Judging the 2019 awards will be specialists from within the Guardian and across the higher education sector in the UK. Guardian journalists on the panel will include Rachel Hall, Richard Adams, Anna Fazackerley, Harriet Swain and Alfie Packham.
Wendy Berliner
Wendy is an award-winning journalist who has specialised in education for most of her career. She has been education correspondent for the Guardian, education features editor for the Independent and has also edited the Times Educational Supplement. Most recently she was joint chief executive officer of the Education Media Centre. Her bestselling book Great Minds and How to Grow Them – a collaboration with leading specialist in advanced cognition, Prof Deborah Eyre – came out last year.
Kalwant Bhopal
Kalwant is a professorial research fellow and professor of education and social justice at the University of Birmingham. She is visiting professor at Harvard University at the Graduate School of Education. She has recently conducted research – the first of its kind – on the impact of the Race Equality Charter in higher education institutions, and is currently exploring a comparison of the Race Equality and Athena Swan charters. Her new book, White Privilege: the myth of a post-racial society, was recently published by Policy Press.
Alex Bols
Alex is deputy chief executive of GuildHE, one of the two officially recognised representative bodies in higher education. He is chair of governors at Holloway secondary school, on the board of directors at the University College of Osteopathy, and is currently doing his doctorate in education at the UCL Institute of Education.
Paul Boustead
Paul is director of human resources and organisational development at Lancaster University. He has more than 17 years’ experience in HR and OD in the UK, which has included local government, local education authorities, the NHS and higher education institutions. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a public governor on a trust board of a large acute hospital in the north-west. During his career he has led a number of large-scale change programmes, including the merger of three UK higher educational institutions to create a single university. He has also led the restructuring and transformation of HR directorates in three very different organisations. Paul oversees people strategy, health and safety, equality and diversity, educational development, organisational and staff development, HR, payroll and pensions. He is also the elected chair of Universities Human Resources.
Julia Buckingham
Julia is vice-chancellor and president of Brunel University London. She is currently treasurer and a trustee of Universities UK, a director of Imperial College Health Partners and of the National Centre for Universities and Business, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary University Group Council, and chair of the Athena Swan Review Steering Group. She read zoology at the University of Sheffield and undertook a PhD in pharmacology at the University of London, after which she held a number of academic roles at Imperial College London.
Rebecca Bunting
Rebecca is vice-chancellor of Buckinghamshire New University. She holds a number of non-executive director roles at bodies including Advance HE, Bucks Business First, Buckinghamshire Education Skills and Training, and the Buckinghamshire and Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership, where she chairs the Skills and Employment Board. She chairs the Office for Students’ National Collaborative Outreach Programme Advisory Board. In her previous academic career, she led national and international language projects, and conducted research and published in the field of children’s language and literacy development, educational linguistics and pedagogy.
Claire Callender
Claire is professor of higher education policy at the UCL Institute of Education, and at Birkbeck, University of London. She is deputy director of the ESRC/Hefce-funded Research Centre for Global Higher Education, based at UCL. Claire’s research and writing focus on higher education student finances. She is currently conducting research on the effects of student loan debt on graduates, and on part-time students. She has contributed to some of the most significant UK inquiries into student funding and presented evidence to parliamentary select committees. She was a Fulbright scholar at the Harvard School of Education from 2007-2008. In 2017, she was awarded an OBE for services to higher education.
Alec Cameron
Alec is vice-chancellor of Aston University. Previously he was deputy vice-chancellor (education) at the University of Western Australia and dean of the Australian School of Business, overseeing its emergence from the integration of academic units at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Alec also served as deputy vice-chancellor (resources and infrastructure) at UNSW, and held several senior corporate positions in the IT and telecommunications industry. A Rhodes scholar, Alec holds a BSc and Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He has a university medal from the University of Sydney, a DPhil from Oxford University, and an MSc from Polytechnic Institute, New York University.
Joy Carter
Joy is vice-chancellor of the University of Winchester. She is an academic with research based in geochemistry and health. She is the current chair of GuildHE, and for many years served on the Universities UK Board; she was also previously a board member for the Quality Assurance Agency. She currently chairs the Church of England’s Steering Group for their Foundation for Educational Leadership. As an ambassador for higher level skills and vocational learning, she chaired the University Vocational Awards Council for six years. She is also a board member of Ucas.
