It’s been a few weeks since we closed Not Another HE Conference 2025 and we’re still on a buzz from seeing such positivity, passion and collaboration from across the sector.

This year we fittingly took center stage at The Spine, in Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter, which is normally home to The Royal College of Physicians. For 2 whole days in March it was home to 136 delegates from 44 different UK universities and partners from across the sector.

Daring to be different is in the DNA of Education Cubed and Not Another HE Conference (NAHEC) is a true showcase of that. We let the sector set the agenda based on current pressures and priorities, we find speakers from in and out of sector who can passionately talk about those topics and we have a whole load of surprises for you along the way. We believe events like this should provide insights which not only inspire but can be put into action, so we seat delegates together with their counterparts from different universities.

The theme for this year was The Bigger Picture, with both a domestic UK and a global focus on the challenges the sector is facing. Our aim was to bring colleagues from different UK institutions together to collaboratively find solutions to those shared challenges, with space and time allocated for action planning using the learnings and insights delivered by our wonderful speakers.

DAY 1: SUPPORTING THE SECTOR

Day 1 started with a guest appearance from Liverpool and comedy legend, Ricky Tomlinson (best known for his role as Jim Royle in The Royle Family), who welcomed us all to his home city.

A tough act to follow, but our keynote speaker Phil Baty (Chief Global Affairs Officer, Times Higher Education) set the scene for the global pressures facing the sector, ending with an air of optimism around the strength in depth that UK universities have and the Great British impact seen through THE’s University Impact Rankings.

Matteo Quacquarelli and Kym Nguyen from QS Quacquarelli Symonds were up next, with a deep dive into the data that is influencing international student recruitment and the motivations driving the changes that we’re seeing. Claire Bodiguel (Paid Media Specialist, Prospects), Clare Mackay (Deputy Director of Student Recruitment and Admissions, The University of Edinburgh) and Adam Smith (Head of International, Education Cubed) then guided us through how universities can strategically align their recruitment strategy around predictability and diversification.

The afternoon sessions were focused on student engagement, kicking off with Emma Bridge (Director of Marketing, IDP) and Hannah Burchell (Director of Marketing, Communications & External Relations, The University of Salford) who took us through how student finances are having a direct impact on the decision making process and how IDP’s Cost of Living Calculator is offering an invaluable resource to prospective students.

The Student Room’s Paul Cernicharo-Terol (Commercial Director) and Joe Woodcock (Head of Student Community Engagement) showed us what students are talking about right now and what sentiment analysis can tell us about how they’re feeling. Our final speaker of the day was Kyle Campbell (Founder, Education Marketer) who took us back in time to the early days when websites were inspiring and magical playgrounds for audiences and how perhaps, it’s now time to take inspiration from that to win back students’ hearts.

Day 1 wasn’t finished there. We rounded off a jam-packed day with SOS: Save Our Sector, an interactive session which got tables to work together to design a campaign to promote the UK higher education sector to the world. After some amazing and hilarious AI-powered elevator pitches back to the room, we crowned Table 7 our winners! #NoDramaJustDegrees

A huge shout out to our wonderful sponsors for supporting us in delivering such a great event and for providing custom (and questionably-named) cocktails during dinner. We truly appreciate you being a part of the conference and allowing us to deliver so much value to the sector  – thank you Hayhurst & Co, The Student Room, IDP Education, QS and Prospects.

DAY 2: PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Day 2 had a focus on personal development and started with an out-of-sector bang. Daryl Fielding, ex-Managing Director at Vodafone UK and Mondelez Europe and author of the definitive guide to brands, The Brand Book, showed us how to reposition and how to bring a sense of courage back to marketing departments within an organisation.

Next up, Sarah-Jane Spooner (Head of Creative Services & Insight, Education Cubed) gave us a toolkit for driving change within your institutions through strategic storytelling.

Our panel, expertly chaired by Deon-Nadine Butler (Director Of Marketing And Communications, London Metropolitan University) and joined by Rebecca Best (Head of Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University), Steven Minney (Head of Student Recruitment, Swansea University) and Vivek Evjemo (Head of Account Management, Education Cubed) discussed how to create buy-in and how to brand build within an institution. The session drew a lot of engagement in the Q&A and some true collaborative thinking around the need to more broadly promote the UK Higher Education sector.

Helle Hammonds and Robbie Turner, from our headline sponsor Hayhurst & Co, delivered a timely and honest view of how to spot and prevent burnout at both a personal level and within the teams that you manage.

The speakers of our penultimate session of the conference needed no introduction. Helen Bower (Chief Marketing Officer, Northumbria University) and ​Lizzie Burrows (Chief Marketing and Recruitment Officer, Imperial College London) took to the stage to walk us through the changing face of HE leadership and the role of marketing teams within that.

To round off Not Another HE Conference 2025, Jo Redfern-Evans (CEO, Education Cubed) and Marcus Palmer (Chief Operating Officer, Education Cubed) took a refreshing view of the role of advertising agencies in the current landscape, how AI is changing the agency model and what you need to be doing to keep up.

Thank you to all of our speakers for putting in so much work on top of your very busy schedules. Thanks to every member of the Education Cubed team who helped us in putting the event together. A special thank you must go to Ellie Windle and Samantha Wassif for all of the hard work that went into planning the logistics, collateral and marketing.

And lastly, thank you to our two hosts, Chris Rogers and Vicky Hayhurst for being the best double act to grace Liverpool since Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman in the mid-90s.

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