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BGU student organises activity day for young carers
A BGU Drama in the Community student recently organised an activity day with forty young carers from across Lincolnshire. Every year Drama in the Community students at BGU complete a community project in their final year working with a community group for approximately three months. The communities vary from work with the elderly, projects with people with mental health issues, special needs, schools, youth groups and many more. Chloe Stewart, a third year Drama in the Community student, decided to work with young carers for her project. Her project culminated in an activity day at the BGU campus giving young carers the opportunity to relax, socialise and try out a range of activities. The young people took part in drama, dance, samba band, sports and craft workshops. Chloe said “after speaking to some of the young carers, it was apparent that the day had had an effect on them. “Some expressed that the day had given them the opportunity to get away from their responsibilities, others said how thrilled they were to have tried the different activities that were available for them, and some just stated how nice it was to meet individuals of a similar age to them in a similar situation. “I felt immense pride in watching the two communities come together to give the young carers the opportunity to have some time away from their home life and responsibilities.” To make the day a success Chloe liaised with a number of outside organisations, companies and Lincolnshire County Council. Freshtime Futures Trust, a charity from Boston that give young individuals funding to achieve their goals, invested just under £1000 to enable the day to go ahead. The connections made at the event will be long lasting and there is hope that the event will be held again in the future. The community project is just one of many opportunities that Drama in the Community students at BGU get involved with. Chloe said “the course gives students incredible opportunities. I am thrilled we are given the chance to go out into the world and use our knowledge and skills to benefit a community. “It is incredible to be able to see your hard work come to life and what real effect you can have on other individuals.” Find out more about studying Drama at BGU. -
Michael Jackson Tribute Promises a Thriller at The Venue
The act billed as the world’s number one Michael Jackson tribute is aiming to provide a ‘Thriller’ for fans at Bishop Grosseteste University on Friday (19th May). Navi is the only Michael Jackson tribute to have worked for Michael Jackson for 17 years (from 1992 until 2009), promoting albums and concerts as well as acting as a decoy for the singer in public appearances. In a 25-year career as a Michael Jackson tribute act Navi has appeared in over 300 cities in 58 different countries. He has performed at Michael Jackson’s birthday parties in Los Angeles and New York, visited the singer’s Neverland Ranch and been invited twice to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He closed the show at the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix to well over 20,000 people and has been featured on numerous TV programmes and in newspapers including CNN, CBS, ITV, BBC, Dubai One, MTV, The Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The LA Times and The Times of India amongst others. Navi stars in a new film entitled Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland which is due to be released in cinemas this month. “With a winning combination of authentic vocals, energetic dance moves and a striking resemblance to the original, Navi is bringing the ultimate Michael Jackson tribute show to Lincoln that will have you believing that the magic of Michael Jackson lives on!” said Hannah Clipsham, Events Manager at BGU. Tickets for Navi – Chosen by Michael cost £15 and are available online at The Venue website. The show begins at 7.30pm on Friday 19th May. For more information contact Daisy Wedge by emailing daisy.wedge@bishopg.ac.uk or by calling 01522 585635. -
BGU's first Principal Fellow of the HEA
Dr Ruth Sayers has become Bishop Grosseteste University’s (BGU) first Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). The HEA is a national body that works to encourage teaching excellence to “help improve the student journey into, through and beyond higher education”. As part of their work the HEA award four different categories of Fellowship, with Principal Fellowship being the most prestigious. Achieving Principal Fellowship of the HEA means that Ruth has demonstrated sustained commitment to learning and teaching at BGU and has influence at a national and international level. Ruth, Executive Dean of Learning, Teaching and International at BGU, has joined a very select group of just under 730 Principal Fellows in both the UK and internationally who have attained Principal Fellowship. There are now over 87,000 Fellows which illustrates the level of interest in professional teaching qualifications for HE staff. Ruth said “I’m very proud to have been awarded Principal Fellowship. It is a recognition that many of the strategic changes that I have led in my role as Executive Dean of Learning and Teaching have been effective.” The process for applying for Principal Fellowship took over two years to complete, because it involved a great deal of reflection and drafting. The application comprised a lengthy written submission which was mapped against the Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) descriptors. Three advocate statements from current and former colleagues were also included in the application. Ruth explains “the process of applying to be a Principal Fellow of the HEA was a rewarding and enriching one. It encouraged me to reflect in a structured and critical way on my leadership of learning and teaching across the institution.” There has been more HEA success at BGU recently with 24 more members of staff receiving recognition over the past 10 months. 