Key New Roles in Higher Education Apprenticeships: Exploring Boundary-Spanning Identities of Tripartite Representatives

Higher education (HE) apprenticeships have expanded rapidly across the UK, driven by policy commitments to social mobility, workforce development, and enhanced university-employer partnerships. Central to the effectiveness of these apprenticeships is the newly emerging role of HE Tripartite Representatives (TRs): university staff who mediate the complex interactions between apprentices, their academic institutions, and workplace mentors. Although analogous roles exist within vocational training, HE-TR roles remain underdeveloped in higher education, lacking established role descriptions, professional pathways, and agreed models of best practice.

Given the devolved nature of education policy across the UK, national variations significantly influence how apprenticeship programmes and consequently HE-TR roles are structured and experienced. This study investigates how HE-TRs navigate and negotiate their professional identities within these differing national and institutional contexts. Employing boundary-spanning and identity negotiation frameworks, HE-TRs are conceptualised as professionals operating in liminal spaces, bridging distinct academic, workplace, and regulatory cultures. This theoretical perspective positions representatives as active negotiators of identity, continuously managing expectations arising from multiple stakeholders, including regulatory bodies, universities, employers, and apprentices.

To explore these boundary-spanning roles, the project adopts a qualitative, two-phase research methodology prioritising situated experiences of HE-TRs. Phase 1 involves rich picture workshops conducted across three partner universities located in two UK nations. Participants visually represent and articulate their professional experiences, challenges, and career trajectories within these workshops. The resultant visual and narrative data is synthesised into anonymised ‘personas’: representative profiles highlighting common attributes, tensions, and identity-management strategies among HE-TRs. Phase 2 extends this inquiry through a series of focus groups at six universities spanning all four UK nations. The initial personas will serve as a stimulus, enabling further reflection and deeper interrogation of the professional practices, identity challenges, and disciplinary differences experienced by HE-TRs. Data gathered will refine and expand the personas and inform case studies reflecting national and institutional variations.

This paper reports emerging findings from both phases of data collection. The methodological approach—integrating rich pictures and persona-driven focus groups—will be critically evaluated for its effectiveness in capturing nuanced understandings of identity work among boundary-spanning professionals. The discussion will also outline anticipated contributions to both theory and practice, highlighting how recognising and understanding variations in HE apprenticeship implementation across UK contexts can inform the ongoing development and sustainability of the HE-TR role. Ultimately, this research aims to address the significant knowledge gap regarding HE-TR professional identities and practices. By providing new insights into the complexities and potential precarities of these boundary-spanning roles, the findings are expected to inform stakeholders seeking to strengthen apprenticeship provision, support apprentices' success, enhance the status and development pathways available to HE-TR professionals, and support the delivery of sustainable apprenticeship outcomes for learners, organisations and society

This project is funded through the Society for Educational Studies 2025 Small Grants scheme

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