Current Governing Council Members

Governing Council

• Professor Chris Pole, Chair, University of Brighton
• Professor Helen Higson, Vice Chair, Aston University
• Mr. David Palfreyman, Honorary Treasurer, New College, University of Oxford

Chris Pole is Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Brighton. Previously, Chris held posts at Nottingham Trent University, firstly as Dean of the School of Social Sciences and latterly as its Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

Prior to this, he held the post of Sub-Dean responsible for postgraduate recruitment in the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Leicester. He spent nine years at Leicester which included spells as Head of Department of Sociology and Director of Research in the School of Education. Prior to this, he spent 10 years at the University of Warwick where he held a joint appointment in the Department of Sociology and the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR). Earlier posts were at the Institute for Employment Studies at the University of Sussex and the National Foundation for Educational Research.

Chris’s interests in the sociology of education and of childhood have led to project-directorships under the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Children 5-16: Growing into the 21st Century programme and the ESRC/Arts & Humanities Research Council Cultures of Consumption programme. He has lectured and published widely in these areas and also in qualitative methodology, especially ethnography.

SRHE Committees:
Chair of the Governing Council
(All Committees)

Helen Higson completed her first degree in English Literature from Newnham College, Cambridge University and followed this up with an MA with the Open University and a PhD at Birkbeck College, London University. She has worked in Higher Education since 1983, first at Southampton University and then at Aston. She is currently Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Aston University where she is Chief Academic Officer and leads on learning and teaching and employability. Her previous role was as Head of Learning and Teaching at Aston Business School. She is Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management and National Teaching Fellow (NTF) and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA). Her current research includes intercultural training for staff and students and research into employability competencies and diversity. Helen Higson contributed a chapter to the 2012 Wilson Review on University Business relations. Helen was awarded the OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to Higher Education and in 2017 was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands.

SRHE Committees:
Member of the Governing Council
Chair of the Governance & Appointments Committee
Member of the Management & Finance Committee

David Palfreyman, MA MBA LLB, FRSA, Bursar and Fellow, New College, Oxford, has previously worked at the Universities of Liverpool and Warwick, and has written numerous articles on university management.

He has co-edited a book for the Open University Press entitled Higher Education Management: the key elements (1996), and other books include Oxford and the Decline of the Collegiate Tradition (2000) and The State of UK Higher Education (2001). Two further books: Higher Education and the Law and How to Manage a Merger or Avoid One were published in 1998; the second edition of the former is entitled Higher Education Law (2002, Jordans). David Palfreyman and David Warner are the General Editors for the fifteen-volume Open University Press-McGraw Hill series: Managing Universities and Colleges (within which they contribute a volume on Managing Crisis) – this Series is now being translated for publication in China. With Ted Tapper, in 2005 David has co-edited a book on the politics of access to higher education in major OECD countries (Understanding Mass Higher Education: Comparative Perspectives on Access). He has also edited a book on The Oxford Tutorial (2001 & 2008 – the second edition will be available as a Chinese translation from Peking University Press) and written The Economics of Higher Education (2004). His latest work is (with Dennis Farrington) The Law of Higher Education (Oxford University Press, 2006); and his next academic project is a comparative study of elite universities as the first of a dozen volumes in a new series on comparative international higher education (2008 onwards, Series Editors: Palfreyman/Tapper/Thomas, Taylor & Francis).

David is a (Joint) Director of the UUK Management Development Course for Higher Education Administrators. He is also a Member of the Editorial Board of the AUA’s journal Perspectives, and is the Joint Editor of the journal Education and the Law. He is a non-executive Director of OXIP (the Oxford Investment Partnership) that manages c£200m of funds.

With David Warner, David established OxCHEPS (The Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies), details of which can be seen at its web-site on http://oxcheps.new.ox.ac.uk. OxCHEPS offers a ‘HE Mediation Service’, ‘UCELNET’ as a legal awareness service for HEIs/FEIs, and an online ‘HE Law Updating Service’ for the HE Law text along with an online ‘HE Law Casebook’ linking to the HE Law textbook.

