The Spinnaker Group was founded in 2017 by Professor Harriet Dunbar-Morris, currently Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic and Provost at the University of Buckingham. The group was created to fill a gap in the sector — at the time, there was no cross-institutional, mission-group-neutral forum for colleagues with strategic responsibility for teaching, learning and the student experience to come together and share ideas.

Since its first meeting at the University of Portsmouth, the group has grown to over 80 member institutions from across the UK and beyond, including partners in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Switzerland. Meetings have been hosted at institutions including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Salford, Buckingham and Oxford.

Topics discussed at Spinnaker meetings have included student success and widening participation, student feedback, mental health, mitigating circumstances, raising social capital, extra award schemes, personal tutoring, and engaging the 'middle layer' of students.

Further Reading