Surveying the Landscape & Steadying the Ship: The challenges facing universities and how to respond to them: Smita Jamdar - Relationship Partner, Shakespeare Martineau

Presenter: Smita Jamdar

Institution: Relationship Partner, Shakespeare Martineau

Format: Presentation

Smita Jamdar is Relationship Partner for the Shakespeare Martineau’s education clients and advises on strategic, regulatory, constitutional, governance and student matters. Indentified as a leader in her field in both Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners, clients describe her as ‘a calm and reassuring presence… going above and beyond simply providing a service: she is genuinely interested in and care about the organisation’. Her approach is best summed up by Chambers & Partners: ‘She is very knowledgeable about the sector, very well informed about the challenges the sector faces, and insightful about how we could change and adapt’.

Smita is a member of the Higher Education commission, a regular speaker at sector conferences and an enthusiastic contributor to sector debate through the firm’s education blog, Going Further & Higher (http://educationblog.shma.co.uk/) and her twitter feed, @smitajamdar

This year’s SROC conference takes place at a time when things look distinctly uncertain both for the nation and for universities. This broad-ranging session will review the key challenges facing universities, such as Brexit, the outcome of the HE funding review, the renewed focus on the civic role of universities, changes to the regulatory landscape and student welfare issues such as mental health and sexual misconduct, and suggest the steps universities could take to anticipate and respond to them.