Sharing governors as an effective way of linking schools and universities

Strengthening school-university links across London can be achieved in various ways. One effective method is to promote the representation of each sector on the governing bodies of the other, with the intention that each sector's views of the other are refreshed by having practitioners around the table.

Click here to download the SHELL leaflet entitled 'Become a School Governor in London' designed to encourage staff and students in London HEIs to consider becoming school governors at both the secondary (400+ state maintained schools) or primary level (1,800+ schools). It is hoped that schools liaison teams in HEIs will consider how to publicise opportunities (through, for example, the School Governors’ One-Stop Shop) and whether individual universities could support school governors by providing generic updates on, say, university admissions policies and student finance.

In April 2010 we invited higher education institutions across England to report on their involvement in school governing bodies. The survey was kept small, but respondents pointed to good examples of university-wide strategies for engaging with schools, and encouragement for staff to volunteer as school governors. Some also offer practical support through briefings and network events. Click here to download the findings of the SHELL survey including useful web links.

Contrary to the spirit of each sector forming a truly reciprocal relationship with the other, there is little evidence of senior school leaders or local authority directors serving on university governing bodies. It is more usual to find the principals of large further education colleges so involved In any case governing bodies are becoming smaller and the skill sets sought have more to do with finance than with pedagogy. Nevertheless, several universities do have people from the schools sector on their larger consultative courts.