14 BGU staff members became Fellows while 10 more became Senior Fellows. Along with gaining her Principal Fellowship, Ruth Sayers has been instrumental in helping her colleagues to receive recognition. She said “I will continue to encourage colleagues to undertake Fellowship of the HEA. We have an excellent record of staff engagement with the process, evidenced through the number of new Fellows and Senior Fellows over the past year. “We create space for staff to reflect on their teaching pedagogies through an active staff development series and annual conference. There is a culture at BGU of putting learning and teaching at the heart of everything we do, to enhance the student experience. We see our students as partners in the development of pedagogies for learning.” Ruth’s Principal Fellowship will help to consolidate an already well-established relationship between BGU and the HEA. “We have an excellent relationship with the Higher Education Academy and have made use of their staff as trainers, consultants and advisers in supporting the development of excellent learning and teaching at BGU.” -
A night at the Academy Awards
Staff from Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in Lincoln attended Sir Robert Pattinson Academy’s work-based learning skills and academic awards evening last week. Gemma Gazi, BGU's Education Liaison Officer, and Chris Hakes, Widening Participation Coordinator at BGU, presented two awards to students from the school at the celebration on 14 September 2017. Chris was asked to present the ‘MacFarlane Award for Advance Level Studies’, which is awarded to the student who has achieved the highest results in their A levels. The award went to a student called Antonia Folia who had achieved outstanding results across four A-levels plus the Extended Project Qualification. Gemma was asked to present the ‘Work Experience – Education Award’ for students who have completed Year 11 work experience within a school or nursery. The three finalists all had glowing references from their placements. The winner was Sam Benton, who had completed her work experience in the PE department at Lincoln Christ Hospital School. During the placement, she had the opportunity to help deliver lessons and coach students. The evening was in an Oscars style, with canapés and a drinks reception before heading into the school’s main hall for the awards ceremony. Speaking after the event Gemma said, “We have worked closely with Sir Robert Pattinson Academy for a number of years, both through recruitment and widening participation activities, so it was great to be invited to celebrate the evening with their staff and students. “We both found the evening very enjoyable and it was great to support one of our local schools!” Find out more about Outreach for Schools and Colleges at BGU. -
Clear Advice to Students from BGU on A-level Results Day
With A-level results day looming, Bishop Grosseteste University’s admissions team is poised and ready to guide students through the Clearing process. If you haven’t quite achieved the grades you need for your first-choice university or if you’ve done better than expected, it’s not too late to apply to through Clearing. That’s the message from Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) which recently achieved an impressive 85% satisfaction rate in the National Student Survey. Notably students praised BGU staff for their level of availability when it came to supporting their needs, in addition to their ability to explain complex topics. The admissions team at BGU in Lincoln will be on hand to deal with enquiries during Clearing, which begins on Thursday 17th August when students across the country will receive their A-level results. The call centre will be open from 8am until 6pm on both Thursday 17th August and Friday 18th August and the number to call is 01522 583698. Prospective students can also visit the university at an open day on Friday 18th August from 10am until 3pm. The day provides an opportunity to see what Bishop Grosseteste University has to offer, take a minibus tour of Lincoln and speak to staff and students about courses and life as a student. To book your place on the Clearing open day, visit www.bgu.ac.uk/open-days “A-level results week can be a stressful and worrying time for students and their families, but remember that we are here to help and advise whatever your situation,” said Louise Stow, Student Recruitment Manager at BGU. “Our open day is also an opportunity for those who are starting (or hoping to start) in September to speak face-to-face to our staff about any anxieties they might have. “It’s a busy period for us but as always we will do our best to ensure that students are not left worried or uncertain about their place at university.” Top Tips for Clearing If you’ve just got your A-level results and you’re not sure what to do next, here is a handy set of tips for students who will be entering the Clearing system: Don’t