News story

The Higher Education Academy UK Travel Fund 2011/12 - Call for applications

Mon 17th Oct, 2011

This new UK-wide initiative for 2011-12 builds upon similar recent HEA schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The purpose of this fund is to help staff and students engage in activities (e.g. events, and meetings). The HEA is committed to sustainability and increased efficiency in the delivery of its services and has started to run some “virtual” events e.g. through the use of Elluminate, however, the technological infrastructure is still in its infancy and feedback from the sector suggests that face to face contact is still the preferred mode of engagement.

The HEA’s new travel fund will help enable staff and students in UK higher education to exchange and disseminate good practice in learning, teaching and assessment and engage with their peers.

1.     It is only open to academic/academic related staff and students from HE providers subscribing to the HEA.

2.     Applicants may be individuals or teams.

3.     Applicants must complete a written application form providing a case for funding and must provide formal approval from their institution. The following selection criteria will be used:

a.      the activity must be related to at least one of the HEA’s current seven priority themes: assessment, education for sustainable development, employability, internationalisation, flexible learning, retention and success, reward and recognition of teaching;

b.      likely impact of the activity in the sector e.g. including nature of the engagement proposed by the applicant, scope and purpose of the event;

c.      extent of the professional development/ capacity building opportunities for the applicant(s) etc;

d.      value for money should be demonstrated and applications with matched funding are encouraged.

4.     Successful applicants must provide a short account of how they used the funds and the impact that the event had in terms of helping to facilitate change within their department or institution within three months of the event/ meeting.

5.     Applications can be submitted at any time throughout the financial year (1 August 2011- 31 July 2012).

6.     An overview report will be published each year which outlines how the funding has been used (demographic analysis) and its impact. This further extends the already extensive database of evidence-informed case studies for the sector.

For further information and any questions related to the above, please email uktravelfund@heacademy.ac.uk

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/alldisplay?type=news&newid=2011/Hea_launches_travel_fund&site=york