Wednesday 15 & Thursday 16 July

OPENING PLENARY

Join us as Tribal's Executive Leadership team officially open the 2026 Empower Conference.

MAKING SAAS PRACTICAL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

At the heart of this session is our progressive, stepwise roadmap – which we’ll bring to life over the two-day conference. Designed so institutions can move at their own pace, in partnership with us, and see real value along the way.

Cloud is a critical enabler of SaaS, and in this session we’ll explore the often dramatic change that migrating to Tribal Cloud unlocks for University teams. We’ll also walk through how customers can leverage their Higher Education Full-Service subscription to make incremental progress toward a SaaS future starting today.

We’re releasing Admissions v4 at this year’s conference, and delegates will get a live demo as well as an exploration of how agentic AI will transform the day-to-day of Admissions teams.

You'll leave with: a shared vocabulary for SaaS in higher education, a realistic picture of the journey, and - most importantly - a sense that the next step, whatever size it is for you, is achievable now, supported, and worth taking.

GUARDRAILS FOR PREDICTABLE CHANGE

The 'rules of the road' that make continuous improvement safe in a system as central as SITS. We'll walk through the shared reference models, core data foundations and architecture principles that let us deliver ongoing change without breaking the things your institution depends on.

To make this tangible, we'll do a narrated walkthrough of the Tribal Architecture Reference Model (TARM) - not a live demo, but a structured look at how the key concepts are represented and connected, and how that translates into cleaner integrations, more trustworthy reporting, and safer upgrades. We'll show what's standard (so upgrades are predictable), what's configurable (so you can reflect local policy and practice), and what needs governance (so compliance and cross-system consistency stay trusted).

We'll use our Admissions capability to show the guardrails in practice - so the model is concrete, not conceptual.

You'll leave with: a clear understanding of what these guardrails are, what they mean for day-to-day operations, and the key design choices that will shape your path to SaaS.

ROADMAP TO SAAS, 2026–2030

A walkthrough of the roadmap at different altitudes. We start at 30,000 feet - the major building blocks that make SaaS real for higher education. As we zoom in, we’ll explore our shift to a capability-led product, discuss the stages we’ve gone through over recent years, and how we’re transitioning each area of SITS to SaaS.

Our product team will bring to life where we are – what’s already delivered, what’s in progress, and what’s coming next – both strategically and functionally.

We’ll cover all stages of the student lifecycle, with a particular focus on Admissions, Timetabling and Scheduling, and Student Support. We’ll also cover MAYTAS, and where it’s heading for Degree Apprenticeships, all through a mix of demo-and-discussion direct from our product, engineering and customer delivery teams.

The aim is to turn 'SaaS by 2030' from a slogan into a plan - one where no institution needs to wait for the finished picture before starting to see value, and no customer needs to feel that their other Tribal products are being left behind.

CUSTOMER-LED PANEL
THE POWER OF INCREMENTAL TRANSFORMATION

Session description coming soon...

WORKSHOP
MAPPING THE STUDENT LIFECYCLE

A collaborative session where we build, together, a heatmap of the student lifecycle from application to completion - identifying where value lands first and where the sector's common priorities lie.

CAPABILITY CLINIC
ADMISSIONS

An end-to-end look at the transformation of Admissions, from bespoke configurations to the next-generation SaaS experience. An honest conversation about institutional readiness, to shape the consultation that follows.

DEEP DIVE
REFERENCE MODELS IN PRACTICE

How courses, programmes, modules, processes and core data are represented in the reference model, and what becomes configurable versus governed. For those who want to understand the machinery under the guardrails.

CLEAN DATA IN, BETTER OUTCOMES OUT – TRANSFORMING STUDENT DATA QUALITY IN SITS

Poor quality contact data creates friction across the entire student lifecycle – from admissions through to engagement, emergencies, and beyond. In this session, we’ll demonstrate how universities can proactively prevent inaccurate addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses from entering SITS in the first place. Whether data is sourced via UCAS feeds or entered directly by students and prospective students through eVision, we will show how real-time validation can significantly reduce errors at the point of capture and improve confidence in your data from day one.

Q&A
WHAT SAAS CHANGES, WHAT STAYS THE SAME

A curated conversation with our product, engineering and delivery teams. What improves in day-to-day experience, and - just as importantly - the autonomy you keep: governance, operating model, configuration, pace of change.

IN-DEPTH DEMO
SITS WORKING END-TO-END

A walkthrough of the pre-configured baseline we use for new customer implementations, showing how adopting shared foundations reduces complexity and gets institutions to value faster.

WORKSHOP
BUILDING TRUST IN DATA

How our shared data model (core definitions and foundations) simplifies reporting, integrations and statutory compliance – whilst mapping back directly to the HERM. For anyone whose working life depends on data being right the first time.

