Staff

I am a Senior Policy Adviser in the Educational Policy and Governance Service (EPGS), part of Student Services. 

I work across all areas where the development, design or delivery of our degrees touches on our internal processes and policies, and our external regulatory requirements. This ranges from the processes we used to turn a idea for a new programme into reality, to shaping our assessment policies to fit with an ever changing world. From listening to our students' feedback, to responding to the government's latest edict on higher education. My week could involve consulting with colleagues in academic units on changes needed to improve our student experience, or wrangling with our IT systems to ensure we can deliver these....my role is varied and hard to define in a short paragraph!

I have specific responsibility for our policies and processes around regular and period review of our programmes. I support and facilitate the work of the University's Taught Programme subcommittee, the group with responsibility for assuring the quality of our provision.

I also manage a team who work across all elements of the EPGS' remit including:

• developing and implementing the Education Strategy
• internal educational policies
• quality assurance including external examining, annual and periodical review
• responding to and aligning with the Office for Students' national regulatory requirements
• educational governance - the committees which are the key decision-making bodies responsible for the educational strategy and vision and its implementation
• educational partnerships with other providers
• student voice including internal surveys and feedback mechanisms and external surveys such as the NSS, PTES and PRES
• programme and module information and data, and the internal systems used to manage our provision

Background

I have worked in the university since 2010 in roles in the Careers Service, University Library, teaching undergraduates in the School of English, the many roles in the Learning and Teaching Development Service. I have a broad and varied background in educational enhancement, learning technologies, student academic support, and working with academic staff to enhance learning and teaching across the university. I have developed funding streams and staff recognition opportunities and led a body of work on supporting colleagues applying for promotion on the basis of their teaching.

Outside of work I have been a trustee of Citizens Advice Newcastle since 2018.

I have a PhD in twentieth century literary magazines from the anglophone Caribbean: my research charted the growth of Caribbean literature, against the backdrop of the end of colonial British rule, through grass roots groups and publications. If this is of interest you can read more in ‘Periodical Culture’, Caribbean Literature in Transition Vol. 2: 1920s-1970s, ed. Raphael Dalleo and Curdella Forbes (Cambridge University Press, 2021).