
| Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach, University of BathMike joined the University of Bath in October 2014, having previously worked as Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach at the University of Oxford (2006-2014) and Head of Undergraduate Admissions and Student Recruitment at the University of Essex (1998-2006). Mike heads the team responsible for managing undergraduate student admissions, student recruitment (UK and international), funding guidance, widening access and participation, learning partnerships, and student immigration. He is currently a Trustee of the Council of International Schools and the AQA Exam Board (where he also sits on their Research Committee), and is a member of the Universities UK Fair Admissions Advisory Group established in October 2019 to review the need for reform of the undergraduate student recruitment and admissions process in the UK. He is also on the UUK Group established to advise the Universities’ Minister on the sector response to COVID-19. He co-Chaired the Social Mobility Practitioners’ Group established by Universities UK to advise the UK Minister for Higher Education on supporting progression from under-represented groups in society in 2016. In 2018 he joined the Evaluation Group for the Welsh Government’s Seren Gifted and Talented Programme. He was UK Chair of the Higher Education Liaison Officers’ Association from 2014-2017 and served as a member of the UCAS Council until January 2017. He represented English universities on the Welsh Qualifications Reform stakeholder group, and was involved in the SPA National Expert Think Tank on UK Qualifications Reform in 2015.
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| Kate Lister, Manager for Accessibility and Inclusive Practice, The Open University
Kate Lister manages accessibility and inclusive practice for disabled students at the Open University, UK, and is an associate at Advance HE. Her role involves driving and coordinating inclusive practice in the Open University, supporting staff to be accessible and inclusive by design, and championing disabled student needs at different echelons of the University. Mental health and wellbeing in the curriculum are core research interests for her; she leads on the OU project to embed mental wellbeing in distance learning and she co-leads on the Advance HE collaborative project 'Embedding mental wellbeing in the curriculum.’ Her background is in educational technology, language learning and accessible and inclusive pedagogies in international contexts; she worked in Germany, Spain and China before moving to the UK to take up her current role.
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| Dr Esther Jubb, Head of Academic Services, PearsonEsther leads the team responsible for learning design and academic delivery support. With more than 20 years’ experience working within the higher education sector, she has held academic and professional roles for a number of universities (including the Universities of Durham, Liverpool John Moores, Sheffield, Derby and Cumbria) and has undertaken consultancy both in the UK and internationally. Esther's particular specialisms are curriculum design and development, online programme design and delivery, academic development and technology enhanced learning. She has developed pedagogical frameworks and delivery approaches for fully online and blended programmes and has designed, validated and developed postgraduate, undergraduate and degree apprenticeship programmes for fully online delivery in a range of disciplines.
Esther holds a PhD from Durham University, and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
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| Amy Low, Service Delivery Director, Ability Net
Amy Low is Service Delivery Director at AbilityNet, a technology and digital accessibility charity that supports disabled people to achieve their objectives at home, at work and in education. AbilityNet provide a range of services for individuals and organisations including 1-1 support services, online resources, consultancy and training. Having spent 15 years working in a variety of roles within serviced property and IT services, Amy joined AbilityNet in 2016, drawn by the opportunity to leverage technology to remove barriers to participation for disabled people and create a better digital experience for everyone. Amy is also a trustee of CITA, the Charity IT Association, CITA has a team of highly skilled IT volunteers that provide low cost IT support and advice to the charity sector to enable them to use technology to increase their reach and impact.
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| Professor David Phoenix, Vice-Chancellor, London South Bank University
Professor David Phoenix, is the Vice Chancellor of London South Bank University and obtained Ministerial approval for a HE-FE national pilot in 2018. As part of this initiative he developed and became Principle Accounting Officer for a group structure or a ‘learning family’ which includes LSBU, South Bank Colleges, South Bank Academies and South Bank Enterprises. This structure is creating employer-focused educational pathways across all levels of education to support social mobility and skills. He is Vice-Chair of the Science Museum Group, a Director of the National Centre for Universities and Business, and has served as Chair of MillionPlus and a member of the Minister for Universities and Science Brexit advisory group. In 2019 he became an independent member of Labour’s Lifelong Learning Commission. He was elected to Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians for his contribution to medical research and education and with over 300 publications was awarded an OBE for services to Science and Higher Education in 2010.
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| Professor Sir Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
Cary L. Cooper is the 50th Anniversary Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. He is a founding President of the British Academy of Management, President of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), former President of RELATE and President of the Institute of Welfare. He was the Founding Editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior, former Editor of the scholarly journal Stress and Health and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Management, now in its’ 3rd Edition. He has been an advisor to the World Health Organisation, ILO, and EU in the field of occupational health and wellbeing, was Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Chronic Disease of the World Economic Forum (2009-2010) (then served for 5 years on the Global Agenda Council for mental health of the WEF) and was Chair of the Academy of Social Sciences 2009-2015. Professor Cooper is the Chair of the National Forum for Health & Wellbeing at Work (comprised of 40 global companies eg BP, Microsoft, NHS Executive, UK government, Rolls Royce, John Lewis Partnership, etc>). Professor Cooper is the author/editor of over 250 books in the field of occupational health psychology, workplace wellbeing, women at work and occupational stress. He was awarded the CBE by the Queen in for his contributions to occupational health; and in 2014 he was awarded a Knighthood for his contribution to the social sciences.
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| Gurnam Singh, Associate Professor of Attainment, Coventry University
Dr Gurnam Singh is currently Associate Professor of Equity of Attainment at Coventry University. Also, he is Hon Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick and Visiting Fellow in Race and Education at the University of Arts, London. Prior to entering academia he had a background in community activism and professional social work. He is acknowledged as a leading thinker on the issue of race and racism in Higher Education and Social Work and he has published widely on these topics.
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| Professor Gavin Brown, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of LiverpoolGavin joined the University of Liverpool in 2015 as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education. In this role he supports the Vice-Chancellor in setting the academic direction of the University, provides strategic leadership and champions the enhancement of learning and teaching throughout the academic and student community. He is responsible for the University’s Student Support Services, Academic Quality and Standards, Careers Service, the Centre for Innovation in Education, Registry, student Admissions, Recruitment and Widening Participation, Libraries, Museums and Galleries.
Gavin is an enthusiast for technology-enhanced learning and has led on a number of IT initiatives that support the student experience. He is also keen on promoting social and geographic mobility in the student body, and is a keen advocate of study abroad programmes, having established numerous partnerships with universities around the world.
Gavin’s research interests focus on the role of matrix molecules in a variety of disease processes including the development of osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis, corneal eye disease and the metastatic spread of cancer.
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| Susan Mueller, Project Director, Stand AloneSusan Mueller joined Stand Alone in autumn 2015 to develop the higher education strand of the charity which includes the Stand Alone Pledge which was launched in October 2016. In this role Susan draws on her experience of managing the Buttle UK Quality Mark for Care Leavers from 2011-2015 as well as her previous experience in widening participation as Partnership Manager for Aimhigher London East.
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