The Writing Development in Higher Education initiative was launched in September 1994, by the University of Northumbria, in response to widely expressed concerns about the standards of students’ written communication skills. Conferences held at Middlesex, Luton, UW Aberystwyth, Reading, Liverpool and Leicester, along with an active discussion network have brought together practitioners and researchers from a wide range of countries, institutions and interest areas to discuss the forms that writing development can take within Higher Education and to help create the diverse and energetic field of writing development theory and practice we have today. This year it is the turn of the Write Now CETL at London Metropolitan University to organise the WDHE conference.