Student Record Officers' Conference

	Report of SROC 2009 - University of Bradford, 6th April - 8th April 2009
SROC09 at Bradford, hosted by Simon Croll, lived up to the reputation of SROC being the friendly, professional conference. Feedback from the c200 delegates has been very positive with comments on the quality of the plenaries and workshops, the warmth of the welcome from the University and the people of Bradford, and the quality of the conference venue centered around Bradford’s student ‘Hub’. The Hub also provided an excellent space for suppliers to showcase their products and services. Two well-received innovations for SROC09 were: • Use of hotel accommodation for all delegates (although the conference fee was held at 2008 levels thanks to careful budgetary planning) • The ‘Information Exchange’ in the Hub where delegates could showcase innovative developments in their own institutions or could ask other delegates ‘what are you doing about ….’ The plenary address from Professor Geoff Layer, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of the University, welcomed SROC delegates to Bradford but also set out the University’s innovative approach to sustainability, and to being a student-orientated University with a thriving and vibrant community, and with a firm commitment to confronting inequality and celebrating diversity. Delegates also greatly appreciated the plenary from Professor John Coyne, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Derby, not least as the Vice-Chancellor had deferred the start of his leave to keep a commitment to address SROC on communicating with the Bebo generation. The Conference had been opened in style by Dr Vic Borden, Vice President of Indiana University. With the plenary title of ‘Been There, Done That: Learning from the US Experience’, Vic provided an insight into key issues for SROC delegates from the US perspective. However in what will go down as a piece of SROC history, Vic produced a guitar and concluded his plenary address with a rendition of ‘American Pie’, turning the Don Mclean classic into a series of witty comments on the core concerns of all SROC delegates, from Government policy to data collection. While there have been a number of covers and parodies of ‘American Pie’ none so far are known to reference the UK’s funding and statistics agencies! SROC was also very pleased to welcome Simon Wright, Chair of AMOSSHE, to deliver a plenary on 'Professionalising Support Services’. Not only did Simon’s address chime with all others but there is an increasing convergence of traditional ‘registry’ and ‘student support’ services interests. The final and very timely plenary was delivered by officers from the UK Borders Agency on Points Based Immigration, focused particularly around HEIs responsibilities in relation to student registration and attendance monitoring. There was the usual wide range of workshops but with the key focus as ever on the HESA student return, supply of data by UCAS for the HESA return, and use of data by HEFCE principally in the HESES return. SROC is extremely grateful to colleagues in those bodies for their continued support of the Conference. SROC09 saw an even wider range of workshop presenters coming to Bradford than in the past. Copies of workshop and plenary presentations are available on the SROC website. We look forward to SROC10 at Leicester 12-14 April 2010 to be hosted by Kathy Williams and Julia Mann. It was necessary to close bookings to SROC09 as delegate demand fro Bradford began to exceed planned capacity. The SROC Committee will consider numbers very carefully. While the majority of those people placed on the waiting list for SROC09 were eventually accommodated, the Committee will carefully examine potential demand against the need to maintain the friendly atmosphere and easy networking opportunities afforded by a Conference that has not exceeded 200 delegates in the past. Graham Fice Chair of SROC View SROC 2009 Pictures

Report of SROC 2009 - University of Bradford, 6th April - 8th April 2009

SROC09 at Bradford, hosted by Simon Croll, lived up to the reputation of SROC being the friendly, professional conference.

Feedback from the c200 delegates has been very positive with comments on the quality of the plenaries and workshops, the warmth of the welcome from the University and the people of Bradford, and the quality of the conference venue centered around Bradford’s student ‘Hub’. The Hub also provided an excellent space for suppliers to showcase their products and services.

Two well-received innovations for SROC09 were:
• Use of hotel accommodation for all delegates (although the conference fee was held at 2008 levels thanks to careful budgetary planning)
• The ‘Information Exchange’ in the Hub where delegates could showcase innovative developments in their own institutions or could ask other delegates ‘what are you doing about ….’

The plenary address from Professor Geoff Layer, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of the University, welcomed SROC delegates to Bradford but also set out the University’s innovative approach to sustainability, and to being a student-orientated University with a thriving and vibrant community, and with a firm commitment to confronting inequality and celebrating diversity.

Delegates also greatly appreciated the plenary from Professor John Coyne, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Derby, not least as the Vice-Chancellor had deferred the start of his leave to keep a commitment to address SROC on communicating with the Bebo generation.

The Conference had been opened in style by Dr Vic Borden, Vice President of Indiana University. With the plenary title of ‘Been There, Done That: Learning from the US Experience’, Vic provided an insight into key issues for SROC delegates from the US perspective.

However in what will go down as a piece of SROC history, Vic produced a guitar and concluded his plenary address with a rendition of ‘American Pie’, turning the Don Mclean classic into a series of witty comments on the core concerns of all SROC delegates, from Government policy to data collection. While there have been a number of covers and parodies of ‘American Pie’ none so far are known to reference the UK’s funding and statistics agencies!

SROC was also very pleased to welcome Simon Wright, Chair of AMOSSHE, to deliver a plenary on 'Professionalising Support Services’. Not only did Simon’s address chime with all others but there is an increasing convergence of traditional ‘registry’ and ‘student support’ services interests.

The final and very timely plenary was delivered by officers from the UK Borders Agency on Points Based Immigration, focused particularly around HEIs responsibilities in relation to student registration and attendance monitoring.

There was the usual wide range of workshops but with the key focus as ever on the HESA student return, supply of data by UCAS for the HESA return, and use of data by HEFCE principally in the HESES return. SROC is extremely grateful to colleagues in those bodies for their continued support of the Conference. SROC09 saw an even wider range of workshop presenters coming to Bradford than in the past. Copies of workshop and plenary presentations are available on the SROC website.

We look forward to SROC10 at Leicester 12-14 April 2010 to be hosted by Kathy Williams and Julia Mann. It was necessary to close bookings to SROC09 as delegate demand fro Bradford began to exceed planned capacity. The SROC Committee will consider numbers very carefully. While the majority of those people placed on the waiting list for SROC09 were eventually accommodated, the Committee will carefully examine potential demand against the need to maintain the friendly atmosphere and easy networking opportunities afforded by a Conference that has not exceeded 200 delegates in the past.

Graham Fice
Chair of SROC

View SROC 2009 Pictures