Richard Tarplee
AUA is a very useful organisation to belong to for information sharing and networking and it also provides good opportunities for continuing professional development.
”"I became a member of Association of University Administrators (AUA) earlier this year and agreed to attend the conference and co-present a session with my colleague Bev Matthews on 'Attendance Monitoring'.
"I had rehearsed the presentation repeatedly and felt fairly confident about the delivery. We decided to make our presentation interactive and used an electronic voting system for some audience participation and planned to further entertain them with a brief acting slot."
"Despite Bev knocking over a glass of water shortly before the presentation was due to begin - which thankfully missed all of the electronic equipment! - the presentation seemed to go well and we were surprised to find we were still talking after two hours."
"Over the next two days I attended several sessions including a session about attendance monitoring at Nottingham, the role of gender in degree attainment and several sessions about the student experience. I think the most thought provoking session that I went to addressed the role of the private sector in higher education and the challenges this may bring in the future."
"During the evenings we had the chance to meet colleagues from other universities and swap experiences and good practices. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Derby appears to be ahead of many other institutions with a lot of its developments which I found particularly encouraging."
"My overall conclusions are that the AUA is a very useful organisation to belong to for information sharing and networking and it also provides good opportunities for continuing professional development. Also as a member you can take part in frequent email communications that address relevant topics in the sector."
The Association for University Administrators (AUA) is the professional body for higher education managers and
administrators, with around 4,000 members in the UK and worldwide.
