If higher education transformation were a dinner party, we've have spent the last few years discussing what’s on the menu while the kitchen burns down behind us.

The conversations have been endless. The reports are stacking up. The taskforces have reported. But here's the thing: talking about transformation and actually doing it are completely different things.

That's why AHEP Consulting is an official partner of the HE Transformation Expo this November. Because after years of good intentions, it's time to roll up our sleeves.

The reality check no one wants to hear

Let's start with what we all know but don't always say out loud. The sector is in serious financial trouble.

84% of universities have delayed capital projects. Nearly half have already closed courses. Research activity is being scaled back. The financial model that's sustained higher education for decades is creaking at the seams.

Only last week, we saw the most ambitious institutional transformation attempt yet: Kent and Greenwich announcing their merger into the London and South East University Group. Not a traditional merger but something entirely new. Unified governance and operations while maintaining separate identities and student experiences.

And here's what it tells us: institutions are moving beyond efficiency savings and restructuring. We need proper, deep transformation of how universities actually work.

Why this Expo is different

The HE Transformation Expo is built specifically around operational implementation rather than policy discussion. Taking place on 19-20 November at the NEC Birmingham, this event focuses on people who need to make decisions about institutional change now.

It's designed around four core transformation areas:

Business transformation: How do you redesign operations for financial resilience?

Digital transformation: What does next-generation delivery actually look like?

Estates transformation: How do you create sustainable, flexible campus environments?

Academic transformation: How do you build compelling propositions that students actually want?

What makes this worth your time

Here's what caught our attention as AHEP Consulting became an official partner: this expo targets decision-makers rather than policy teams. Vice Chancellors, COOs, CFOs, Directors of Estates, and heads of transformation. The people who can actually greenlight change rather than just discuss it.

The format also supports this focus. Day one includes application-only roundtables where executive teams can have proper Chatham House conversations about the mechanics of institutional change. No presentations. No sales pitches. Just honest discussion about what's working and what isn't.

The professional services angle that everyone misses

Here's something that often gets overlooked in transformation discussions. Professional services teams carry the operational load that makes everything else possible.

While everyone talks about academic excellence, it's Registry, Academic Services, Finance teams, Estates departments and Student Services that actually deliver the student experience day to day. They represent 40-60% of institutional staff, yet they're rarely front and centre in transformation discussions.

This is exactly where AHEP Consulting’s expertise sits: in the critical areas that makes institutions actually work. Professional services transformation should never be seen as separate from institutional transformation. It's the foundation that enables everything else.

Most transformation conversations focus on the big picture while ignoring the operational reality. But if your academic regulations haven't been updated since 2018, if your processes create more work instead of less, if departments can't talk to each other, no amount of strategic planning will fix that.

What you'll get from attending

The Kent and Greenwich merger we analysed last week raises all the questions that institutions grappling with transformation need to answer. How do you unify operations while preserving distinct identities? How do you integrate systems without disrupting student experience? How do you manage cultural cohesion across multiple sites?

These aren't theoretical discussions. They're the practical challenges we help institutions work through every day. Whether it's rewriting academic regulations to reduce bureaucracy, designing operational processes that actually scale, or building institutional partnerships that deliver something useful: transformation happens in the detail, not the strategy documents.

Forget generic conference sessions. This expo is structured around exactly these kinds of implementation questions:

• Direct access to the people actually making decisions about their institution's future

• Full discussions about solutions rather than another round of problem-spotting

• Suppliers who actually understand HE rather than generic consultancies

• Real case studies from institutions making actual change. Not just the success stories but honest accounts of what's working and what isn't

• Useful networking with people dealing with exactly the same operational headaches as you are

The transformation surgery sessions are particularly clever, taking the form of focused conversations about the nuts and bolts of managing organisational change in your specific context.

The AHEP Consulting perspective and why we're supporting this

Here's why we became an official partner. After working with multiple institutions, we've seen too many initiatives that look impressive on paper but fall apart when they hit operational reality.

The difference usually comes down to implementation capacity. You can have elegant strategies but without the operational foundation to support change, transformation becomes another initiative that gets quietly shelved.

That's exactly the kind of practical implementation focus this expo is built around. And it's about time the sector moved beyond strategy documents to actual delivery.

The bigger picture: Why November 2025 matters

This isn't just about attending another event. The timing is crucial.

New government priorities are reshaping sector expectations. The UUK Transformation and Efficiency Report has laid out the blueprint for change. Investment decisions for 2026 and beyond are being made right now.

If your institution is serious about transformation rather than just talking about it, this is where you need to be. Not because it's the only conversation happening but because it's designed for people who are ready to act.

Let's make this count

AHEP Consulting’s involvement as an official partner isn't just about being there. It's about bringing practical experience and expertise to conversations that might actually change things.

We'll be there to share what we've learned from working across the sector, but we're particularly interested in listening to what institutions actually need to make transformation work in practice.

The expo is free to attend, but spaces are limited. If you're looking to move beyond planning discussions and towards practical implementation, this is worth your time.

The HE Transformation Expo runs 19-20 November 2025 at NEC Birmingham.

Ready to move beyond talking about transformation and start making it happen?

Register for the expo and let's have those conversations.

If you want to discuss your institution's transformation challenges whether that’s before the expo or after, get in touch at consulting@ahep.ac.uk . We're always up for honest conversations about what actually works in practice.