The Creative Education Conference

Welcome to the UCA Creative Education Conference  2025

This year we will be hosting the conference at the University for the Creative Arts, Epsom campus in our new Wells Building on June 18th 2025, 10:00-17:00 BST

Contact us here 

This years Teaching and Learning Conference theme explores Innovative Practices in Creative Education. We are working on the specifics of the conference and will post these up soon. In the meantime, please feel free to explore more on our keynote speaker and watch this space! 

Keynote Speaker

We would like to welcome our keynote speaker this year, Professor Susan Orr.

Professor Susan Orr is the Pro Vice Chancellor Education and Equalities at De Montfort University (DMU). Prior to this she held leadership roles at York St John University, Sheffield Hallam University and University of the Arts London.

Susan currently leads Learning for Life pillar of DMU's Empowering University Strategy. She is the DMU executive lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, as well as Arts, Design, and Humanities.

Susan was a panel member in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2 Panel and chaired the Arts Subject Review TEF Pilot Panel. She was also on the recent TEF panel in 2023. Susan was invited to lead the Office for Students review of Blended Learning and has delivered a range of keynotes and inputs disseminating the report’s findings.

Susan is a Professor of Creative Practice Pedagogy and her research centres on studio-based pedagogy in art and design. With Alison Shreeve she co-authored the book ‘Art and Design Pedagogy in Higher Education: knowledge, values and ambiguity’.

In 2021 she was invited by the German Bauhaus Kooperation to consider the impact of Bauhaus arts education on its 100^th university. Details about Susan’s published outputs can be found on Google Scholar.

Susan is an Advance HE Principal Fellow, a National Teaching Fellow (awarded in 2010) and in 2020 led the academic enhancement team at University of the Arts London, winning an Advance HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence.

She has been a trustee for the Yorkshire Museums Trust, a member of the Group for Learning in Art and Design Board (GLAD) and a member of Council for Higher Education in Art and Design (CHEAD). At University of the Arts London Susan was co-chair of the university’s LGBTQ+ Staff Network. Susan chaired the European League of Institute of Arts (ELIA) Teachers’ Academy from 2018-2023.

Over her career Susan has been invited to give keynotes and to support teaching, learning and curriculum development in universities and art schools in North America, Australia, Hong Kong, and more. She is a Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University in the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice. We are very excited to have the opportunity of Professor Orr joining us for our conference this year.