back to top
Welcome to Intersect HE
What is Intersect HE?
Intersect HE is a joint project led by the professional bodies UHR (Universities Human Resources) and the AUA (Association of University Administrators), with the active support of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education and HEFCE (the Higher Education Funding Council for England).
The aim of the project is to establish a new national service for the Higher Education sector: a website and an office which will publicise development opportunities for anyone employed in HE to gain short-term work experience in another HE institution or in the public or private sectors. This could involve the staff member undertaking short-term project work, secondments or job shadowing. Intersect HE’s function is thus to act as a clearing house of talent, establishing strong links with all sectors. It is not an outplacement or job recruitment service.
How Would it Work?
If a staff member wishes to develop his or her career, he or she would visit the Intersect HE website and view current development opportunities and if one looks interesting, he or she could discuss it with their managers and with their approval, apply. If the would be-provider decides the staff member is suitable for the opportunity, he or she would undertake the assignment and hopefully bring plenty of new thinking and approach back to their ‘day job’. With relatively low staff turnover in our sector and many people working quite a long time at their institution, they will hopefully find the opportunity to gain temporary exposure to another environment an interesting and stimulating challenge. Intersect HE also offers an exciting alternative to traditional training and development methods, such as classroom-based learning. Managers of staff will also find the service useful to assist colleagues in their career development, perhaps feeding into annual appraisal discussions. In many institutions there is a need for project management upskilling or they run development programmes for specific staff who are under-represented in some senior roles (e.g. women or black and minority ethnic or disabled people); Intersect HE would help to address those needs by offering opportunities for practical, ‘real-life’ experiences, working alongside people from other organisations.
Is Intersect HE now in Operation?
Not yet! At present we are conducting a scoping exercise, where a consultant will work with six participating universities in the autumn of 2009 to produce a business plan to establish Intersect HE. The plan will set out the demand levels for such a service, the resources and infrastructure required to establish it and the basis for its operation in Years 1 to 3. The six universities involved are:
- Kingston University
- Thames Valley University
- The University of Bristol
- The University of East London
- Leeds University
- Newcastle University
If a viable business plan is produced, a bid would then be made to HEFCE for the establishment of the Intersect HE website and office from mid-2010.
Contacts
For further information on the project, please contact the Project Leader, Mike Moore, Chair of UHR, who is also the Director of HR Services at the University of East London (m.moore@uel.ac.uk) or telephone 0208-223 4301). Mike is working with Maureen Skinner on the project; Maureen is Chair of the AUA and works at Thames Valley University (Maureen.Skinner@tvu.ac.uk). We would welcome your comments on the above, so please contact us.
September 2009.
