Keynote speaker and panellists – biographies
Professor Patricia Broadfoot
Professor Patricia Broadfoot CBE is Professor Emerita at the University of Bristol
having been Vice Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire. As Pro Vice
Chancellor at the University of Bristol, her responsibility for widening participation
and education sparked an interest in student access and success which she
continues to pursue - not least as Chair of the ‘What Works Advisory Committee
since 2008. Her particular academic interest is in assessment especially its impact
on student learning.
Professor Liz Thomas
Professor Liz Thomas is an independent researcher and consultant for higher
education and Professor of Higher Education at Edge Hill University. Liz has
approximately twenty years’ experience of undertaking and managing research about
widening participation, student retention and success and institutional approaches to
improving the student experience and outcomes. She is committed to using research
to inform national and institutional policy, practice and evaluation, and has
developed and led change programmes to facilitate this.
Professor Les Ebdon CBE DL
Professor Ebdon has been Director of Fair Access to Higher Education since 1
September 2012. He was previously Vice Chancellor of the University of
Bedfordshire.
That followed an illustrious career in analytical chemistry, including more than 250
publications and several awards.
Professor Ebdon obtained his PhD at Imperial College, London, then lectured at
Makerere University in Uganda and Sheffield Hallam University, before becoming
Reader in Analytical Chemistry at what is now the University of Plymouth. He was
promoted to a personal chair in 1986, became Head of Environmental Sciences in
1989 and then, in the same year, Deputy Director. He was promoted to Deputy Vice
Chancellor (Academic) in 1992. He remained in that position until 2003, when he
was appointed Vice Chancellor at the University of Luton and became Vice Chancellor
of the University of Bedfordshire on its creation in 2006.
Professor Ebdon was awarded a CBE in 2009 for services to local and national higher
education and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Bedfordshire in 2011. Since 2013
he has been listed as one of Britain’s 500 Most Influential People by Debrett’s.
Fiona Waye
Fiona Waye has worked for over 25 years in the education sector at both secondary
and higher education level as a teacher, lecturer, researcher and in policy
development. She is currently Senior Policy Lead in Inclusion, Equality and Diversity
at Universities UK. Fiona has worked on a range of policy areas across the student
lifecycle in higher education. In 2000, Fiona took a secondment to set up the
Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) which supports equality and diversity in higher
education. Fiona also spent a year working in GuildHE to broaden her experience in
working with higher education and specialist colleges.
Kirsty Johnson
Kirsty Johnson is a Higher Education Policy Adviser in the Student Opportunity
team at HEFCE and is the Project Manager for the Catalyst Fund: Addressing barriers
to student success programme. Kirsty works on issues related to differential
outcomes and equality and diversity more broadly, and also supports work on
evaluation and the development of an evidence framework.
Before joining HEFCE in 2014, Kirsty worked in knowledge exchange and research
commissioning at the Economic and Social Research Council for over five years. She
holds a BA (hons) degree in Sociology from the University of Essex and an MSc (cum
laude) in Sociology and Social Policy from the University of Amsterdam.
Niall Hamilton
Niall Hamilton has been Education Officer at Reading SU for the past 2 years, a
position he took after graduating from his undergrad in Biological Sciences. He also
sits on the NUS Higher Education Zone committee and has been heavily involved in
many of the national campaigns for the past two years. Outside of student politics,
HE policy and liberating curricula, he is a keen skateboarder, theatre enthusiast and
volunteer at a youth centre.
Roisin Curran
Dr Roisín Curran is an academic developer at Ulster University, and a tutor on the
Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice. Her interest in teaching and
learning is in curriculum design that moves away from overemphasis on specific
discipline knowledge to more process models of curriculum sequencing that scaffolds
the student journey and that which promotes: a relational-based partnership
approach, active learning, peer support, and ways of thinking and practising the
discipline. She has a particular interest in student engagement and her recent
doctoral research focused on the impact of a ‘students as partners’ approach on staff
student engagement. She was Project Lead for the Ulster team participating in the
What works? Student Retention & Success Change Programme (2013-16). This
collaborative action research has further extended our knowledge of what works in
relation to improving student retention and success. Roisin is a Principal Fellow of
the Higher Education Academy.
Professor Helen James
Professor Helen James is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student
Experience) at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) where she has
responsibility for Student Experience, Learning and Teaching, Quality and Standards,
Student Support, Health and Wellbeing, Library and Learning Resources, Graduate
Employability and the academic portfolio. She has been a member of the What
Works? Student Retention and Success Advisory Group since 2013. Helen’s academic
interests are institutional strategy, leadership, widening participation and student
retention and success. Helen began her career as one of the first apprentice
mechanical engineers in Barrow in Furness’s shipyard and her love of the discipline
including the role of women in STEM, has continued throughout her career in the
space industry and further and higher education.
Helen has a BSc (Hons) in Engineering from University of Leicester, a MA in
Education from University of Sussex and a DBA in Higher Education Management
from University of Bath. She holds a number of national roles in professional bodies
related to engineering and higher education, is an advisor on regional economic
growth and has held a number of non-executive positions.
Professor Helen James Eur Ing CEng FIMechE FHEA BSc(Hons) MA DBA
Professor of Higher Education Policy and Practice
Pro Vice Chancellor (Education & Student Experience)
Canterbury Christ Church University
Geoff Stoakes
Dr Geoff Stoakes is Head of Special Projects at the Higher Education Academy and
is currently leading the HEA projects on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF),
Learning Gain and on External Examining. He was seconded to the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills in 2015 to work on the development of the TEF and
continues to serve on the Department for Education’s TEF Working Group. He was a
founder member of the Higher Education Advisory Panel of the Office of the
Independent Adjudicator and is a Fellow of the Academy. Geoff was formerly Vice
Principal and Deputy Chief Executive of St Mark & St John University in Plymouth. His
most recent publications include the Review of External Examining Arrangements
across the UK (HEFCE 2015) and the HEPI-HEA Student Academic Experience Survey
2014.
Professor John Storan
John is Director of Continuum, the Centre for Widening Participation Policy Studies at
the University of East London and Visiting Professor at Malmo University in Sweden.
He is also Director of Action on Access which is the national co-ordination team for
widening participation originally funded by HEFCE. As founding and current Chair of
the Forum for Access and Continuing Education (FACE) he represents communities of
practitioners involved in HE Access and Lifelong Learning from across the UK and
beyond.
John has been a highly influential regional, national and international figure on
Lifelong Learning and Widening Participation in HE. Over recent years he has been
advising and supporting funding agencies, government bodies and also stakeholder
groups concerned with access and participation in HE both in the UK and
internationally. In addition to his extensive UK experience he also has enormous
international experience as result of his keynotes and conference inputs and
involvement in a large number of research and development projects. In 2014, John
was appointed the UK representative on the Bologna working group for the Social
Dimension and Lifelong Learning and in 2016 he was invited to become a member of
the Social Mobility Advisory Group (SMAG) which reported directly to the Minister for
Universities and Science.