IN-DEPTH DEMO
TIMETABLING THAT WORKS - SEMESTRY V9

An in-depth look at Semestry v9 - what's new, what's different. Timetabling is one of the most operationally consequential systems in any university; this session covers how Semestry v9 will reduce manual scheduling effort, cope better with complex patterns, and integrate seamlessly with SITS so programme changes flow through without re-work.

HOSTED BY INFUSE
TESTED TO THE LIMIT 

Taking lessons learnt from being Tribal's (& the HE sector's) independent test partner, the session will explore the benefits of test automation of the SRS and wider technology eco-system it feeds by drawing upon real-world examples that you can deploy at your institution. 

IN-DEPTH DEMO
ENROLMENT – 1 YEAR ON

Session description coming soon...

CONFERENCE DAY 2 WELCOME

KEYNOTE

KEYNOTE: UCISA, EMMA WOODCOCK, CIO, YORK ST JOHN UNIVERSITY

In this keynote we hear about the foundational role data plays in the student management system and the work UCISA are doing around the data models needed as we move into the future.

CONFIDENCE IN COMPLIANCE - REGISTRY, DATA AND THE MODERN SITS

How the modern SITS - with its shared data model, governed reference architecture, and continuous release model – will make statutory and regulatory compliance less fragile. We'll cover:

• HESA Data Futures - how the core data foundations align to the statutory schema, so returns become a by-product of the operating model rather than a scramble.
• OfS conditions of registration - how the platform supports the evidence trails underpinning B-conditions (quality, standards, student outcomes).
• UKVI - how admissions and enrolment workflows support sponsor duties without bolt-on processes.
• Audit and academic record integrity - why the SaaS operating model improves, not weakens, the institutional audit trail.

You'll leave with: confidence that the regulatory load gets lighter, not heavier, as your institution moves towards SaaS - and a shared picture between your IT and Registry leadership of how that works.

STRONGER TOGETHER: UNIFYING THE STUDENT LIFECYCLE WITH FLYWIRE AND TRIBAL

In this keynote session, Flywire and Tribal demonstrate how their evolving partnership is breaking down operational silos. We will explore how Flywire’s StudyLink streamlines international recruitment, agent workflows, and application conversions, and how Student Financial Software (SFS) unifies the billing and digital payment experience. Discover how integrating these powerful solutions directly into Tribal’s ecosystem creates a single, seamless highway from initial enquiry to secure enrolment—saving university teams countless hours of manual reconciliation while delivering the transparent, modern experience today's students expect.

CASE STUDY
SMALL PROJECT, BIG IMPACT

How a modest finance project had a disproportionate effect across the University, and how capability-led outcomes and shared data foundations made that possible.

UPDATE
CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE WITH LIFELONG LEARNING

An update on where we've got to with LLE, delivered hand in hand with customers, and the launch of our LLE 'discovery clinics' as part of our consultation with the sector.

DEEP DIVE
DELIVERING DEGREE APPRENTICESHIPS – MAYTAS

A session for institutions delivering Degree Apprenticeships - whether you're doing it now or planning to scale. We'll cover where MAYTAS is today, what's on the roadmap, and how it handles the things that make apprenticeship delivery genuinely different from conventional programmes: DfE funding rules, employer tripartite reviews, off-the-job tracking, EPA management, and Ofsted-ready evidence. We'll also show how MAYTAS and SITS work together, to give you a single source of truth.

PRACTICAL
SUPPORTING STUDENT SUCCESS

A practical session on our Student Support and Wellbeing product. We'll show how institutions are using it to join up case management, early-warning signals, and intervention records across the university - so students get the right support faster, and staff aren't carrying the whole picture in their heads. We'll cover how it integrates with SITS (so wellbeing isn't a separate data silo), and what the broader transition to SaaS means for this capability specifically. Features real customer stories from institutions already using it.

IN-DEPTH DEMO
UNLOCKING CHANGE WITH THE CLOUD

In this breakout we'll explore what's changed in Tribal Cloud v3, what this means for the SaaS journey, and how institutions can take their first steps.

DRIVING STUDENT NUMBERS THROUGH EFFECTIVE MARKETING

In this breakout we'll explore the how student recruitment connects to Admissions, with a mixture of live demo and helpful tips. The team will help develop your understanding of the work marketing teams do, grounded in a data, segmentation and automation.

HESA DATA RETURN

HESA is a hot topic on everyone University's radar, and our teams are committed to supporting you every step of the way. Beyond the core return solution though, how can we help you operate with confidence - even as the governance landscape evolves around you. In this breakout, you'll find out.

YOUR PATH TO SAAS

A practical way to start seeing where your current SITS configuration aligns with the reference model, where it doesn't, and what the smallest viable changes look like to close the gap.

10 YEARS OF DEGREE APPRENTICESHIPS WITH UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

This session tells the story of how the University of Exeter has designed, delivered, and evolved its degree apprenticeship provision over the past decade, from early adoption to a mature, strategic pillar of work-based learning. Through honest reflection and real examples, Exeter will share what it actually takes to build and sustain high-quality apprenticeship programmes, and what they’re doing next.