About the festival
The Academic Professional Development team would like to welcome you to the Festival of Learning and Teaching 2025, St Mary’s flagship annual conference to celebrate practice across the university and share innovations in teaching and learning. We are delighted to announce that “Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education” will be the theme for the Festival of Learning & Teaching 2025.
There has been a proliferation of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 and this poses significant challenges for learning, teaching and assessment in HE.
The Festival will take place on Wednesday 25th June in person only in the Waldegrave Suite. We invite you to come together as a community of educators to debate, discuss and share good practice relating to Generative AI.
Please contact the Academic Professional Development team via apd@stmarys.ac.uk with any queries.
Keynote title: Can generative AI be a catalyst for learning?
Dr. Jonathan Cardoso-Silva of the Data Science Institute at the London School of Economics (LSE) where he co-leads GENIAL
(Generative AI as a Catalyst for Learning), a research initiative exploring the transformative potential of generative AI in higher education. At the LSE Data Science Institute, Jonathan integrates empirical learning approaches with AI-enhanced methodologies in undergraduate education in the data science courses he leads, DS105 and DS205. His recent work examines how ChatGPT influences student programming practices, illuminating both the opportunities and challenges these technologies present for contemporary education, and what it means for education in general. Through his innovative teaching practices and research, Jonathan actively shapes discussions around meaningful, effective, and ethically sound AI integration in academia.
Register to secure your place
Call for Papers
We are delighted to announce that the Call for Papers is open for applications. We welcome proposals on a broad range of topics related to Generative AI and look forward to coming together as a community to address the challenges and opportunities offered by Generative AI.
Complete the application form
Themes
Sub-themes include, but are not limited to the following:
- Integrating Gen AI in teaching and learning
- Adapting assessment for Gen AI
- Ensuring ethical and responsible use of Gen AI
- Gen AI and academic integrity
- Educating students about Gen AI
- Using Gen AI for everyday academic work (e.g. lesson and module planning, marking etc.)
Proposal formats
- Lightning talk (5 minutes)
- Presentation (15 minutes)
- Poster
Posters: any topic
We welcome posters on any topic including, but not restricted to Gen AI. There will be an exhibition area for posters for attendees to view over coffee.
Proposal assessment criteria and process
Festival proposals will be reviewed by the steering committee according to the following criteria:
- Relevance to the Festival themes
- Reference to a knowledge / evidence base
- Significance of contribution to learning and teaching practices across the University
- Proposed approach to engaging the audience and creativity of delivery
Please note that we may ask you to be flexible on the format of your contribution.
Closing date and submission outcome
The closing date for papers is 12th May. You will be notified of the outcome of your submission no later than 30th May.
For all queries regarding the festival, and to discuss your ideas informally before submission, please contact the Academic Professional Development Team on apd@stmarys.ac.uk
Past events