Jennifer Crawley
Jennifer is the head of performance for small business banking at HSBC UK and responsible for over 1,000 people and 820,000 customers. Jennifer’s role enables her to make a difference for small businesses. She created the successful ‘Pop-up’ week initiative where local businesses showcase themselves nationally. Jennifer’s passion for people has led her to prominent roles in Forward Ladies, a support network for women in business, Young Enterprise, which helps to empower young people and the London Institute of Banking and Finance, which HSBC partners with to professionalise employees through banking qualifications.
Jennifer also created NextGen Fest, HSBC UK’s youth festival, attached to the world’s biggest business event, the International Business Festival in Liverpool. The event welcomed Prince William and hosted a round table bringing together eight young people with a view to inspiring them about what the future world of work could be.
Ian Dunn
Ian is deputy vice-chancellor (student experience) and responsible for the education agenda within the Coventry University Group. This includes oversight of the Disruptive Media Learning Lab and the students’ union, and the creation, in 2017, of Coventry University Online. In 2016 he was awarded Inspiring Leader of the Year in the Guardian University Awards. He led the development of Coventry University College which now has sites in Coventry, Scarborough and East London, and is passionate about access for all to high-quality education. A Coventry graduate, he is very engaged in the local community. He chairs the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education and is a justice of the peace in Coventry and Warwickshire.
Judy Friedberg
Judy is a visiting professor at Coventry University and an education consultant at the Guardian. For five years, she was universities editor of the Guardian, having previously worked in a range of roles on the paper and website.
Paul Greatrix
Paul is registrar at the University of Nottingham, a post he was appointed to in January 2007. As registrar he is responsible to the vice-chancellor for the academic administration of the university. As well as being secretary to the statutory bodies of the university and a member of the executive board, the registrar manages the provision of a broad range of professional services for prospective students, current students and staff. Paul read English language at the University of Edinburgh, and holds a PhD from the School of Education at the University of East Anglia. He blogs as Registrarism and is a contributing editor of Wonkhe.
Matt Hiely-Rayner
Matt founded Intelligent Metrix Ltd in 2009, the company that provides the statistics and rankings to the Guardian’s university guide. Responsible for designing the guide’s unique value-added score, he is especially interested in developing this as a means of illustrating gaps in attainment between different student groups. He is also director of strategic planning and data insight at Kingston.
Lucy Hunter Blackburn
Lucy is an ESRC-funded postgraduate research student at the University of Edinburgh, specialising in student funding, particularly cross-UK comparisons of student debt. She previously worked as a senior civil servant in the Scottish government, including a period as head of higher education and student support. Before starting her PhD she established a successful blog on higher education policy, adventuresinevidence.com, and has been published widely, mainly on student finance and access, by specialist organisations and in the media. In November 2017, she was awarded Wonkhe’s wonk of the year.
Smita Jamdar
Smita is relationship partner for Shakespeare Martineau’s university and college clients and advises on strategic, regulatory, constitutional, governance and student matters. Identified as a leader in her field in both The Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners, her approach is best summed up by The Legal 500, in which one client notes: “We constantly want to clone her. She is both pragmatic and strategic and she can bring the dullest subject to life.” She is a regular speaker at sector conferences and an enthusiastic contributor to the firm’s education blog.
Tricia King
Tricia is vice-president of global engagement for Case, a global NGO which advances education to transform lives and society. She works to build the resilience and sustainability of university leadership teams in Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Australia and Europe. Before Case she spent 11 years on the senior leadership team of Birkbeck, University of London. As pro vice-master for strategic engagement she helped create new approaches that allowed Birkbeck to survive in some very hard times. She worked with successive government ministers to advocate for Birkbeck and successfully influence government policy. She helped create bridges with London corporates and business organisations, and recently became a fellow of Birkbeck.
John Last
John has been vice-chancellor of Norwich University of the Arts since 2009, and has worked in specialist arts higher education for more than 25 years. He is a trustee and vice chair of GuildHE and chair of the United Kingdom Arts and Design Institutions Association, and past chair of the Group for Learning in Art and Design. He has been a board member of Hesa and the HEA, and served for five years on the NSS Steering Group. John is chair of the New Anglia LEP Digital Creative Industries Group. In 2017 he was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list, for services to higher education.
Mark Leach
Mark is the founder and editor of Wonkhe. Mark has worked in policy, politics and public affairs in and around UK higher education, founding Wonkhe in 2011 while working as a jobbing policy wonk in the sector. The first part of his career took him to the National Union of Students, Hefce, University Alliance and GuildHE, as well as a stint in politics as a special adviser to the former shadow minister for universities and science. Mark began full-time work on Wonkhe in 2014, turning it from a Sunday afternoon hobby to a growing company with a full-time team based in London. As editor, he writes, commissions and edits articles on the site; edits and writes the Monday morning HE briefing and Wonkhe daily email briefings; and oversees and produces all other Wonkhe output. In his role as director, he develops Wonkhe’s products, partnerships and commercial activity.
