WHEA Annual Report 2025 Final Digital with links v3 - Flipbook - Page 10
Warwick International Higher Education Academy Annual Report 2025
Learning
Circles
Learning Circles are at the heart of WIHEA’s collaborative community. They
provide spaces where colleagues and students can come together to explore
ideas and share expertise that strengthen teaching and learning at Warwick and
beyond. Led by Fellows or co-led with Alumni, these Circles harness collective
insights to inform both strategic priorities and practical approaches. Through
their participation, Fellows develop their knowledge in areas that either open up
fresh opportunities or address pressing challenges in higher education, locally
and internationally.
Mature Student Experience Learning Circle
At the start of the year, WIHEA had 11 active
Learning Circles:
• AI in Education
• Anti-Racist Pedagogy and Process in HE
• Compassionate Pedagogy
• Designing and Assessing Group Work
• Developing Academic Literacies
• Digital Education and Technologies for
Teaching and Assessment (DETTA)
• Employability
• Internationalisation
• Pedagogies of Public & Community
Engagement
• Restorative Justice in HE
• Teaching Recognition and Reward (TR&R)
The portfolio expanded during the year with
the launch of two new groups to address key
strategic areas: Building Belonging, and Mature
Student Experience. To further support the
innovative work generated within these groups,
the Academy also introduced the Learning Circle
Project Fund. This new funding stream provides
dedicated resources for projects conceived and
developed within the Learning Circles, enabling
members to move from collaborative discussion
to tangible institutional impact.
Alongside the active Learning Circles, WIHEA
continues to work with leads once a Circle
has achieved its core aims and is ready to be
embedded within the institution.
10
The Mature Student Experience Learning Circle, co-led
by Dr Anil Awesti and Dr Nalita James, is a crucial and
proactive initiative dedicated to profoundly enriching its
mature students’ academic journeys. Serving as a vital
conduit for institutional change, the Circle ensures that
the unique voices and experiences of mature learners
are embedded within the University’s core framework.
This work is firmly rooted in Warwick’s highest strategic
priorities, responding directly to both the Education
and Experience Strategy’s commitment to diverse
learners and the Access and Participation Plan’s formal
identification of mature students as a group requiring
targeted support to ensure their success. Leveraging
its members’ extensive, first-hand expertise in lifelong
learning, the Circle adopts a dual approach: actively
shaping institutional policy to be more inclusive, while
simultaneously developing and championing tangible,
on-the-ground practices that foster a true sense of
belonging and academic partnership. Ultimately, the
Learning Circle works to bridge the gap between
institutional ambition and the lived reality of its students,
cultivating a deeply supportive and intellectually
stimulating environment in which mature learners can
thrive at Warwick.
