evasys heads to RAISE 2026 to explore authentic student engagement

RAISE Conference 9-10 September 2026, Northumbria University, Newcastle

The RAISE Annual Conference 2026 is taking place at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne on 9–10 September and evasys is once again delighted to be a sponsor of the event.

This year’s conference brings together more than 200 delegates from across higher education, with students, academics and professional services colleagues sharing research, ideas and practical approaches around the theme of ‘Authentic Student Engagement in Contemporary Higher Education’.

It is a theme that feels particularly timely, as across the sector, institutions have more ways than ever to ask students about their experiences. Surveys, module evaluations, pulse surveys, student representation, learning analytics and the growing use of AI are creating an increasingly rich picture of student life.

However, authentic engagement is about more than creating opportunities for students to speak, it’s also about what happens next.

evasys at RAISE 2026 Authentic Student Engagement in Higher Education

  • Date: 9 – 10 Sept 2026

  • Location: Northumbria University, Newcastle

  • Who: Higher education colleagues

  • Theme: Authentic Student Engagement in Contemporary Higher Education

From student voice to student partnership

One of the conference sub-themes this year is ‘Partnering with Students as Co-Creators of a Future Higher Education’, something that gets to the heart of many of the conversations we have with universities.

For student voice to be meaningful, students need to be able to see the connection between the feedback they provide and the decisions, conversations and improvements that follow. That means moving beyond feedback as a one-way process and creating a much more visible dialogue between students and their institution.

It is why closing the feedback loop continues to be such an important focus for us at evasys. We work with universities to help them gather student feedback consistently, make sense of it at scale and, crucially, get useful insight back into the hands of the people who can act on it. Increasingly, that also means helping institutions demonstrate that action back to students.

As our Head of Engagement, Glenda Saint John, explains:

“Authentic engagement isn’t just about asking students more questions, it’s about showing that their contribution matters. When students can see that their feedback has been heard, understood and used to inform action, feedback becomes part of an ongoing relationship rather than a process that happens to them at particular points in the academic year. That’s when student voice becomes genuinely powerful.”

Glenda Saint John 2024Glenda Saint John, evasys

Keeping people at the heart of student engagement

Another RAISE 2026 theme explores how higher education can remain people-focused while responding to changing expectations, technologies and ways of learning and that balance is absolutely critical.

Technology can make it easier to gather feedback, bring together insight from different parts of the student journey and understand thousands of open-text comments that would previously have taken teams weeks to analyse. Used well, AI can help universities identify themes, surface voices that might otherwise be missed and get insight to colleagues while there is still time to act. However, technology should support the conversation between students and institutions, not replace it.

The goal is not simply better data, it’s better understanding – giving academic and professional services teams the evidence they need to have more informed conversations, respond more quickly and create experiences in which students can see that their voice has value and that inclusion is important to their institution.

  • We’re really looking forward to the conversations at RAISE this year, where the programme will explore everything from responding to GenAI and embedding employability into the curriculum to inclusive, people-focused education and evolving roles in student engagement.

Glenda Saint John&Ben Rogers evasys

Come and say hello

evasys will be represented at RAISE 2026 by Glenda Saint John, Head of Engagement, and Ben Rogers, Consultant, who will be at our exhibition stand throughout the conference.

Both bring extensive experience of working within the higher education sector and will be very happy to talk about student voice, closing the feedback loop, survey strategy, AI-supported analysis – or simply hear what your institution is currently working on.

We’re looking forward to two days of ideas, discussion and, appropriately enough, plenty of genuine engagement.

If you’re attending RAISE 2026, please come and say hello to Glenda and Ben. We’d love to see you in Newcastle.

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