Conference Programme

The Welcome Event will be held on the lawn in front of St Salvator’s Hall. In the event of poor weather, it will be relocated indoors to St Salvator's Hall, University of St Andrews, 8 The Scores, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AZ.

The Welcome Event will be held on the lawn in front of St Salvator’s Hall. In the event of poor weather, it will be relocated indoors to St Salvator's Hall, University of St Andrews, 8 The Scores, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AZ.

UK higher education is at an inflection point. Various forces are converging to push universities into an increasingly narrow corner. In this opening keynote, Diana Beech and Alex Hall combine policy and legal forces to give us a new way to think about the multiple challenges facing our sector, the strategies to help us overcome them, and the practical realities of what these options could mean on the ground. Designed as a scene-setter, this keynote sets the pace, raises the stakes and frames the choices ahead for a sector under pressure.

The session will be presented by Richard Nicholas of Browne Jacobson in collaboration with a partner organisation. Richard is a leading expert in technology law, advising on new technology adoption, including outsourcing, e-commerce, data protection and contracts. The presentation will cover practical examples such as how to use AI in university research contracts and how to deploy A1 agents securely institution wide.

The proposed Public Office (Accountability) Bill 2025, better known as Hillsborough Law, represents a radical shift in how public authorities and officials in the UK will be held accountable in the future. Higher education institutions and their employees will be subject to new statutory duties designed to embed honesty and transparency into public life, in some cases enforceable by criminal sanctions. 
 
In this session Claire Leonard will provide an overview of the proposed changes and consider the implications for Higher Education providers and their legal teams. She will discuss practical tips for navigating the new duties to ensure compliance and consider how internal investigative processes are likely to be scrutinised under the proposed legal framework. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion.

With income to universities within the UK increasingly under pressure, institutions are increasingly looking at expanding TNE delivery. But this comes at a time of increased regulation and focus on that delivery. This session will help lawyers to navigate the tension. We have seen:

• a new international education strategy, which encourages TNE delivery;

• An OfS letter to Chairs highlighting risks in this delivery;

• The FIRS scheme requiring universities to consider foreign influence;

• A regulatory framework around quality, E6 and FoS that directly affect TNE; and

• New DfE guidance on Protecting UK Higher Education from foreign interference.

The University Of Leeds developed its ORCA (Online RIS Contracts Agreements) System, using the Agiloft Platform, to embrace Smart Forms and Automated Workflows, replacing manual management of its Legal Matters for Research Agreements. This was part of a wider Vision, and UoL are now working with SaaSam to build-out ORCA, to cater for Business Engagement Agreements, implement Self-Service for Contracts, embed AI into its day-to-day processes, and, integrate with its new Research Management System.

More information to follow.

A round up of recent case law of relevance and interest to Higher Education institutions.

This session, presented in conjunction with a psychologist, will comprise the following components: 

• Understanding the challenge
• Legal and policy framework
• Defining unacceptable behaviour
• Balancing fairness and protection
• Managing the complaint procedure
• Engaging with the psychology and formulating a strategy
  
  

University legal teams are increasingly required to operate beyond traditional boundaries - working across disciplines and cultures while supporting complex teaching, research, and commercial activity. This interactive 45 minute workshop invites participants to think beyond organisational silos and beyond legacy approaches to managing legal work.

Using practical frameworks and short case examples, the session explores how matter management and contract management together can evolve from fragmented administrative processes into joined up, lifecycle based operating systems that enable collaboration, insight, and institutional impact. Rather than treating matters, contracts, and data as silos, participants will examine how they can be designed to reinforce one another across intake, triage, delivery, knowledge capture. Participants will also learn how legal grade AI is rapidly removing the manual, the repetitive and the mundane. 
 
The workshop will focus on how university legal teams can:
•             Design lifecycle based matter and contract management that supports high volume, repeatable work (such as research, education, HR, and commercial contracts) while remaining flexible across institutional partners.
•             Improve visibility, consistency, and reuse through better contract data, templates, and playbooks - reducing friction for academics and professional services teams.
•             Use light touch metrics and insight (rather than heavy financial reporting) to demonstrate impact, prioritise work, and support better decision making.
•             Prepare for the next phase of legal operations through pragmatic use of automation, Agentic AI, and analytics, with appropriate attention to governance, ethics and accessibility.

Participants will leave with adaptable tools and ideas that can be applied across institutions of different sizes and operating models, supporting more integrated, future focused legal services within higher education.

Gayle Ditchburn (Pinsent Masons) and Poppy Short (Mills and Reeve) will examine the legal issues arising from HE mergers, from structuring, governance and regulatory approvals to risk allocation. Having both worked together on a number of recent HE mergers, Gayle and Poppy will share their insights on lessons learned, pitfalls and pragmatic steps to consider from a legal perspective. We will also reflect on the role of the in-house legal team in a merger scenario and provide our insight on ways to help the legal aspects of the merger succeed. 

Caroline Prosser delivers a clear, practical and legally informed session on how universities can run fair, transparent and defensible harassment and misconduct investigations. Drawing on extensive experience in employment, education and safeguarding, she explains what institutions must get right to protect students, staff and the university itself.

In this talk, Caroline covers:

1. Duty of Care and Minimising Legal Risk
Why duty of care - not fear of litigation - must drive decision making, and how universities can significantly reduce legal challenges through fair process design.

2. Applying the Correct Burden of Proof
Clear guidance on using the civil standard (balance of probabilities), training panel members to apply it correctly, and avoiding the common drift toward the criminal standard of “beyond reasonable doubt.”

