The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) is pleased to host the 2026 Higher Education Policy Conference in Chicago, Illinois, August 3-6.
The annual Policy Conference is the preeminent gathering of leaders from state higher education policy agencies, national higher education policy organizations, institutions, and state and federal governments. SHEEO seeks timely, thought-provoking proposals for sessions aligned with our organizational vision to promote an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring educational opportunity for all. Proposals are due February 27, 2026.
SHEEO invites proposals that consider:
- Promoting the value of higher education
- Workforce alignment and economic development
- Communications, advocacy, and government relations
- Effective use of postsecondary data systems
- Educational opportunity and student success
- Enrollment and demographic trends
- Higher education finance and financial aid
- Student affordability and student loan debt
- Postsecondary education alignment with K-12
- Mitigating disparities in access, persistence, or completion
- Strategic planning and accountability
- Other topics of interest to state higher education leaders.
Developing a Proposal
SHEEO encourages the submission of proposals for sessions that will bring together perspectives from multiple SHEEO agencies, states, and organizations. Most available sessions will be 45 minutes in length. We encourage a diverse selection of speakers and welcome a wide range of ideological perspectives.
Proposals must include:
- Name, title, agency/institution, email address, biography (100-word limit), and headshot of each member of the proposed session. If selected, this information will be used on our Conference website.
- No more than four speakers per session.
- A brief description of your proposal (1,000-word limit), including:
- Purpose and topic
- The type of content to be presented, such as:
- A report on an innovative approach to policy, practice, finance, and/or data use
- Original research
- A summary of existing knowledge
- Best practices
- Why the topic is important to current policy discussions
- Proposed session title (100-character limit) and session description (2,500-character limit)
- Intended audience (100-word limit)
- Participant goals and hoped-for outcomes (400-word limit)
Submitting a proposal and other important information
- Please submit your proposal by uploading all relevant documents to the proposal website: https://bit.ly/PC26Proposals
- There will be no compensation for traveling to, or speaking at, the event.
- Paid conference attendance is required of all session speakers.
- If you are proposing a panel, all program determinations will be communicated directly to the submitter. The submitter is responsible for communicating all status updates to panelists and for collecting and submitting complete and accurate speaker information, including biographies and headshots, to SHEEO by the deadline specified at the time of acceptance.
- Proposals are being solicited from SHEEO members, member agencies, nonmembers, and the broader higher education community.
- SHEEO reserves the right to edit or make changes to proposed session titles, descriptions, modes of presentation, panels, and moderators. Changes will be communicated with submitter.
- Incomplete submissions will not be considered.
Questions may be directed to Alicia Engels at aengels@sheeo.org.
Learn more and submit your proposal at https://bit.ly/PC26Proposals.