What Staff and Educational Development Association does

SEDA is the UK professional association for staff and educational developers in higher education, operating as a registered charity (no. 1089537) and company limited by guarantee (no. 3709481). Founded in 1993 through the merger of the Standing Conference on Educational Development (SCED) and the Staff Development Group of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE), with the Association for Education and Training Technology merging in 1996, SEDA serves over 100 institutional members including major UK universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL, King's, LSE, Edinburgh) and international institutions across Ireland, the Middle East, and Canada. Its core offerings center on the SEDA Professional Development Framework (SEDA-PDF) for institutional accreditation, a three-tier Fellowships Scheme (Associate Fellowship, Fellowship, Senior Fellowship with AFSEDA/FSEDA/SFSEDA designations), and a substantial publishing programme with Routledge (Staff and Educational Development Series of 32 books, SEDA Focus Series) and Taylor & Francis (the Innovations in Education and Teaching International journal).

The organization monetizes through tiered annual membership subscriptions (institutional HE at £1,470, FE at £655, partner at £156; individual at £129, associate at £79), publication sales via its own e-commerce shop and Routledge distribution, residential and one-day conference fees, Student Partnership Impact Award application fees (£20 individual, £40 team) co-run with Jisc, and externally-funded international development projects including PEBL-WA (West Africa, 2021-2023) and HOSUED (Erasmus+, Slovakia/Sweden/Estonia, 2020-2023). Technology infrastructure consists of a Canvas-based SEDA Virtual Learning Environment hosting the Programme Leader Toolkit, a WordPress blog (active since 2014), and SEDAtalk webinar series.

Day-to-day administration, member services, and communications are outsourced to the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), enabling SEDA to operate with approximately 8 staff and focus on its mission of accrediting educational development practice, shaping national policy debate on higher education teaching, and convening an international community of educational developers. SEDA is a founder member of the International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED), which extends its network and reach across national associations globally.

Name

Staff and Educational Development Association

Legal name

Staff and Educational Development Association

Website

https://seda.ac.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1993

Operating status

Operating

Short description

SEDA is the UK professional association for staff and educational developers in higher education, serving 100+ institutional members with professional development frameworks, fellowships, academic publishing, conferences, and international development projects. Administration is outsourced to the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Institutional Membership: Annual membership fees for higher education institutions (£1470), further education colleges (£655), and partner institutions (£156). Provides access to publications, events, committees, and professional development benefits.
2. Individual Membership: Annual membership fees for individuals (£129) and associate members (£79). Provides communications, publications access, event discounts, and eligibility for small grants.
3. Publications Sales: Sale of SEDA Papers, SEDA Specials, and SEDA Focus Series publications through Routledge partnership. Includes books, monographs, and the Educational Developments magazine.
4. Conference and Event Fees: Revenue from residential conferences, one-day events, writing retreats, and summer schools. Two conferences per year with registration fees.
5. Student Partnership Impact Award: Application fees for the international recognition award: £20 for individual applications, £40 for team applications (2-12 individuals).
6. Research and Evaluation Small Grants: SEDA awards up to five grants of £2000 annually to support research and evaluation in staff and educational development. Funded from SEDA's own resources.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

SEDA is a UK-based professional association that supports staff and educational developers working in higher education. It delivers memberships, scholarly publications, annual conferences, a recognized professional development framework, fellowship recognition, and international collaborative projects. The association operates as a registered charity (charity no. 1089537) and limited company (company no. 3709481).

Product overview

SEDA is the UK professional association for staff and educational developers, offering a comprehensive portfolio of products and services centered on professional development accreditation, publications, conferences, and international development projects. The core offering consists of the SEDA Professional Development Framework (SEDA-PDF) for institutional accreditation and the Fellowships Scheme providing Associate Fellowship, Fellowship, and Senior Fellowship designations. The organization maintains an extensive publishing program with Routledge (SEDA Focus Series and Staff and Educational Development Series), distributes the quarterly Educational Developments magazine and the peer-reviewed Innovations in Education and Teaching International (IETI) journal via Taylor and Francis, and offers the Research and Evaluation Small Grants program. Additional offerings include the Programme Leader Toolkit (hosted on Canvas VLE), Student Partnership Impact Award (in collaboration with Jisc), residential conferences, writing retreats, and webinar series. International engagement through PEBL projects delivers online courses in blended learning across African universities, while the SEDA Blog and online publications provide ongoing thought leadership. Membership is tiered for institutions (HE at 1470 GBP, FE at 655 GBP) and individuals (129 GBP), with an e-commerce platform for purchasing publications.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• SEDA Memberships Annual membership scheme available to individual educational developers and to higher education institutions, providing access to the SEDA community, member resources, and member benefits.
• SEDA Professional Development Framework (PDF) A recognized professional development framework for educational developers in higher education that outlines standards, values, and areas of professional activity. Used by individuals and institutions to benchmark and guide development of academic practice.
• SEDA Fellowship Fellowship recognition awarded to individual educational developers who demonstrate sustained contribution to the field of educational development in higher education.
• SEDA Publications Scholarly publications, journals, and written resources produced for educational developers working in higher education.
• SEDA Conferences Annual conferences and events that bring together staff and educational developers from UK higher education for networking, knowledge sharing, and professional development.
• SEDA International Projects International collaborative projects that extend SEDA's educational development work beyond the UK to partners in other countries.

Quantifiable outcome

• HMRC recognises individual SEDA membership as a professional expense

Named customers14 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature1 record

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered major, minor and core.

• Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) - PEBL-WA LeadmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2021ACU is the lead partner on the Partnerships for Enhanced and Blended Learning West Africa (PEBL-WA) project. SEDA is one of five technical partners providing professional development training and expertise in educational development.
• Commonwealth of Learning (CoL)majorTechnology or Integration · 1 September 2021Technical partner in PEBL-WA project. CoL's remit is to lead on quality assurance matters for the partnership of 12 African universities.
• National Universities Commission (Nigeria)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2021Technical partner and regulatory body in PEBL-WA project. Critical in ensuring outputs from the project can be shared across Nigeria and the continent with minimal red tape.
• Ghana Tertiary Education CommissionmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2021Technical partner and regulatory body in PEBL-WA project. Undertakes policy audits in Ghana and helps share project outputs across the region.
• National Open University of NigeriamajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2021Technical partner in PEBL-WA project contributing to the partnership across 12 African universities for enhanced and blended learning.
• PEBL-WA University Partners (Ghana)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2021Six Ghanaian universities participating in PEBL-WA: Ashesi University, All Nations University, Kumasi Technical University, KNUST, University of Energy and Natural Resources, University of Health and Allied Sciences. These institutions receive training and develop blended learning modules.
• PEBL-WA University Partners (Nigeria)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2021Six Nigerian universities participating in PEBL-WA: Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ebonyi State University, First Technical University Ibadan, University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, LAUTECH. These institutions receive training and develop blended learning modules.
• HOSUED Project PartnersmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2020Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships project (2020-2023) with University of Economics Bratislava (coordinating), Comenius University in Bratislava, Lund University, and University of Tartu. Aims to develop holistic and sustainable educational development for teachers.
• E-TALEB Project PartnersmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2016Erasmus+ funded project (2016-2019) to develop a Lebanese Professional Standards Framework in Teaching and Learning (LBPSF). SEDA provided expertise in professional standards development.
• Higher Education Academy (HEA)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2012SEDA was commissioned by HEA to conduct an evaluation of the impact of the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF), reporting in March 2013. Project evaluated awareness, understanding and use of the UKPSF at institutional and individual levels.
• JISC and University of Strathclyde (Embed-IT Project)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2010SEDA worked with JISC and University of Strathclyde Glasgow on a project to embed outcomes of the WORK-WITH-IT framework across professional associations and institutions.
• Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)coreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerACU provides SEDA's administration. SEDA's office is managed by ACU staff, handling day-to-day operations, communications, and member services. This partnership enables SEDA to focus on its core mission while maintaining professional administrative support.
• International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEDA is a founder member of ICED, a network of the world's national associations which shares experience, supports emerging entities, hosts conferences, and publishes the International Journal of Academic Development. This provides SEDA with international reach and collaborative opportunities.
• JisccoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEDA collaborated with Jisc to create the Student Partnership Impact Award as an international recognition of students who have had impact at their universities relating to Educational Development. Jisc is a UK not-for-profit organisation providing digital solutions for education.
• Routledge (Taylor & Francis)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEDA publishes with Routledge the SEDA Focus Series (replacing SEDA Papers and SEDA Specials) and the Staff and Educational Development Series (32 books as of 2022). Routledge provides global distribution and publishing infrastructure.
• JISC (Digital Literacies Programme)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEDA was successful in its bid to JISC to support the Digital Literacies Programme with 11 other sector bodies and professional associations.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• AdvanceHE: UK-based membership organisation for higher education leaders, managers and professionals, formed by the merger of the Higher Education Academy, Equality Challenge Unit and Leadership Foundation. Overlaps directly with SEDA on professional development frameworks and accreditation for HE staff.
• Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE): UK-based learned society for those researching and studying higher education; one of SEDA's founding bodies (SEDA was formed in 1993 from the SRHE Staff Development Group). Highly comparable membership-and-conference model focused on UK HE.
• POD Network (Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education): US-based professional association for educational developers in higher education. Closest international analogue to SEDA, with comparable membership structure, conferences, and consulting/advisory focus on faculty and staff development.
• International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED): International network of national educational development associations of which SEDA is a founder member. ICED provides conferences and the International Journal for Academic Development, making it a peer in mission and overlapping membership base.
• Association for Learning Technology (ALT): UK professional membership association for those involved in learning technology in higher, further and specialist education. Closely comparable membership, accreditation, and conference model addressing HE staff capability development.
• Lilly Conferences on College and University Teaching: US-based conference series focused on teaching and learning in higher education, hosted through a network of regional events. Closely comparable to SEDA's residential conference programme and educational developer audience.

Broad incumbents

• Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU): Larger, broader remit organisation representing over 500 universities across the Commonwealth. ACU also runs SEDA's administration, and their membership and international-project portfolios overlap with SEDA's HE-facing mission.
• European University Association (EUA): Larger pan-European membership organisation representing over 850 universities. Overlaps with SEDA on European HE policy, quality and staff development initiatives but operates at a much broader institutional level.

Regional players

• European Association for Institutional Research (EAIR): European membership association for institutional researchers, planners and developers in higher education. Comparable membership-and-conference structure but focused more on institutional research than on staff/educational development per se.

Others

• European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA): European umbrella organisation for QA agencies in HE. Adjacent to SEDA in that both operate at the intersection of HE quality, standards and professional practice, though ENQA focuses on QA agencies rather than individual educational developers.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/Seda_UK_
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/SEDAintheUK/featured
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/seda-uk-ireland

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Staff and Educational Development Association