Before arriving for the Institute, delegates will be divided into tutorial groups, each led by a faculty member. These small group meetings are sprinkled throughout the Institute and will serve as touch points to ensure you’re getting what you need out of each of the sessions and the Institute as a whole. These tutorial groups are also an excellent opportunity to share challenges you're currently facing in Alumni Relations/Marcomms and learn from group members how you can address these.

Learning Objective: Understand the challenges facing Marketing and Communications colleagues within the sector as well and introduce the concept of integrated advancement teams.

In management literature there are a wealth of good practise models available that underpin successful strategy development. During such periods of intense competition and uncertainty taking a systematic yet dynamic approach to strategic planning is critical. This session will share some of the core aspects of these models as well as demonstrating how they can be practically applied in a HE context for maximum impact. Themes will include broader strategic alignment, key stakeholder engagement, cultural transformation and change management, and effective target setting and performance metrics. Learning objective: Understand the fundamental building blocks of effective strategy development and have the confidence to put them into practise.

In today’s data-driven landscape, effectively harnessing data is crucial for informed decision-making across the marketing spectrum, encompassing product development, pricing strategies, and engagement initiatives. This session delves into the strategic utilisation of data to enhance marketing decisions and introduces the newly developed CASE Insights Framework for Brand and Reputation Metrics in Education. This framework addresses the critical need for consistent measurement and evaluation practices in marketing and communications within the education sector. Learning objective: Learn how to use data strategically to improve decision-making across marketing activities and gain an understanding of the CASE Global Framework and how it can be applied to measure and strengthen brand and reputation in education.

In October 2016, three higher education institutions, St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra (SPD), Mater Dei Institute of Education (MDI), and Church of Ireland College of Education (CICE) were incorporated into Dublin City University (DCU) creating an integrated, multi-campus university. Following Incorporation on 1 October 2016, these institutions became part of DCU – a secular institution founded in the early 1980s and established as a university in 1989. Following Incorporation, DCU staff and student numbers increased by a third with staff increasing from 1,200 to 1,600 and student numbers increasing from 12,000 to 16,000, approximately.

In a competitive market universities need to differentiate through their brand and reputation both in the UK and globally. This session goes through what makes a good university brand and how do you implement it for maximum impact. We will look at advocacy as a superpower and share some case studies and learnings from organisations that have implemented effective brand strategies.

Psychological safety is an increasingly hot topic globally and for good reason.  It is the foundation for a future focussed, creative, adaptable and resilient culture that anticipates and responds to the needs of the sector and its different customers.  This interactive session will explore psychological safety and the benefits that it delivers for individuals, teams and institutions. We will consider the links between Psychological Safety and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging.  You will leave feeling energised about how you can engage and with some practical ideas that you can use in your work.

Content is king, as the saying goes, but how should it be deployed within universities? This panel, which represents the best and brightest content gurus in the UK’s HE sector, will provide their reflections on developing content for your institution. It will help you to understand the Why?, the Who? and the How? of content strategy. Learning Objective: Identify the elements of an effective, compelling content strategy (or campaign)