panic! If you stay calm you’re more likely to take in all the information you need to succeed. Don’t panic! If you stay calm you’re more likely to take in all the information you need to succeed. If your grades fall short, wait for that important acceptance/rejection indication on track before you put yourself into Clearing. You never know – your first-choice university might still accept you. Don’t give up! You may well get a place on a similar course that’s just as good – but you’ll need to shop around. Don’t rush your decision. The UCAS system doesn’t even let you trigger the formal process of accepting a Clearing place until 5pm on results day, so you have the chance to shop around. Be realistic. If you’ve seriously blown it then think hard about re-sits or another course altogether – you can always re-apply next time around. UCAS is offering a free (for landlines) Exam Results Service on 0808 100 8000 where trained, professional careers advisers will be available to give help and advice Be prepared to make lots of phone calls and to be persistent! Keep your nerve – you may need all your negotiating skills to persuade an academic that they should take you on. Enlist the support of friends and family – keep them informed, as they’ll be a great help to you when you have to make that difficult final decision. Be prepared to explain to universities why you didn’t do as well as you hoped in your exams – and be honest. If you don’t get the grades you need it’s not the end of the world – there are plenty of other opportunities to consider. -
BGU lecturer exhibits WW1 diary
A history lecturer from Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in Lincoln is involved in an exhibition of an unpublished First World War diary at the Museum of Military Medicine. The exhibition explores the unpublished diary of Alfred Cockburn, a corporal who served within the sanitation section of the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C) during the First World War. The diary offers a rare insight into the role of hygiene and sanitation within the R.A.M.C, an often-neglected area of military history. The exhibition is the culmination of a collaborative nine-month project between BGU’s Senior Lecturer in History Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall, Dr William Hunt and the Museum of Military Medicine. The research project was funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and Gateways to the First World War public engagement centre. Research around the diary initially came about after a BGU student discovered it whilst undertaking research for an undergraduate history dissertation. The diary belonged to a friend, the diarist’s grand-daughter, who graciously shared the rare document and whose continued support made the project possible. Over the past three years, BGU History and Heritage students worked tirelessly to scan and transcribe the diary. A number of these students then joined the funded project as volunteers in September 2016, which saw them undertake research around the content of the diary. This then fed into the museum exhibition where all four volumes of the diary can be viewed by visitors. The diarist Alfred Cockburn served with the 2nd London Sanitary Company R.A.M.C in Egypt and France throughout the war. He captured his experience of war in the diaries he kept, which took the form of small field notebooks. Alongside numerous sketches, he also collected an assortment of war-related ephemera and trench art that all features within the diary. Nearly twenty years later, looking back on his wartime experience, he rewrote his diaries, which, once completed, extended to four volumes and 1,200 pages. Contained within these pages are details about various hygiene and sanitation practices and technological devices relating to: personal hygiene, disease control and prevention, protection of water supply and its purification and distribution, latrines and urinals, burial of the dead, and disposal of refuse. The project and accompanying exhibition encourages a better understanding of the importance attached to military hygiene and sanitation practices during the First World War, alongside its relevancy to armed forces’ practices in the 21st century. The exhibition commemorates the men who served in the R.A.M.C. Sanitary Companies during the First World War. Entrance to the museum is free and the exhibition runs until 15 August 2017. Find out more. -
Unbinding Gender and Ecology—and Foucault!—at BAVS 2017
The theme of the 2017 BAVS Conference at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) was 'Victorians Unbound: Connections and Intersections'. Dr Pandora Syperek offers her thoughts... The ostensible theme of this year’s BAVS was the paradox between the parallel Victorian impulses to classify (knowledge, matter, people) into neat categories and to challenge established order and its inherent hierarchies through advancement and innovation. The goal was to consider what happens when the Victorians are ‘unbound’ from this seeming contradiction, instead granted the complexity to recognise that the one informed the other – the understanding of order and definition was necessary to blow it all apart and reorder and redefine. In order to do this we need to loosen the rigidity with which we have categorised the Victorians. In a way, this is a major thread running through my own research on the gendering of objects in the Natural History Museum, London: by looking at the less examined ‘jewel-like’ specimens on display—small, pretty, crafted, straddling art and science—and their resonance within the broader culture, I explore how categories of gender and genre were unstable and fluid. Like many Victorianists, I have been influenced by Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality (1976) and its reconception of Victorian attitudes to sexuality and the epistemic implications. Foucault’s thesis in Volume 1 is that what has traditionally been characterised as the modern repression of sexuality, culminating in the notorious prudery of the Victorians—aka the ‘repressive hypothesis’—in fact reveals an explosion of interest in sexuality, hence the scientia sexualis of the late nineteenth century, which spawned the new field of psychoanalysis and the new ‘species’, the homosexual. Foucault’s notion that sexuality is a cultural construct had major impact, and followed on from his concept of the episteme—the historical conditions of possibility of a given discourse—as developed in The Order of Things (1966). Instead of the transition from sexual repression to sexual science, the latter focused on the transition from classical natural history to modern biology. While Foucault may no longer be the ‘hot’ theorist he once was, his ideas remain influential: I detected a strong Foucauldian thread running through the talks at BAVS 2017 and their unifying theme of Victorians Unbound. Here I will consider how the dual Foucauldian themes of sexual and natural science emerged—were unbound—in discussions of gender and ecology. Ghosts of The History of Sexuality and The Order of Things haunted the keynote lectures and roundtables that in turn lingered throughout the panel sessions and in delegates’ consciousness, but the phantoms seemed to reconfigure themselves into new forms. Let’s call it Foucault 2.0. The opening round table highlighted the importance of things: Kate Hill argued that museum collections and their treatment disrupt Victorian boundaries, with the hierarchies of objects echoing those of people. Edwina Ehrman beautifully literalised the conference theme in her talk ‘Unlacing the Corset’. Interesting to me was that WH Flower, the second director of the Natural History Museum, campaigned against corsetry—in my paper a couple hours later I would describe how he campaigned against women’s adornment with exotic bird plumage. Who knew comparative anatomists were so concerned with women’s fashion? While the disfiguring of women’s bodies through corsetry might seem similarly cruel and barbaric to the murder of innocent birds, the museum director’s opposition points towards a counter-regulation of women’s activities and self-adornment. This despite the fact that he was personally responsible for the killing of numerous specimens. Meanwhile, non-corset-wearing women like female activists were seen as unfeminine. This is the type of complexity that requires unravelling in contemporary scholarship.Mike Huggins’s jovial keynote on Victorian respectability established a running joke throughout the conference proceedings that carried with it a Foucauldian flavour. To understand the Victorian episteme(s), we need to acknowledge our own. While this may be an impossible task, asking historiographical questions of our work as Victorianists—e.g. why are we so obsessed with Victorian respectability? Why not Victorian unrespectability?—is essential for recognising how the current period and its concerns shape our vision of the Victorian era, and why it matters to us. The contemporary interest in the period in fiction and popular culture emerged in panels examining Steam Punk and NeoVictorianism, again questioning our relationship to the past via its representation in the present. The weight these areas were given marked an important development for Victorian studies and was fitting seeing as directly following the conference in Lincoln was a steam punk festival! These themes and Huggins’s talk set the tone for prioritising everyday realities and ‘low culture’ as much as high discourse. I’d have to say the most revealing experience for me was a tour of the Victorian Prison following the drinks reception on the beautiful grounds at Lincoln Castle—descriptions of cell conditions for inmates including children and women with babies, as well as public hangings, brought home some of the grimmest aspects of Victorian life. As well as topics of gender and natural science, as an art historian I was drawn to the art and visual culture panels—luckily for me, a number of talks combined these fields. In the panel ‘Sex, Sexiness, Sexlessness: Problems of Eroticism in Victorian Classical Forms’, Rebecca Mellor and Melissa Gustin’s papers examined how queer sexuality can and has been both overemphasised and underemphasised, respectively, to the detriment of art historical narratives in the cases of Pre-Raphaelite painter Simeon Solomon and American Neoclassical sculptor Harriet Hosmer. The artists’ gender is implicated here, in that art historians have traditionally overlooked beauty as the embodiment of intellectual and spiritual ideals in Solomon in favour of an oversexed reading of homoeroticism, according to Mellor, while Gustin argued—in her excellently titled paper ‘Fifty Shades of Gay’—that conversely art historians have tripped over themselves to ignore and deny Hosmer’s lesbianism and its influence on her work. The consensus was to reclaim the queer gaze whilst broadening our conception of the erotic to go beyond the physical. While contemporary