SRHE Comittees – Ex Officio
Member of the Governing Council
Member of the Governance, Management and Finance Committee

Council Members

• Harriet Barnes, British Academy
• Dr Ibrar Bhatt, Queen’s University Belfast
• Professor Rachel Brooks, University College London
• Ms Andrea Cameron, Abertay University
• Dr Jane Creaton, University of Portsmouth
• Professor Lesley-Jane Eales-Reynolds, University of West London
• Professor Amanda Fulford, Edge Hill University
• Professor Susan Harris-Huemmert, German University of Administrative Science, Speyer
• Dr Neil Harrison, University of Oxford
• Dr Emily Henderson, University of Warwick
• Professor Pauline Kneale, University of Plymouth
• Professor Jacqueline Stevenson, University of Leeds
• Professor Gina Wisker, University of Brighton

Harriet Barnes is Head of Policy (Higher Education and Skills) at the British Academy, the national academy for the humanities and social sciences. She leads the Academy’s work speaking as a voice for its disciplines to government and higher education bodies such as the Office for Students and UKRI, which covers topics such as the REF, TEF and KEF, research funding and research culture, language and quantitative skills, and graduate outcomes. She has led projects on the teaching-research nexus in higher education, research impact in the humanities and social sciences, and harnessing educational research for policy and practice. She previously worked for the Quality Assurance Agency, where she was closely involved in the evaluation and development of the UK Quality Code, and for the University of Bedfordshire. Her background is in medieval Celtic studies, particularly Old Irish literature and literary culture, and studied at the University of Cambridge and University College Cork.

Ibrar Bhatt is Lecturer in Education at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Executive Editor of the journal Teaching in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives. Much of his research is at the intersections of applied linguistics, literacy studies, and higher education. He has active research interests in writing and literacy as a social practice, digital literacies, and contemporary digital epistemologies.

These interests emerge through three recent books: His 2017 monograph ‘Assignments as Controversies’; a 2019 monograph ‘Academics Writing: The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation’ (both published by Routledge/T&F); and ‘The Epistemology of Deceit in a Postdigital Era’ (2021, Springer).

Ibrar hasn’t always worked in Universities. His career began in community learning and Further Education where he taught on Adult ESOL and Literacy courses. It is from this context that his interest in the study of literacies in education began to emerge.

Ibrar is also the co-convener of the SRHE’s Digital University Network and an Editorial Board member of the journal Post Digital Science & Education (Springer).

SRHE Committees:
Member of the Governing Council (January 2017)
Member of the Research & Development Committee

Rachel Brooks is a Professor of Higher Education at the University College London, Institute of Education and an executive editor of the British Journal of Sociology of Education. Formerly Professor in Sociology and Associate Dean at the University of Surrey, her research interests lie in the sociology of education and include: higher education; transitions from school to university and from education to work; lifelong learning; international education; citizenship education and political participation; the impact of friends and peers on experiences of education; and education policy.

Rachel is currently leading a large cross-national project (‘EuroStudents‘), which explores how the higher education student is understood in different European countries, and by different social actors. Rachel’s most recent books are Materialities and Mobilities in Education, with Johanna Waters, published in 2017 as part of the Routledge series on the Foundations and Futures of Education, and Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives, which was published in the Routledge/SRHE series in 2016. She is completing Education and Society: Places, Policies, Processes, which will be published by Palgrave later in 2018.

SRHE Committees:
Member of the Governing Council (January 2017)
Member of the Publications Committee

Andrea Cameron is the Head of School of Social and Health Sciences and the Intellectual Lead for Teaching and Learning at Abertay University. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has progressed a number of student experience enhancement issues in the various posts she has held since joining Abertay in 2003. Most recently, she has led strategic initiatives relating to Employability, Academic Tutoring, Embedding Equality and Diversity in the Curriculum, Staff Profiling and Accelerated Degrees.

She maintains an active role in the classroom leading a sport placement module and an institutional Elective module (‘Ethical Reasoning for a Global Society’). She has presented and published work in relation to Personal Development Planning, professional reflective practice and heightening employability, inclusion of those with protected characteristics, and closing the attainment gap for those from widening participation backgrounds. Andrea has also been the recipient of awards for her work engaging students with voluntary organisations. She is a Governor of the Dundee Education Trust, a trustee of the Dundee Dragons Wheelchair Sports Club, and an editorial panel member of the Diabetes Wellness News.