3. Effective, Trauma Informed Evidence Assessment
How to weigh different forms of evidence, understand the impact of trauma on memory, identify unconscious bias, and ensure panels evaluate credibility safely and consistently.

4. Building Fair, Impartial Panels
Best practice for panel composition, including managing conflicts of interest, diversity considerations, and sharing panel membership in advance to avoid perceptions of bias.

5. Respondents with Legal Representation
Practical guidance on managing legally represented students or staff, maintaining equality of arms, and ensuring proceedings remain an internal disciplinary process - not a criminal trial.

6. When Police Proceedings Overlap
How to handle cases that may also be criminal offences, when to pause internal processes, how to protect complainants, and what universities can and cannot do while police cases are ongoing.

7. Writing Robust, Defensible Outcomes
How to document decisions clearly, explain evidence and rationale, and avoid legal risk through transparent reasoning - including when it is helpful to split hearings into fact finding and sanction stages.

Drawing on real world examples this talk will address a variety of pitfalls and challenges faced by public sector organisations in the context of data protection at home and abroad with actional insights for attendees.

This keynote will draw on Funke’s personal and professional journey across private practice, global in-house leadership, healthcare, AI governance and the legal profession more broadly.

Combining storytelling, leadership insight and practical reflection, the session will explore what it means to navigate complexity, reinvention and change in modern professional life within evolving institutional environments.

The session will also reflect on some of the lessons and perspectives explored in Funke’s book, Climbing Mountains, including the idea that careers and leadership paths are rarely straightforward and that growth often comes through challenge, uncertainty and reinvention.

This session offers a practical legal overview of due diligence and risk management in university spin-outs, particularly where external investment is involved. We will explore the university’s “dual role” as IP licensor and shareholder, and the tensions this can create with incoming investors. Using real-world examples, we will highlight common diligence findings and deal pinch points: IP ownership and licensing, governance and reserved matters, warranties/indemnities, conflicts of interest, reputational risk, and the National Security and Investment Act (NSIA) where relevant. Attendees will leave with a clear sense of what to look for, what to document, and how to structure protections—plus a concise checklist of common pitfalls to use as a take-away in future transactions.

In this session Jeremy will explore recent trends in overseas collaborations and partnerships including:

•    Recent trends we're seeing in overseas collaborations – key risks and the steps universities are taking to manage those risks

•    Academic freedom and freedom of speech – how the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act impacts on overseas collaborations

•    Updates to the QAA Code on partnerships with overseas organisations

•    Other regulatory issues which universities need to be aware of

•    How in-house lawyers can help UK universities manage risk and ensure compliance

We will aim to make this session as interactive as possible, and there will be time for questions at the end. 

An overview of the key differences between Dispute Resolution processes in Scotland and England, and what to do when they interlink.

The session will touch on issues including:
(i) jurisdictional considerations when raising proceedings in Scotland where there are cross border elements 
(ii) the different pre-action requirements between the jurisdictions; 
(iii) the use of diligence (arrestment/inhibition) on the dependence to secure assets in Scotland pending conclusion of court proceedings in England. 
(iv) enforcement of cross-border judgments

David Stead (Mills & Reeve) and Victoria Goddard (Pinsent Masons) will provide a practical update on the student accommodation market, focusing on the delivery and ownership models that universities are actively grappling with. Drawing on recent experience, they will explore the legal and commercial considerations behind in house development, private finance arrangements, joint ventures and other partnership models. The discussion will look beyond headline structures to examine the governance, risk allocation and day to day practicalities that sit behind these choices, including how institutions can retain appropriate control while managing financial and delivery risk. 

Most universities still manage NDAs, consortium agreements, and data processing agreements through email chains, shared drives, and overstretched legal teams — leading to compliance gaps, delays, and projects starting without signed agreements. In this session, the University of Bristol and Docfield share how they replaced manual contract drafting with an automated workflow using smart templates, structured intake, and built-in compliance checks. Hear what changed, what the impact has been, and what Bristol would do differently next time.

James Murray is one of the leading practitioners and academics on this topic (he is pursuing his PhD on it, and writing the definitive text for Cambridge University Press). He will cover key updates on the law pertaining to this topics, including key cases such as Cofnas v Emmanuel College, Cherrington v U. of Derby (he was instructed in both) and University of Sussex v OfS. He will also approach the topic more broadly, with reference to managing speech and belief related claims in a university context.

Across the UK and Ireland, university legal teams are navigating a landscape shaped by shared pressures and sharply differing regional realities. In this cross‑jurisdiction panel, colleagues from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland come together to compare experiences, challenge assumptions and explore how policy, regulation and institutional culture are shaping legal practice. Designed as an open, conversational session, Beyond Borders offers fresh perspectives on the issues uniting and dividing our sector, the approaches emerging in each nation, and the opportunities for deeper collaboration. It’s a chance to step back, widen the lens and hear how others are meeting the moment.

AI is now a regular feature of University disputes including student complaints, claims and in employment tribunal proceedings, but also in the making of subject access requrests. In this session we look at how generative AI is being used, what are the rules in courts and tribunals, and the practical tools in-house lawyers might be able to use to respond.

This session will explore key legal and regulatory developments in the duties of HEIs to protect students and staff from harassment, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, including liability for third party harassment and the “all reasonable steps” duty under the Employment Rights Act, and key learning points in relation to Condition E6.

As the conference draws to a close, this final session aims to take stock of a year that has reshaped the work of university legal teams and the sector they support. Designed as a candid, forward‑looking conversation, this session offers space to pause, connect the dots and consider what comes next — with plenty of time for questions, reflections and contributions from the room.