Job Shadowing HE

Professor Ken Sloan, Vice-Chancellor and CEO of Harper Adams University. Ken has extensive experience in strategy leadership, governance and commercial activities gained through both the Higher Education and private sectors, and he became a VC through a non-academic route.

In this episode, we discuss his leadership of this specialist university, including its strategic focus, living the institutional values, the role of entre...

Dr Charlotte Verney and Dr Joanne Caldwell each work in different areas of professional services, but both of them also engage in research and scholarship in HE management. In this episode, Charlotte and Joanne share more about their experience of balancing research and scholarship while working in a professional services role and consider the extent to which this type of portfolio of work is reco...

Sarah Beavon has worked in Higher Education for over 20 years, moving through a series of increasingly senior roles to her current position as Chief Digital and Student Experience Officer at Canterbury Christchurch University. In 2025, she was recognised as one of the top 100 innovators and change makers of the year reflecting her success with large-scale digital transformation projects. In releas...

Hugh Jones is a renowned figure in Higher Education having worked in several universities during his career and, since 2014, undertaken consultancy work with over 60 clients. He is also the founder of the HE postcard series on Wonkhe, and Deputy Chair of the Board of Governors at Birmingham City University. 

In this episode, Hugh delves into his career background  and ...

Professor Emmanuel Adukwu is Dean for Students at UWE Bristol and professor of microbiology. Emmanuel started his Dean for Students post just a couple of months ago, transitioning from a deputy head of school into this university senior leadership role.

A central focus of his career is removing barriers to ensure access and quality of opportunity for all, illustrated in his national and internatio...

Aaron Tyler is Co-Founder and Director of Pact Solutions. In this episode, Aaron reflects upon some of the themes I recorded with 4 different Vice-Chancellors in the Leading Differently mini-series, including how those topics inform practice at Pact Solutions. We also consider the institutional leadership qualities he looks for when working with an institution - and later on in the episode we look...

Professor Evelyn Welch is the Vice-Chancellor at the University of Bristol. Evelyn has a notable career path in research intensive institutions,and took up the Vice-Chancellor post at Bristol in 2022. In this episode, we explore a number of current regional, national and international initiatives under her leadership. We also discuss a wide range of other topics including the student experience, u...

Professor David Mba is Vice-Chancellor of Birmingham City University, and in this episode he talks about developing the vision for the University as being an exemplar anchor institution and how its work is intertwined with the city of Birmingham. He shares more about the innovative way in which science, technology, engineering, mathematics - and the arts - come together at the University, includin...

My guest in this episode is Professor Damien Page, Vice-Chancellor at Buckinghamshire New University. 

Damien has progressed significant change at the University in his first few months in role and he talks in this episode about how things are being done differently at BNU to make a greater impact for students and staff, and to increase organisational efficiency. He re...

Clare Marchant DBE is Vice-Chancellor at the University of Gloucestershire. She holds what currently looks like to be a unique position in UK Higher Education being a female Vice-Chancellor who has also come from a non-academic route, and one of the topics we discuss in the episode is the opening up of the Vice-Chancellor role to a more diverse community, and why this is important in leading the sector into the future.

Clare ...

Guests:

Andy Winter, Interim Director of Student Life at the University of Kent;

Helene Usherwood, Senior Partner at Anderson Quigley;

Jeremy Shute, Fortune 500 Leader and Co-Founder Ignition Strategy.

The Higher Education sector is adapting to the c...

Joe Cooper is Director of People and Culture at the University of East London. In this episode we discuss how the University has evolved during recent years and where his focus has been as the executive HR lead.

Joe also talks about his unique career path from Students’ Union Chief Executive into University HR, and the importance of remembering that students are always...

Simon Goldsmith is Head of Sustainability at the University of Greenwich. He works with colleagues across and outside the institution to help embed environmental sustainability into all aspects of university life, and to support the strategic goal of the University of Greenwich being a recognised leader in this field by 2030.

Simon explores various strategic initiatives tha...

My guest in this episode is Steph Glen. Steph has been a Higher Education professional since 2007, initially working her way through a series of progressively senior roles in Timetabling including nearly 10 years at the University of Nottingham, and since December 2024 holding the newly created strategic role of Head of Teaching Space Operations at UCL, the UK’s largest university.

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