theories of gender and sexuality can facilitate new understandings of such material, a historicised conception of sexual categories, à la Foucault, is essential.Also on the positioning of gender in between lived experience and representation, in their panel ‘Transgender’, Ann Heilmann, Billie-Gina Thomason and Rachel Egloff discussed transgenderism in Victorian lived realities and textual personae. A recurring problem was the privileging of ‘biology’ in both historical and current discourse—e.g. the Victorians’ determination of gender through breasts and external genitalia, and recent biographers’ insistence that James Miranda Barry was female, despite living as a man for over fifty years. As with the panel on queer artists, unpacking trans histories brings up important methodological questions for how we address these histories whilst, as Thomason urged, avoiding the problem of presentism—imposing our current understanding, or episteme, on the past. And yet this does not only comprise current debates such as those surrounding trans rights, but equally broader categories developed during the Victorian era, such as modern biology.Subtler modes of categorisation were explored in panels such as ‘Decadent Spaces/Pleasurable Places’, which featured Joanne Knowles on the geographically and socially liminal space of the pleasure pier, Joseph Thorne on marginality and hybridity in Decadent cosmopolitanism and Giles Whiteley on the ‘curious effects’ of Wilde’s psychogeography. Rayanne Eskandari and Stuart McWilliams discussed the ‘Politics and Medievalism’ of John Ruskin and William Morris, respectively, and their paradoxes of authority and subversion in the case of Ruskin, and populism and scarcity in the case of Morris. In one of the few explicitly art focused panels, ‘Sculpture: Connections and Intersections’, Katie Faulkner discussed the gender and genre performance of Julia Margaret Cameron’s photography, as engaging with both sculpture and theatre to construct a particular vision of femininity. Jordan Kistler reconsidered evolutionism in Walter Pater’s theory of artistic development as representing a taxonomy based on the Lamarckian archetype, as promoted by Richard Owen (founder of the Natural History Museum) rather than an illustration of Darwinian progress. The implication, according to Kistler, is that in Pater’s formulation sculpture may come out favourably, as the epitome of art rather than its lowest form. In my own panel, simply titled ‘Objects’, Leonard Driscoll discussed things unrealistic but real in HR Haggard’s paratexts, taking the discourse of naturalism beyond the literary genre (which Haggard found rather ugly and smelly) to explore liaisons with archaeology. While the ‘connections and intersections’ between Leonard’s paper and my own on gendering taxidermied hummingbirds were not immediately obvious, parallels concerning the real or more-than-real and corresponding issues of taste and authenticity quickly emerged between these historically marginalised artefacts. Throughout BAVS 2017 there was an emphasis on the everyday and its objects. As Kate Flint stated in her beautifully illustrated keynote on the cultural history of dandelions: the attention to the ordinary, commonplace and overlooked was one of the Victorians’ greatest contributions. This sentiment was echoed in the final President’s Panel speakers Katherine Newey’s enthusiasm for studying theatre with its liberating marginality and infinite materiality and Brian Maidment’s call for more studies of songbooks and almanacs and the need to experience archives in the flesh. This theme was fostered by, and in turn facilitated, a sense of fluidity or boundlessness of disciplines. And yet disciplinary demarcations were still apparent in different approaches taken, confirming there is still much to be learnt from one other. As a non-literary studies person, I felt like a tourist. But then again maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much. The historian Peter Gay has written that Foucault’s ‘accustomed technique…of turning accepted ideas upside down’ is reminiscent of the principle underlying Oscar Wilde’s humour. This method is as relevant now as it was to the Victorians.Pandora Syperek is a postdoctoral researcher who recently completed a fellowship at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. She is developing a monograph titled Jewels of the Natural History Museum: Gender, Display and the Nonhuman, 1851-1901. She received her PhD in the History of Art at UCL in 2015. -
Mystery Plays Archive Finds New Home at BGU
An archive tracing the Lincoln Mystery Plays back to their modern revival in 1969 has been launched at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in Lincoln. The Lincoln Mystery Plays Archive (incorporating the Keith Ramsay Collection) has now been preserved, catalogued and curated by Susan Rodda, Collections Librarian at BGU, and Claire Lamb. The archive was donated to BGU in 2014 and was jointly launched at BGU by the University and the Lincoln Mystery Plays Trust on Friday 6 October 2017. The Lincoln Mystery Plays (based on the N-Town Plays, a cycle of 42 medieval mystery plays) were revived first in 1969 and again in 1978 by Keith Ramsay, the former Head of Drama at what was then called Bishop Grosseteste College. The plays have since been regularly performed in Lincoln Cathedral as well as in France, Italy and the United States. The archive is a collection of ephemera from the first revival of the Mystery Plays