Chaired by: Professor Karen Mpamhanga who is the co-convenor of the Higher Education Policy. For more details about the network and its activities, please click here.

This event is to launch the SRHE-funded report: Doing the dirty work of academia? Ancillary staff in higher education written by Prof. Marie-Pierre Moreau and Lucie Wheeler.

The report brings together the key findings and recommendations of a research project conducted by the speakers in 2023. The presentation of the findings and recommendations by Marie-Pierre and Lucie will be followed by a panel discussion with two experts in an academic or policy-making role (Jamie Burford and Jane White). This will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

This launch event represents an opportunity to kickstart a conversation about a group given limited consideration in HE research and policy circles. We are also hoping that the project will help to generate a better understanding of the contribution of ancillary staff to the HE sector and address some of the injustices they face and for the researchers to share their work and to open discussion on how they see the future of this field of research developing.

The target audiences for this event include: postgraduate students and academics researching higher education or employment with a focus on social justice, HE policy-making bodies and professional organisations.

Schedule

Speaker bios

Marie-Pierre Moreau is Professor in Sociology of Education, Work and Inequalities, Education Research Lead and Director of the CERII Research Centre at Anglia Ruskin University, UK. A sociologist by training, her research is located at the nexus of education, work and inequalities. She is the editor of the Bloomsbury Gender and Education book series (with P. J. Burke and N. Niemi) and of the journal Access: Critical explorations of equity in higher education (also with P. J. Burke). She tweets and blogs in a personal capacity at @mpsmoreau and at https://theresearchwitch.wordpress.com/. 

Lucie Wheeler is Research Assistant at Anglia Ruskin University, UK. With over 12 years working in various educational settings, in 2020 she moved into working in higher education. Lucie has worked to build a research portfolio based around her interests in home and alternative forms of education, child development, carers and inequalities. Lucie is also an author of two fiction books raising awareness around parenting and SEND and is currently studying for a PhD exploring the multi-faceted identity of the home educator. She tweets at @lucie_wheeler_.