HELOA

HELOA logo

HELOA Logo

HELOA is the Higher Education Liaison Officers Association of the United Kingdom.

HELOA represents over 800 members from more than 130 universities in the UK. It is a voluntary association, led by a committee of elected officers. The aims of the association include offering training and development opportunities to its members and providing advice and guidance about higher education to prospective students and their families. As well as a national committee, HELOA operates a network of regional groups, that maintain their own group committees.

HELOA members typically work for UK universities or higher education institutions, in the fields of education liaison, widening participation, outreach or marketing.

Much of the day-to-day administration of HELOA is carried out by the HELOA Office, which is based in Leeds.

Executive and UK Committee

HELOA is led by an Executive and UK Committee of elected and appointed officers, each responsible for different functions of the organisation. A normal term of office is three years. The current team is as follows:

• UK Chair - Liam Owens, Edge Hill University
• UK Vice-Chair (Group Development) - Ben Hughes, Cardiff Metropolitan University
• UK Vice-Chair (Communications, External Relationships & Partnerships) - Nathalie Mortimer, University of Nottingham
• UK Vice Chair (Training) - Amanda Purnell, University of Warwick
• UK Treasurer - Heather Black, Queen Margaret University
• UK Secretary (Governance, Policy & Management) - Karen Hinton, University Campus Suffolk
• UK Secretary (Membership and Meetings) - Vicki Carver, University of Huddersfield
• Conference Officer - Alice Crowe, University of Portsmouth
• Conference Officer - Lucy Murray, University of Essex
• Training Organiser - Jodie Gonzalez, University of Huddersfield
• Marketing Officer (Marketing and Communications) - Ryan Duncan, The University of Edinburgh
• Marketing Officer (External Relations & Partnerships) - Paul Ireland, Liverpool John Moores University
• Web Officer - Matthew Harrison, University of Nottingham
• Web Officer - Shai Vure, University of Chester

The Executive produce a number of documents, including the Constitution, Good Practice Guidelines and press releases.

HELOA Groups

HELOA maintains a network of nine regional groups. These are:

• Anglia
• London
• Midlands
• North East
• North West and Northern Ireland
• South East
• South West
• Scotland
• Wales

Annual Conference and AGM

HELOA hosts an annual conference and AGM in January each year. This is a three-day event involving training sessions and networking opportunities for members and an AGM, where constitutional changes are discussed and voted upon. During this event, there is a ceremony for the annual Innovation and Best Practice Awards.

The next conference is due to take place between 29–31 January 2014 at the Palace Hotel, Manchester

Innovation and Best Practice Awards

The annual Innovation and Best Practice Awards recognise outstanding achievements of individual institutions in the fields of schools liaison, outreach and marketing. Members are asked to nominate their own projects and a shortlist and winner is decided by a panel of judges.

The first of these awards was given in 2012 to Teesside University for their Virtual Postgraduate Open Day.

Vision 2015

HELOA has developed a strategic plan setting out "our mission, our vision and our underpinning values for the period up to 2015". The Vision 2015 document is publicly accessible and is divided into five themes, which the association commits itself to.

Partnerships

HELOA has formed a number of partnerships with organisations within the higher education sector. These include:

• UCAS
• AUA
• Brightside UNIAID
• SPA
• NASMA
• Future First
• UniTasterDays.com
• Student Finance England
• Student Finance Wales
• Student Awards Agency for Scotland
• Student Loans Company
• Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information