Before becoming a sport scientist, Andrea was, and remains, a registered nurse teacher. She continues to produce patient publications for a Diabetes charity. Her interests in heightening skills, competency and employability in graduates derive from her clinical nurse teaching experiences. Andrea is also a mother of one and an accomplished athlete, representing Scotland and England at long distance track events as well as cross-country.

SRHE Committees:
Member of the Governing Council (January 2017)
Member of the Management & Finance Committee

Dr Jane Creaton is a Reader in Higher Education and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and currently on research leave until August 2019 from her post as Associate Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. She is a Principal Investigator on a funded project Postgraduate Research Student Mental Health and Wellbeing (supported by £150,000 from the Office for Students Catalyst Fund) and working on projects relating to Leadership and Management in Higher Education and the Impact of Professional Doctorates in the Workplace.

National Teaching Fellow, 2001.
Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2013.

Professor Lesley-Jane Eales-Reynolds became University Director of Learning, Teaching and Pedagogic Research and Director of the ExPERT Academy in December, 2017, after being coaxed out of retirement. Previously she was a Deputy, Vice Chancellor for a London University, Director of Learning, Teaching and Pedagogic Research at the University of Westminster and Director of a Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at the University of Portsmouth. She received her BSc in Microbiology from the University of Wales and her PhD in Immunology from the University of Bath. After post-doctoral work at the Max Plank institute and St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial, (where she co-developed the first AIDS research laboratory in the UK), she joined the University of Surrey.

Previously an RAE 5* immunologist, Professor Reynolds has taught at all levels in a wide range of organizations and is actively involved in pedagogic research focusing on critical thinking and technology-enhanced learning. She has been a reviewer and panel member for the two TEF pilots. Amongst the first to receive a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship and Principal Fellowship of the HEA, she is passionate about Higher Education and its role in social and economic development. In her current role she has responsibility for learning, teaching, pedagogic research, curriculum design and development and academic staff development and works closely with the Vice Chancellors Executive team

SRHE Committees:
Member of the Governing Council (January 2017)
Member of the Management & Finance Committee

Amanda Fulford is Professor of Philosophy of Education, and Head of the Department of Professional Learning at Edge Hill University. She was previously a Reader, and Associate Head of School for Research and Knowledge Exchange at Leeds Trinity University, and has also worked at the universities of Huddersfield and Bolton.

Amanda’s career began in Further Education where she taught in adult literacy and initial teacher education. She has taught on provision from adult basic education through foundation and undergraduate degrees, Master’s programmes, and is an experienced PhD supervisor and examiner. She has also worked as a consultant for government bodies.

Amanda’s research interests are in philosophy of education, particularly the philosophy of higher education. She co-wrote a volume for Routledge in 2016 titled Philosophy and Theory in Educational Research: Writing in the Margin, and is currently co-editing a book series for Springer: Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives, and an international volume for Bloomsbury on community philosophy. She has published in a wide range of journals including the Journal of Philosophy of Education; Ethics and Education, and Educational Theory. She is on the editorial board of Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education. She is Deputy Chair of the Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education Society and a member of the Executive Committee of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.

SRHE Committees:
Member of the Governing Council
Member of the Publications Committee

 Susan Harris-Huemmert is Professor of International Educational Leadership and Management at Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany, where she leads an international joint Masters degree programme with Helwan University, Cairo. Previously she held research and administrative positions at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer and the Universities of Würzburg and Bamberg. Her doctorate, which she completed at the University of Oxford (Department of Education), investigated the role of experts in a large German evaluation of Educational Science in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Susan’s research focusses on international higher education systems, the governance and quality of higher education and in particular the management of higher education infrastructure. Before taking up her professorship, she was principal investigator of a collaborative BMBF-funded research project examining the career trajectories of academic managers (see www.kawum-online.de). As co-convenor of the working committee on higher education within the German Society for Evaluation (DeGEval), she has published numerous books on subjects such as digitalisation in teaching practice, student heterogeneity, third space academics, and evaluation practice (Waxmann & UVW).

Neil Harrison is Deputy Director of the Rees Centre, Senior Researcher and Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, Department of Education. Neil was formerly associate professor in education policy in the Department of Education and Childhood at the University of the West of England (UWE). He worked at UWE from 2000-2018, initially as a student services manager and then as an academic since 2007. Previously he worked (and studied) at the University of Kent.

