Keynote Speakers
CHRISTINE REDECKER is Scientific Officer at the European Commissions Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, where she provides research and policy advice on the potential of ICT for learning. She is currently leading a Foresight exercise on Open Education Resources and Practices. Between 2009-11 she led the "Future of Learning" project which employed a series of foresight activities to develop scenarios for learning opportunities and strategies in 2020-2030. She was also responsible for a major research project on “Learning 2.0” (2008-2010), investigating the potential of social media for enhancing learning opportunities inside and outside formal education and training.
HARRIET BARNES is Development Officer with the UK's Quality Assurance Agency. Over the last few years Harriet has worked with practitioners to develop Chapter B4: Enabling student development and achievement of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education. In 2013 she led work to develop a tool kit to aid institutions in evaluating the educational opportunities they provide to enable students to gain recognition for development they gain outside the academic curriculum. Part of this work involved a survey of co- and extra-curricular awards in UK HE.
MARCIA BAXTER MAGOLDA is Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at Miami University of Ohio (USA) where she teaches student development theory in the Student Affairs in Higher Education masters and doctoral programmes. Her scholarship addresses the evolution of learning and development in college and young adult life and pedagogy to promote self-authorship, a concept she has been instrumental in developing and explaining through a 25 year longitudinal study of college students progressing through life. Among her many books Authoring Your Life: Developing an Internal Voice to Meet Life’s Challenges (Stylus, 2009) provides a comprehensive and readable account of this theory. Marcia is a founding member and advocate of Lifewide Education.
RONALD BARNETT is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. He is a world authority on the conceptual and theoretical understanding of the university and higher education and has authored many influential prize winning books. His latest book 'Imagining the University' opens the way for more imaginative thinking about the university in the 21st century. Ron is a founding member and champion of Lifewide Education and is contributing to the development of the concept.
Institutional Speakers
DAVID GARDNER is Head of Student Opportunity and Enhancement. A graduate of the School of Geography, David returned to the University in 1992 to work on ‘Enterprise in Higher Education’, a government initiative to encourage universities to embed skills development in the curriculum. This was the start of a career working with academic and service colleagues to formulate and implement a wide range of university-wide initiatives in student education, including the introduction of our virtual learning environment, the provision of social learning spaces and establishing our very successful Student Education Conference. David has been involved in LeedsforLife from the outset, with particular responsibility for leading the development of the website, which is now moving into Phase 5 focussing on meeting the needs of our Medical School and taught postgraduate community.
Dr SARAH SPEIGHT is Associate Professor of Higher Education at the University of Nottingham, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and National Teaching Fellow. In 2010 she was appointed as the first Academic Director of the Nottingham Advantage Award, a two-year appointment that was renewed in 2012. Currently also the university’s Academic Director of Online Learning, Sarah has a keen interest in curriculum development and assessment and has worked with the Award team to make the programme innovative and ‘cutting edge’ within its institutional context.
Dr JOY PERKINS is Educational & Employability Development Adviser at the University of Aberdeen; her post is co-located within the University's Careers Service and the Centre for Academic Development. Her work within the Careers Service is student-facing and focuses on the development of the co-curriculum; this includes leading the development of a range of employability-enhancing initiatives such as the University's Skills Award and the integration of Aberdeen Graduate Attributes in the co-curriculum. In the Centre for Academic Development her work concentrates on developing a more employability-focused approach to the curriculum. Prior to taking up this post in 2007 she held academic positions as a Microbiologist at the University of Huddersfield (1994-2003) and the University of Aberdeen (2003-2007). In both positions she supported students in a range of work-related learning opportunities including work placements, transferable skills development and personal development planning.
Dr Carol Costly is a Professor of Work and Learning and Head of Research and Research Degrees at the Institute for Work Based Learning, Middlesex University. Her research interests are in examining methodologies and epistemologies in work based learning (WBL) in higher education to professional doctorate level. She has written about WBL pedagogy and the development of WBL as a field of study, especially trans-disciplinarity, equity, ethics and practitioner-researcher issues.
Panel Members
Dr SHARON MILNER is the Employability Development Manager at the University of Ulster. In her current role she is primarily concerned with supporting staff in evaluating and embedding employability development opportunities across the University using EDORT, the employability toolkit she developed, and administering the University’s employability Award (the Ulster EDGE Award). She also co-ordinates and lectures postgraduate research students on employability skills development. She disseminates employability good practice by hosting an annual national employability conference. Sharon, a Chartered Psychologist continuously employed in the world of academia, is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Fellow of the Centre for Higher Education and Research Practice at Ulster and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
Dr GAVIN McCABE is the Employability Consultant for the University of Edinburgh where he has worked on student employability and graduate attributes since 2007. With a background in statistical epidemiology, international development, careers advice and higher education projects, he is now responsible for supporting institutional strategy and initiatives on employability and graduate attributes, as well as the development of associated local-level activities and enhancements. Through this work, he was responsible for managing the original pilot project, design and implementation of the Edinburgh Award and now maintains oversight of the Award and its strategic implementation
SARAH CAMPBELL is a doctoral psychology student at the University of Surrey. Sarah started her university career in 2006 as a mature student having spent several years working in the music industry. She graduated in June 2010 with a first class honours degree. Not only has she documented her own lifewide learning while at university in an animation she has undertaken several research studies into students lifewide learning and immersive experiences Sarah is a member of Lifewide Education's team of volunteers.
RUTH BARNSLEY is a student on the BA (Hons) Creative Expressive Therapies – Art Pathway Course. She has long held a passion for the use of creativity and the arts within both education and personal development. She has a keen interest in SEN learning and attended the Derby University Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND) Conference in 2013. During her time on the Creative Expressive Therapies course, her passion for helping people has grown substantially. She is currently interested in researching the positive effects of the arts and creativity, within phenomenological concepts, upon education. She has volunteered at Arts for Recovery in the Community and is currently volunteering at Inspirative Arts (a Creative Expressive company founded by two previous Creative Expressive Therapies students).
NAVID TOMLINSON completed his three year archaeology degree at the University of York in June 2013 graduating with a first class honours. He is now working in a small company which provides software to financial advisors. While at university he involved himself in many extra-curricular activities and completed the York Award so he is well placed to comment on the value of his experiences to his own employability. Navid is a member of Lifewide Education's team of volunteers and he has made significant contributions to our understanding of learning ecologies.
