Professor Pauline Kneale

Chair

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:
Chair of the Governing Council
(All Committees)

Professor Helen Higson

Professor Helen Higson

Vice Chair

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

Mr. David Palfreyman

Mr. David Palfreyman
FRSA

Honorary Treasurer

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