Neil is a mixed methods and interdisciplinary researcher specialising in education policy, social justice and intercultural education. His research work is mainly focused on issues around access to higher education, especially for groups of people who are disadvantaged or marginalised in society. This includes topics such as financial support, outreach programmes, alternative qualification routes and the factors underpinning student success. He also researches around the engagement of students in internationalised universities and the concept of global citizenship.

Neil is an editor of Teaching in Higher Education international journal and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

SRHE Committees:
Member of the Governing Council
Member of the Research & Development Committee

Emily Henderson joined the University of Warwick in December 2015 as Assistant Professor of International Education and Development and course leader of MA Global Education and International Development. Prior to this she completed an ESRC PhD studentship at UCL Institute of Education. She is co-convenor of SRHE International Research and Researchers Network and founder and co-convenor of AMIN – Academic Mobilities and Immobilities Network at Warwick. She is author of Gender Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning and Tracing Gender in Higher Education (Palgrave, 2015) and co-editor of Starting with Gender in International Higher Education Research (Routledge, forthcoming). Emily is co-editor of the academic blog Conference Inference: Blogging the World of Conferences, which was launched in 2017.

Emily’s research, which is inherently international in nature, lies in the areas of gender and higher education, particularly the production of knowledge about gender; the academic profession, academic mobility and conferences; poststructuralist and feminist theory and research methodology. Emily’s research projects include a 5-year project on gender and higher education in the state of Haryana, India, and ‘In Two Places at Once’, a study of the impact of caring responsibilities on academics’ conference participation. She previously worked in Togo, Senegal and India, and also has strong links to France, South Africa and the US; she speaks fluent French and Hindi at an advanced level.

SRHE Committees:
Member of the Governing Council (January 2017)
Member of the Research & Development Committee

Pauline Kneale, awarded a national Teaching Fellowship in 2002, is currently Professor of Pedagogy and Enterprise, and Director of the Pedagogic Research Institute and Observatory (PedRIO) at the University of Plymouth. Previous experience includes Directing the White Rose Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning of Enterprise at the University of Leeds 2005-10, and The Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, (2009-11).

Pauline established and directs PedRIO, one of the six cross Faculty University Institutes. Now in its eighth year, it has an excellent track record in developing staff as pedagogic researchers, and has developed a conference series which attracts staff from many Universities. Pauline’s research focuses on student skills, Masters level teaching, inclusive assessment and student’s experience of University. Recent research publications in collaboration with the PedRIO team and external partners have addressed: transition issues to university; the retention of non-traditional students; evaluating the role and impact of undergraduate research conferences; evaluating the impact of academic development interventions; and the position of pedagogic research in REF2014.

SRHE Committees:
Member of the Governing Council (January 2017)
Member of the Research & Development Committee

Professor Jacqueline Stevenson is Director of the Lifelong Learning Centre at the University of Leeds. She is a sociologist of education with interests in equity and diversity, widening participation, and student success. Her research focusses in particular on the differential higher education experiences of students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, religious students, international students, and refugees and other forced migrants. She draws on the theoretical lenses of resilience, belonging, mattering, time, temporality and future selves. She was previously Head of Research in the Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University and Professor of Higher Education at Leeds Beckett University.

Gina Wisker, Head of University Brighton’s Centre for Learning & Teaching, Professor of Higher Education & Contemporary Literature teaches and researches in learning, teaching, postgraduate study supervision and academic writing. With 25 books (some edited) and over 140 articles published including: The Postgraduate Research Handbook (2001, 2008) The Good Supervisor (2005, 2012,); Getting Published (2015). Gina also specialises in Twentieth-century women’s writing, postcolonial, Gothic & popular fictions: Key Concepts in Postcolonial Writing (2007) Horror (2005), Margaret Atwood, an Introduction to Critical Views of Her Fiction (2012) Contemporary Women’s Gothic Fiction (2016).Gina has supervised 31 PhD students to completion and examined 40. She chaired the Heads of Education Development Group, SEDA Scholarship &Research committee, and the Contemporary Women’s Writing association and is chief editor of the SEDA journal Innovations in Education and Teaching International, dark fantasy online journal Dissections and poetry magazine Spokes. Gina is an HEA Principal Fellow, National Teaching Fellow & SFSEDA.