3 November 2026 · Book your place

An exclusive event from

The collaboration
question

Getting real and making it real in UK higher education

Impact Hub Euston · London · 3 November 2026

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Why now

The question in front of every executive team and governing body

UK higher education is being asked to do more together – by ministers, by funders, and by its own balance sheets. Merger makes the headlines, but the bar to it is high and it's not right for every institution.

The strategic opportunity is about everything else institutions can do together and with other entities: student experience, innovation, curriculum, back office and shared services, estates and infrastructure – and what leaders are prepared to put on the table to make it real.

The examples and learning are there, from other sectors and systems, but they require translation. Culture, strategic capacity, and the political landscape put up barriers but these don't have to be insurmountable.

Executive leaders and governing bodies may hold the vision but the people who will have to make it happen need the space and time to talk honestly and openly about how to execute collaborations that deliver value and that stick. On 3 November, that space exists.

The programme

The order of the day

One day; limited space. From the strategic case, to regional growth, to access and opportunity, to the organisational capacity that makes collaboration stick – with case studies and Q&A throughout, and the policy asks to close. Registration from 8.30; drinks at 17.30. All at the vibrant Impact Hub near Euston.

Speakers and case studies are announced on this page as they confirm.

View the full programme ↓Hide the programme ↑
8.30Registration and snacks
9.30Welcome to the eventDebbie McVitty, Editor, Wonkhe, and James Coe, Partner, Policy.Partners.
9.45Getting realWhat is the strategic case for collaboration, what needs to be on the table, and how do you take it from idea to reality? Our expert panel share their insight about how to make collaboration work – and why it falls apart.
10.30Case study with Q&A
11.00Break for hydration, snacks and networking
11.30From spillover to strategicCollaborating to power regional economic growth: developing innovation ecosystems, and building the “sticky regions” that attract students and retain graduates.
12.30Case study with Q&A
13.00Lunch, networking, and a collaboration challenge
14.00Access, opportunity, and choiceCan collaboration help the sector reconcile the tensions between them? Diving deep on subject specialism, subject spread, and geographies of opportunity: where the vulnerabilities and skills gaps are, and what a workable model for collaboration could look like.
14.45Case study with Q&A
15.15Break for hydration, snacks and networking
15.45Building organisational capacity for collaborationNew insight into why and how collaboration works – resourcing, capacity, and organisational capability – and the chance to assess your own readiness for sustainable collaboration.
16.45The policy environment for collaborationWhat the sector needs from government.
17.30Close of event and drinks reception – hosted by Policy.Partners

Share the programme: thecollaborationquestion.com/programme

The room

For the people who make collaboration happen

  • Senior and mid-level leaders driving strategic collaboration in institutions
  • Sector bodies exploring the policy context for collaboration
  • Academic and professional service community leaders, experts and advisors to the sector shaping the terms of collaboration

Places are limited by space, not ambition.

An exclusive Wonkhe event

Wonkhe is the home of the UK higher education policy debate – read every morning by the people who lead the sector, and trusted to convene its most consequential conversations. Its team and network bring deep experience of higher education policy, analysis and convening – including the Festival of Higher Education, the sector's gathering of debate and ideas.

Policy.Partners is Wonkhe’s sister firm providing strategy, advice and consultancy to institutions and policy actors in the space. Both are practices of Thesis – a house of higher education ideas.

The collaboration question brings all of our collective experience to one question, for one day.

Collaboration on Wonkhe ↗ wonkhe.com ↗

Tickets · on sale now

Book your place

One hundred places. Pay by card, or book on invoice – an invoice booking secures your place on the spot. Wonkhe institutional subscribers book at the discounted subscriber rate.

SECURE BOOKING · TICKETS.THECOLLABORATIONQUESTION.COM3 NOVEMBER 2026 · LONDON

Trouble with the module? Open booking in its own tab ↗ · Booking terms · queries to events@wonkhe.com

The reception · 17.30

The evening is hosted by

The summit closes with drinks among the people the day was built for. The conversation continues – and the follow-up starts here.

policy.partners ↗