UCET Annual Conference 2026

This year's UCET annual conference will take place again at The Queen's Hotel in Leeds on the 10th and 11th November.

The theme of this year's conference is:

The role of university teacher-led education in a changing world

This builds on the last two years' keynotes and workshops given at the conference.

Overall conference structure

To embed the theme for the conference throughout the two days, there will are 2 questions to consider:

• What one feature of a changing world will most impact teacher education and how should we as university teacher educators respond?
• What should/could UCET do to support universities in a changing world?

All presenters will be asked to consider how their input contributes to the overall theme, and their responses to the questions. Across, both days there will be opportunities to discuss the questions and build a collective response that can be built on beyond the conference.

Keynotes

We have some excellent speakers confirmed:

Professor Clare Brooks (University of Cambridge);

Professor Lizzie Rushton (University of Stirling);

Professor Lee Rusnyak (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg);

Professor Eline Vanassche (KU Leuven University, Belgium).

There will also be a keynote panel session on the UCET Teacher Education blog led by Dr Keither Parker (York St. John), who is the Executive Editor of the blog, along with editorial board colleagues, Professor Lisa Murtagh (Manchester), Dr Rupert Knight (Nottingham), Professor Martin Hagan (St. Mary’s University College, Belfast) and Professor Aimee Quickfall (Durham University).

There will be new formats to the keynote sessions which will incorporate a greater variety of voices and opportunities for discussion.

Workshop Sessions

There will be three different formats to sessions: the traditional 1-hour workshop session, a session with 2 15-minute presentations, each followed by a Q&A and a cross-institutional workshop. The abstracts for each session to view in advance are available here (under 'Downloads'): https://www.ucet.ac.uk/17527/ucet-annual-conference-2026

Evening Entertainment

There will be a drinks reception sponsored by Penrose Education followed by the gala dinner.

Networking

Built into the programme will be structured opportunities for networking and discussing current challenges. There will also be embedded support for new colleagues, new presenters and new leaders of ITE.

Key Dates

• w/c 2 November Final Details to Delegates - the conference programme and final joining details will be sent out to all delegates who has registered.
• 10 November Conference opens