Details of this role will be circulated within your institution. For further details on the role of the primary contact, please see the appropriate role descriptor.

Primary Contact Role Descriptor for Full Members

Primary Contact Role Descriptor for Associate Members 

• The role of primary contact can be transferred to another institutional member by completing the Primary Contact form.

Charity Trustees

• HELOA full members can stand for a charity trustee position as either, a member of the executive committee as the UK Chair or UK Vice-Chair or, as part of the UK committee as a Group Chair.
• Elections for these positions are advertised in accordance with the HELOA Standing Orders through national and group emails. 

Appointed Officers 

• There are many appointed officer roles who work at a national level to help support the UK committee in meeting the goals of the strategy. These include Conference Managers, Partnerships Managers and Digital Communication Managers.
• Appointment of these positions is for full members only and is through an application and interview process, communicated through national emails. 

Group Committees

• In addition to the Group Chair, there are also group Vice-Chair positions, Group VC (Membership & Communications), VC (Training) and VC (Partnerships).
• These are elected positions which are open to full HELOA members and are communicated through group emails.

Associate Member Representative

The Associate Member Representative is designed to represent members from associate member institutions. 

For further details on roles within HELOA, see the Committee and Group pages of the website and the UKC Structure and Group Structure charts.