The RSC Higher Education Group Network
I have taken over organising the RSC Higher Education Group (HEG) Network meetings from Jenny Burnham, who has made an enormous contribution to our community through establishing and arranging the Network over many years.
This blog post sets out what I want to do with the next couple of meetings and how you can get involved.
To join the mailing list and (optionally) sign-up for the Winter meeting, please fill in this form. This list will replace former lists so that no GDPR issues arise through transferring a contact list. If you want to be kept informed, sign up! There is no requirement to be an RSC member or associated with the RSC Higher Education Group to join these meetings.
Purpose
The HEG Network is centrally about community: meeting other people and talking. The topic of each session needs to be meaningful to attract people and elicit conversation, but is somewhat arbitrary. The format of meetings should leave plenty of space for conversation (e.g. long lunch breaks).
Please come with all the friendliness and curiosity you can muster. Talking with people is not an incidental activity: it is the whole point.
2026 Meetings
The Winter meeting will be in Liverpool on Friday February 20th 2026. The focus will be on the links between Industry and UG teaching, something we rarely discuss in ChemEd meetings for some reason.
The Summer meeting is the day before ViCEPHEC26 in Nottingham (Wednesday August 26th 2026). The focus will be on pastoral care, something we all do but are rarely trained to do.
Beyond 2026
The timelines have meant I have been unable to consult people on what the HEG Network could usefully discuss this year. I want to listen to people’s preoccupations and respond through future programming. What are the concerns of the moment? Please get in touch if you have ideas! I am particularly keen to hear from relatively junior colleagues - this can be a great forum to get you in front of people in a fairly low-stakes way.
I am also keen to move the meeting around geographically. Liverpool is hard to reach from some parts of the country, and a meeting which migrates will let a wider group of people attend. If you are interested in hosting (booking an accessible space and arranging (RSC-funded) catering), please let me know.
Resources for attendees
The HEG Network does not charge an attendance fee and does provide lunch, making it a cost-friendly piece of professional development. It is always worth asking your manager if there is money for travel to one-day meetings like this, but money is tight across the sector at the moment, and funds like this are increasingly absent despite everyone’s best efforts.
There are a few RSC funds which members can apply for. While you do not need to be an RSC member to attend HEG Network meetings, you may need to be a member to qualify for some of these.
HEG Bursary
The Higher Education Group has a limited supply of £100 bursaries to help with things like travel. The central argument you need to make when applying is that it will help your career, something which the Network aims to do through networking structured around timely themes.
RSC Carer Grant
The RSC has grants for carers of up to £1200/year. While there are some eligibility requirements, the money can be used flexibly (including for extra childcare costs associated with attending events). This may be particularly attractive for the summer meeting, when the whole 3-day Network-plus-ViCEPHEC programme might make greater logistical sense.