Summer Symposium 2022

NEON Summer Symposium

The 10^th annual NEON Summer Symposium is being held on Thursday 16^th and Friday 17^th June at Keele University.

This year’s symposium will mark 10 years since NEON was founded in 2012. As with any other organisation a 10th birthday provides an opportunity both to reflect and look forward. At our 10th symposium, the theme will be what success means in terms of widening access and participation in higher education.

The conference will focus on initiatives and activities that have had clear, measurable impact over the last 10 years as well as those which consider what constitutes success for learners, schools, colleges, universities and policy makers. The government seeks to ‘reboot’ widening access work and place a stronger emphasis on ensuring learners from under-represented groups achieve good graduate outcome. This is the time for those in the widening access community to put forward their vision of success and help shape the discussion for the Office for Students, universities and the government regarding what widening access work should look like over the next 10 years of NEON’s like and what it should be striving to achieve.

Bringing together key figures from across the education sector, policymakers and employers with organisations from across sectors committed to social mobility through widening access to HE, thus NEON’s 10^th Summer Symposium will be the most important event for those working in the field in 2022. Over 70 papers will be presented over the two days of the event.

The NEON Summer Symposium – the event for widening access professionals you can’t afford to miss. After two years away from a face-to-face event, we are looking forward to making the 2022 Symposium the best and biggest event so far!

Event information:

• Agenda
• Supported by The Elephant Group
• Confirmed Keynote Speakers
  • Jo Gideon MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central
  • John Blake, Director of Fair Access and Participation, Office for Students
  • Charlotte Hitchings, Chair of the Student Experience and Opportunity Committee, HEFCW
  • Mark Lee, Director of Tertiary Education Reform, Department for the Economy Northern Ireland
  • Sir Peter Scott, Commissioner for Fair Access, Scotland
  • David Morgan, Chief Executive, Career Development Institute (CDI)
  • Saeed Atcha MBE, CEO of Youth Leads UK, Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester and Former Social Mobility Commissioner
  • Professor Mark Ormerod, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, Keele University
  • Larissa Kennedy, National President, National Union of Students

The 2022 NEON Summer Symposium is kindly hosted by: