19 June 2026 - UCISA26 Neil Muir Reflections
UCISA Leadership 2026 - Q&A
Neil Muir
Head of Audio Visual and Unified Communications - University of York
What brought you to UCISA 26 this year?
I was fortunate enough to attend on a 'Plus One' bursary. As someone relatively new to the higher education HE sector, it felt like a great opportunity to get the lie of the land, understand the current climate, and meet the people driving IT and digital leadership across our universities.
What was the highlight of the trip?
Honestly, the location was hard to beat. The conference happened to coincide with St Patrickʼs Day in Liverpool, and if you know anything about the city, you know that makes for quite the party! Beyond the vibrant atmosphere in the streets, the networking was the absolute highlight for me. The exhibition area was a brilliant hub for connecting with senior leaders and suppliers. When you are new to HE, having all those key players in one room is invaluable.
Letʼs talk content. Artificial intelligence was obviously a massive talking point: did you see any practical examples of how universities are actually adapting?
The discussions on how we begin to properly provision and support AI across institutions felt relevant. London Business School captured the macro sentiment by noting that AI will soon be an expected utility like wi-fi. But what really stood out were the practical institutional responses. Oxford shared details of their dedicated AI competency unit, a specific team set up solely to support and enable staff to use AI effectively, treating it as a core function rather than a part-time side hustle.
There was also some refreshing realism on stage; challenging the common senior leadership misconception that AI delivers immediate financial savings, emphasising that we must be open about the fact that while savings may come down the line, they certainly won't be immediate. Combine that with Jiscʼs sobering session on an 'agentic-mediated future', where they warned that we are building systems that will automatically click links we spent years training staff to avoid, and it became clear that while agentic AI sits firmly in the 'run' category, most of the sector is still very much in the 'crawl' stage.
Were there any sessions that tackled the more operational or financial realities of the sector?
Yes, and these sessions provided some incredibly grounded sector insights. The 'Money Talks' panel was particularly illuminating. I loved the takeaway from Glasgow university, where theyʼve stripped away complex capital or revenue terminology to simply talk about cash.
The panels didn't shy away from systemic sector frustrations either, particularly around bureaucracy. There was plenty of shared agreement during a panel discussion on governance meetings, the sheer administrative agony of having to take a single paper through seven different governance groups, even though the exact same three or four key decision-makers sat on every single one of those boards. As a newbie to this sector, it was comforting to hear those institutional pain points aired so transparently on the main stage.
The other major theme was wellbeing. What did you take away from that?
This was easily the most impactful part of the conference for me, specifically an excellent session delivered by the University of Strathclyde on embedding kindness into leadership. They defined workplace wellbeing as an intentional effort by leaders to balance operational demands with care, establishing a 'culture of care' where workplace challenge stretches rather than harms staff.
Crucially, they backed this up with hard operational data, demonstrating that teams operating within a culture of kindness experience 23% less stress and 31% higher productivity, alongside stronger collaboration under pressure. They challenged us to lead with vulnerability by openly saying things like, 'I don't have all the answers either,' which effectively gives others permission to do the same. It was a refreshing reminder of what genuine, supportive management should look like.
What about the social calendar?
The undisputed highlight of the event was the awards dinner. Held in Liverpool Cathedral, which is just a staggering, breathtaking piece of architecture. As a venue, it provided an incredible backdrop for the evening. Even if the formal proceedings of the dinner leaned a little on the dry side (what industry awards event doesnʼt?!, sitting in that spectacular space with new colleagues made it a memorable night.
If you were on the organising committee for next year, what would you tweak?
Iʼd love to see a slight shift in the focus of the main content. This year felt very heavy on specific, granular case studies, and I found myself wishing for a bit more macro-level reflection on broader leadership and management challenges. While the panels on finance and governance touched on these issues brilliantly, much of the general programming left me wanting a bit more strategic depth.
There were also a few logistical quirks to iron out. For instance, using the massive plenary space for smaller breakout sessions meant that those appeared woefully empty. I couldn't help but feel for the speakers; it must be quite dispiriting to present in a cavernous room that looks half-empty, even if a decent number of people actually turned up.
The final verdict?
A highly worthwhile trip. While I hope for a bit more strategic loft next year, the sheer value of the networking cannot be overstated. It was a fantastic induction into the wider HE community, set against the brilliant backdrop of Liverpool.
