Thank you DTA and Staffordshire University

I would just like to say a huge thank you Staffordshire University for 4 wonderful years. I have met and worked with some amazing people and together we have achieved so much. I have been honoured to work in three Academic Schools at Staffs; initially Staffordshire Business School, followed by Creative Art and Design, and more recently Digital, Technologies and Arts; and as I move to take up my new role of?Academic Lead for the Learning and Teaching Network and Professor of Learning and Teaching at University of Salford, I will take many positive learning experiences from Staffs with me.

Staffordshire University has offered many opportunities to develop significant external collaborations: working with the Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor Andrew Lawrence has enabled extensive networking opportunities to develop with UHNM, PMAG (Spitfire Gallery), Regional Gaming Hub-VX Fiber, IET, and Stoke and Staffordshire Council (just to name a few). This has enabled many students across the university to develop internal and external networks with commercial and community leaders; providing a rich interdisciplinary learning experience which has opened new visions and insights for many. It also enabled me to work more closely with professional bodies and sector leading groups such as: The Textile Institute, NCEE and Group for Learning in Art and Design (GLAD-HE) and to contribute to the development of SCoLPP (Staffordshire’s Learning and Teaching Community). It has been a truly amazing experience and I have made lifelong friends across the entire University and beyond. So thank you everyone for making the last four years so enjoyable and memorable.

I will be joining University of Salford at an exciting time of change.?There is much positive pedagogical and curriculum change already happening and I am looking forward to working with individuals and teams to bring a?central focal point for developing, disseminating and embedding this further. I have received so many positive messages already and I am very much looking forward to joining the Salford community in November to contribute to learning, teaching, research, scholarly activity and knowledge transfer. I am particularity interested in contributing to shaping the future of Higher Education and the student experience through design challenge-led learning within an interdisciplinary context. So I am looking forward to learning more about the industrial collaboration zones and very keen to work with individuals/teams on student experience facing projects.

There is no doubt 2020-2021 has been a challenging year for the education sector, but there have also been many opportunities for new innovative practices. I was delighted to hear earlier this month that I had been awarded a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE) and I am keen to mentor others to develop their profiles within Learning and Teaching. Further to this I recently co-edited a special edition journal for?Innovative Practice in Higher Education. This publication draws on best practice within the creative sector and showcases innovation, resilience and how the higher education sector transformed to exploit the alternative pedagogies offered in this new digital era. This is a dialogue we need to continue, there is much good practice we need to capture, share and showcase. The newly developed Learning and Teaching Network at Salford will provide a great opportunity to develop a community of learning for the region and beyond and I am absolutely delighted to be part of this significant development.