to the latest in 2016. It includes more than 500 photographs, 130 press releases and reviews, 50 items of correspondence, programmes, scripts, working scripts, posters, DVDs of productions, television reports and interviews, music CDs and reference books. The archive will remain in the library but, for research purposes, it now falls under the auspices of the University’s School of Humanities. Susan Rodda commented: “Keith Ramsay, the driving force behind the revival of the Mystery Plays in 1978 and the director of all of the productions up to and including 2000, was keen that the Lincoln Mystery Plays Trust Archive should come to BGU where he taught drama for a number of years. “He was delighted to find that I was to catalogue and curate it, as not only had I been one of his drama students, but I was also in his first 1978 production. It has been a privilege to follow Keith’s 20-year journey through the Mystery Plays, and to watch the plays continue to flourish as they head towards their 40th anniversary. “Bishop Grosseteste University sees the scholarly potential of the Lincoln Mystery Plays Archive for students of medieval drama, community theatre, site-specific drama, religious drama and the practical aspects of staging theatre. “Prior to the official launch the archive had already attracted visitors, and we hope to attract many more. It also provides a rich resource for future directors of the Lincoln Mystery Plays. “The archive will continue to grow as the plays continue through the years, a tribute to one man’s dream and ambition and a testament to Lincoln’s commitment to community theatre.” Mystery plays were plays based on Bible stories which were performed in towns and cities across mediaeval Europe, often in cycles lasting several days. Lincoln had its own Mystery Plays in the Middle Ages but they had been defunct for centuries when they were first revived in 1969. The Lincoln Mystery Plays Company has performed the cycle approximately every four years since 1978. The next scheduled performances will take place in 2020. The archive collection is available to view by appointment only. Email e-mail susan.rodda@bishopg.ac.uk or call 01522 585606. -
BGU signs memorandum of understanding with Thai university
The Vice Chancellor of Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in Lincoln, the Revd. Canon Professor Peter Neil, signed an agreement with a university in Bangkok today. Professor Neil signed and exchanged a memorandum of understanding with Dr Preang Kitratporn of Phranakhon Rajabhat University in Bangkok. Both leaders talked about the growing relationship between the two institutions and the opportunities ahead for cooperation. The initial focus will be on teacher education and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). Professor Neil said, “We are extremely pleased to be able to formally strengthen our relationship with Phranakhon Rajabhat University. “Bishop Grosseteste University is committed to developing its staff and students as global citizens. This partnership will benefit our staff and students and we look forward to building on the partnership in the future.” Phranakhon Rajabhat University was founded in the 19th century as a teaching training institute and now offers programmes across a range of academic and professional programmes. Professor Neil will also be meeting representatives from the Thai Teaching Council, the President of the Rajabhat Universities Council, representatives of the British Embassy in Bangkok and a number of Rajabhat University Presidents as part of a one week visit to Thailand. Find out more about TESOL at BGU. -
BGU welcomes Dr Rob Boast as its new Executive Dean
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in Lincoln has appointed Dr Rob Boast as Executive Dean Learning, Teaching and Student Engagement. Dr Boast joins the senior management team at BGU from Staffordshire University, where he was most recently Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching. Rob takes up his new role from Monday 13th November and will immediately be focussing on supporting academic staff to deliver inspirational teaching, an excellent student learning experience and meaningful student engagement. A highly experienced academic who has been leading teaching and learning development at Staffordshire University for a number of years, Dr Boast is recognised as an innovator in higher education practice. He has a particular specialism in problem-based learning and practical scholarship, personalised learner support and innovative course development across a range of disciplines. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, he has also championed the introduction of technology-enhanced learning and creation of new employer engagement and student employability opportunities. Professor Jayne Mitchell, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at BGU, said: “We are delighted to welcome Rob to BGU. He brings a wealth of experience and an outstanding academic background as a researcher, educator and innovator. “Perhaps most importantly, he also shares our ambition to sustain and further develop excellent teaching and student outcomes for all.” Dr Boast said: “I am delighted to be joining Bishop Grosseteste University with its strong personalised and community approach to learning. “I am excited about working with colleagues and students to enhance learning and teaching and the student experience.”
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