Conference 2012 Delegate Review

SROC 2012

This year, I attended SROC in Newcastle with 9 colleagues from SSIS, Russell Roberts, Bev Matthews, Heather Neubert, Emily North, Ray Lock, Garford Moore, Jean Mutton, Val Pickard and Mark Sullivan.

Russell Roberts is the current chair of SROC and together with committee colleagues and “Team Newcastle” ensured we had a fantastic welcome and really enjoyed our time there. The programme was packed with interesting plenary sessions, with presenters from across the sector talking about the impact of the new tuition fee arrangements and BIS white paper on recruitment and student numbers, changes to the HESA return and the challenge of providing both a specialist and general service to academics and students.

We also attended breakout sessions, covering every area and acronym used in Higher Education – KIS, HEAR, HESA, HEFCE, BI, SNC…These were often interactive and offered opportunities to offer ideas and feed into some of the changes taking place right now in the sector.

I most enjoyed the networking opportunities, both to reinforce where Derby really is ahead of the sector but also to hear about developments at other universities which we could learn from.

Here is what everyone else had to say:

“It was great to hear thought-provoking talks and to meet so many interesting, friendly people”.Heather Neubert

“I found it useful discussing with colleagues from other institutions the approaches that they are taking to the challenges faced by all universities.” Garford Moore

“I’ve been privileged enough to go to SROC 4 times now, 3 times as a presenter. The conference is small and friendly, and most important of all, a really great way to share experiences with people from other institutions. There’s a range of workshops, which though predominantly student records focussed (it is the Student Records Officers’ Conference after all!) does cover other aspects of the student journey.

The keynotes and plenaries are always interesting with some high profile speakers. Peter Slee, Deputy Vice Chancellor at Huddersfield University explained the current policy of student number controls and recruiting AAB students in such a way that I now understand it much better. I’m not involved in Admissions, but I’m a professional administrator in Higher Education, so understanding policies like this is important. There’s so much more knowledge that I’ve gained about other institutions’ practice that will help me and I think it’s important that the knowledge has come from other professionals facing the same trials and tribulations as us.” Bev Matthews

“The impact of 2012 is upon us, and the conference informed us of this and the consequences. It also reaffirmed that Derby are in a position to respond to the challenges compared to other institutions, particularly in areas we can influence around business processing and systems.”

Clare Foyle

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