Students at the Heart Conference 2026 submissions
Submissions for the 2026 conference are now closed.
We invite submissions from staff, students, and partners, including professional services, academics, technical teams, and researchers. Whatever work you are doing to improve LJMU, we want to hear your stories and insights.
Examples of suitable topics include (but are not limited to):
- promoting excellence in teaching and the student experience
- enhancing student or staff wellbeing
- creating inclusive and diverse environments in the workplace or for learning
- encouraging collaboration
- improving assessment and feedback
Examples of best practice are welcome, or stories of successes and achievements, and submissions from non-student facing teams are encouraged. When writing your proposal, you may wish to refer to:
- our vision and values
- LJMU mission and strategy
- LJMU Framework for High Quality Teaching and Learning
These are three types of submissions that can be made:
- 25-minute session: 15 to 20 minutes presentation time with five to 10 minutes for discussion and questions
- Five minute lightning talk: five minutes presentation using a maximum of two slides. Multiple lightning talks will be scheduled within one session.
- Poster: a visual summary of your work, combining concise text, graphics and images to communicate key messages in a clear and engaging format, poster will be displayed throughout the conference.
Successful submissions will be judged on a combination of the following:
- Relevance of the topic to the LJMU Mission and Strategy.
- Cross-university interest for Professional Services and Academic roles.
- Sharing examples of institutional good practice.
- Application of student and staff voices to enhance the university experience, including inclusive and support approaches.
- Interesting and effective use of technology to engage staff and students.
- Extent to which the presentation is evidence-informed or has the potential to contribute to the evidence-base.
- Research based submissions should include relevant details of the research process and be evidence informed, and overview of the results if these are available at the time of submission.
Titles of sessions must not exceed 15 words, please consider how relatable the title will be to a wider audience. The session overview should be no longer than 300 words. Successful submissions will be published on the LJMU website before and after the event. To view proceedings from previous years please visit The Learning Exchange.
To submit to conference please complete the Students at the Heart Conference submission form.