31 March 2026 - UCISA26 Lisa Jefferies Reflections
Reflections on the UCISA Leadership Summit 2026 #UCISA26
I was lucky enough to be in receipt of a +1 bursary place for this conference, one that I had not attended before as my role moved from Project Management to Senior Leadership.
Arriving just before lunch at the ACC in Liverpool I was impressed with the grand scale of the building and indeed Liverpool itself which I had not visited in a number of years. After my quick first look at some of the suppliers and a tasty lunch, it was straight into the opening keynote speech which talked about the Lifelong Learning Agenda, what to look at to differentiate ourselves as a sector and the potential consideration of how shared services may be considered in the future.
Followed by a presentation on ‘Leading differently in Lean Times’, we were introduced to the concept that Learning should be difficult but navigating the learning journey should be simple. As Universities how do we ensure that students are seen, heard and valued with learning at the heart of their experience? This raises questions on how Universities work collaboratively across departments to ensure that the students are allowed to focus on curiosity with the tech solutions being secondary.
As part of the sponsored sessions, I attended the Google partner showcase that looked at AI and authenticity. This session explained how the University of Oxford used Google Gemini and Notebook LM to support learning. In addition to navigating the governance complexities, the session looked at how ‘guided learning’ could be used safely by students. The session raised the concept of getting Gemini to interview you on your topic and using these to generate material and consider AI as you would a tutor that you were engaging with - Food for thought for my studies!
The Final session of the day was titled The Unmuted Queens: Care Chaos and Coming Back! At first, I was trying to understand what these ladies were coming back from but it was a tale of survival when they had been at first unheard in developing a Student Record System, a project that ended up spanning over 7 years. The tale explained how these women used their strong bonds to navigate a change that seeped into their lives with trust a key factor in survival. This was a lesson in trust but also one in ensuring that a voice and support mechanisms are put in place from the outset.
Day 2
Following on from the Showcase session the day before, the day opened with a session on making GenAI Equitable. In this session, ‘Cloudforce’ explained some of the case studies that they had supported in creating a tailored safe AI environment for their students and staff including the University of Manchester and London Business School. An example of students and staff gaining mutual benefit was where students had created agents that could then be used by the student support desk to answer questions and save staff time safely.
The partner showcase I chose for the morning was sponsored by boxxe who were looking at Smart Campus developments using Way Finding (beacons) and Room Utilisation (room sensors). The beacons had been utilised to help students at the beginning of their journey to find their way to campus and directed marketing on the nearest restaurants etc. Cisco spaces software was clever with room utilisation of those in a space, when a window was opened, radiators could be programmed to be switched down etc. I was interested in this as Teesside have recently written a paper on how it is a Smart Campus but I wanted to hear from others. The Cisco spaces may be an area where we can still develop and in the current political situation, save money further.
The last session of the morning was perhaps the one that most resonated with my role, entitled Money Talks – Can we still afford it (IT)? The session seemed to have a recurring concern on the transition from Capital to Revenue funding which had arisen earlier in the conference for IT budgets. Glasgow, as Teesside has, have made this transition with a 15 year forecast. I asked a question of the panel on how they saw the purchasing of hardware equipment moving in the future as Teesside looks to explore a replace on break process using AI tools to inform the position. Leasing seemed to be a preferred option, and I would be interested in anyone contacting me on this (I have a 5min questionnaire I can send out) to explore this further as a topic for my studies.
Afternoon sessions
There were a number of interesting afternoon sessions, perhaps the most memorable for me being ‘Foster the Imposter – Four Years on’, ‘Smarter, Faster, Leaner..’ and ‘Maximising Cyber Resilience While Minimising Waste’. The former was a session I first attended when looking to recruit apprentices to Teesside to ensure we got the right sort of candidates. As Teesside’s apprentices have flourished and remained with the organisation, I was interested in the long term success of The University of Southampton who in addition to retaining staff were able to attract and retain women to the sector, which it appears was due to the way women view Imposter syndrome and one to consider for the future.
In Smarter, Faster, Leaner, it was possible to see Automation in action in a way I hadn’t previously considered, using automation to check the enquiries management system, identify jobs of a standard automated process and update the student records system with an action as a result. Although it was acknowledged that checking was necessary and identified human problems with processes, the potential to reduce workloads was considerable and one to consider for the future.
The final session of the day looked at the ever-changing cyber landscape. Although phishing is still number 1 as a failure point, the risk has moved from IT to a Business Risk. After considering cyber and risk appetite, the speaker introduced the concept of psychological safety for staff and students, finishing with ‘security culture is the firewall you cannot buy’ adding food for thought for the future of cyber focus!
Day 3
Following a stunning award ceremony in Liverpool Cathedral for projects and leaders in the last year, the day opened with a practical session on how to make your case to the Board. Although I haven’t yet had to do this, I have had to present to the COO so this was an interesting consideration of next steps as a leader.Three further sessions followed, looking at future collaboration on data modelling, Preparing for AI futures: post web world – which talked about how we have lived through the worst times for digital and how with the emergence of Agentic AI, the world of IT will start to make more sense as IT moves to be autonomous using multi-step workflows that engage people rather than the disconnect of the mobile phone world.
Two sessions of the morning involved members of UCISA addressing their encounters to help the room understand and learn from these. In one session, CIOs and Directors emotively discussed their experience of dealing with a cyber-attack whilst in another session we learned the importance of supporting wellbeing, with a moving speech of a cancer survivor’s heart-wrenching journey from suspicion to diagnosis and cure.
The final session of the day was kept under wraps until the day and a reporting embargo held until after the session. If you were misgiven for misunderstanding the role of MI5 before the speech you may say that ‘I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you’ but as the impressive Baroness Eliza Manning-Buller said in real life, the security services actually have to operate very much within the law, not as you see on the big screen. This was a fascinating speech by a strong but humble lady. She emanated everything you ever heard about leadership, teamwork, appreciating your staff, taking control when it was needed, interjected with humour that hinted at the fact that you shouldn’t take yourself seriously all the time. My only regret, not having time to research her in advance of the talk so I could find out more about her fascinating but dangerous life.
This is a conference I will never forget and there are several strands that will filter into my future thinking as a leader, student and project lead.
