The Spinnaker Group and Designing for Lifelong Learning
Across the Higher Education (HE) sector, those of us leading on teaching, learning, and student experience are grappling with a shared set of challenges. The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), increasing flexibility, and more complex student lives have prompted important questions about curriculum design, assessment, and institutional structures.
It was in recognition of the value of shared exploration of these types of issues that The Spinnaker Groupwas founded.
The Spinnaker Group brings together colleagues from across the sector who have strategic responsibility for teaching, learning, and student experience in their institutions. It provides a space to share practice, test ideas, and explore complex challenges in a collaborative, non-competitive environment. Members represent a wide range of institutions, and the group has developed over time through regular, theme-focused meetings that enable open discussion and practical exchange.
One of the defining features of the group is its focus on joint exploration. Rather than advocating for a single model or solution, meetings are structured to allow colleagues to bring institutional perspectives, challenge assumptions, and consider how ideas might translate into different contexts. This has led to a range of collaborations, as well as the sharing of approaches to issues such as assessment and feedback, student wellbeing, and personal tutoring.
At our most recent meeting, which I hosted in Oxford, the focus was on the LLE. Together, colleagues explored what it means in practice to design for learners whose engagement with HE may be more flexible, episodic, and shaped by competing commitments.
A number of themes emerged. Perhaps most significantly, the discussion reinforced that lifelong learning is not simply about adding flexibility to existing models. It requires us to think more fundamentally about coherence in programme design, the assumptions we make about students, and the structures that underpin participation.
There was also a strong emphasis on belonging. As participation patterns change, ensuring that students feel connected to their course, their peers, and their institution becomes more complex, and more important. Designing for belonging in a modular or flexible system is not straightforward, but it is essential.
I have written in more detail about this meeting and the key takeaways in a recent blog post, which can be found here. The post reflects on five key themes, including curriculum coherence, modular design, and the institutional and sector-level changes that may be needed to make lifelong learning a reality.
The Spinnaker Group’s next meeting will take place at Harper Adams University in Autumn 2026, hosted by group member Dr Emily McIntosh, Chief Student Officer, and will focus on another topical issue for the sector.
For me, the value of the Spinnaker Group lies in its ability to create space for these kinds of conversation. As the sector continues to respond to the LLE and wider changes in HE, opportunities to share insight, challenge assumptions, and learn from one another will be increasingly important.
Professor Harriet Dunbar-Morris PFHEA, NTF
Provost and Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic at the University of Buckingham, currently on sabbatical while undertaking a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Oxford. From 1 September, I will take up the role of Deputy President and Chief Academic Officer at South East Technological University (SETU), Ireland.