Emma Leech
Emma is director of marketing and advancement at Loughborough University, overseeing communications, marketing, recruitment, web and digital, widening participation, international and fundraising and development. She started her career in fashion and consumer PR in 1988, working in tourism and destination marketing before settling in higher education in 1997. She has won a string of awards over more than two decades spanning PR, marketing, innovation, fundraising, digital and web. Emma holds an MBA and various PR, marketing and management qualifications. She is the Chartered Institute of Public Relations president-elect for 2018.
Lynne Livesey
Lynne is deputy vice-chancellor (academic) at the University of Central Lancashire. She is director at a number of charitable organisations and a member of an LEP skills and employment board. She has a keen interest in working with employers and communities to expand opportunities for students and graduates to achieve success in their chosen fields. She is committed to the university’s mission to widen participation and achievement. Before taking up her current post, Lynne was dean of law and a practising lawyer. She has a strong professional and academic interest in equality and diversity, as well as improving social mobility and access to justice.
Bashir Makhoul
Bashir is the vice-chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts, the top UK university for the creative industries, and recently named the 2018 Modern University of the Year. He is also the first Palestinian academic to be appointed as vice-chancellor to a British University. He is a prolific writer, editor and artist, and has exhibited at a range of high-profile venues and events including the 2013 Venice Biennale, the Hayward Gallery, Tate Liverpool and the Aichi Triennale in Japan. His published works specialise in Palestinian art and themes of conflict and identity.
Michelle Morgan
Michelle is associate professor and associate dean for student experience at Bournemouth University. Michelle is extensively published in the area of supporting student diversity and improving the student learning experience at undergraduate and postgraduate taught level in, through and out of the student study journey. During her varied career, Michelle has been a faculty manager, researcher and academic. She describes herself as a “Third Space Professional” student-experience practitioner who develops initiatives based on pragmatic and practical research. Michelle has presented more than 100 national and international conference papers, including 30 keynotes and 30 invited papers. Michelle is a fellow of the AUA, principal fellow of the HEA, and an elected council member of the UK Council for Graduate Education.
David Morris
David is vice-chancellor’s policy officer at the University of Greenwich. He was formerly deputy editor of Wonkhe, and before that worked in policy at the National Union of Students. David is a graduate of Durham University and was the winner of the 2016 CIPR award for Best Newcomer to Education Journalism. David is a regular writer for Wonkhe and Guardian Universities.
Ilyas Nagdee
Ilyas is an officer at the National Union of Students where he represents students of African, Asian, Arab and Caribbean descent in colleges, universities and apprenticeships. His work has focused on the attainment gap, decoloniality, widening access, building the campaign against the Prevent duty and much more. Prior to taking his role at NUS he was a diversity officer at the University of Manchester Students’ Union where he graduated in Middle Eastern studies.
Nicky Old
Nicky is director of communications and external relations at Universities UK (UUK), leading the team which covers UUK’s media, government and political affairs, social media, digital, events, internal communications and campaigning activities. Before joining UUK, Nicky was chief of staff for the CEO and head of corporate communications for the Education Funding Agency, part of the Department for Education. She also led on public affairs for the Building Schools for the Future programme. Before working in the government, Nicky was a head of press and information for the University of Oxford. She originally trained and worked as a print journalist.
Edward Peck
Edward is an erstwhile NHS manager and scholar of social sciences who has been vice-chancellor of Nottingham Trent University (NTU) since 2014. Under his leadership, the university has started on the long journey of redefining what constitutes a 21st-century university. Early signs are encouraging, not least as NTU has risen from 73rd in 2014 to 16th this year in the Guardian University league table. Edward is also on the board of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, a trustee of Ucas, and a panel member on the Independent Review of Fees and Funding.
Helen Pennack
Helen is director of marketing and communications at the University of Warwick. In her role she provides strategic marketing and communications leadership for the university, with responsibility for brand and positioning, marketing communications, marketing support for departments, market and customer insight research, online and digital communications, relationship marketing and CRM, student and staff communications, alumni engagement and events. Helen also has direction over the marketing activities in the university’s commercial arm. She is passionate about brand and integrated marketing communications, relationship marketing and online marketing, and the use of market research and customer journey mapping to drive all marketing activity.
David Phoenix
David is vice-chancellor of London South Bank University, chair of MillionPlus, and a member of the minister for universities and science Brexit advisory forum. He is trustee of the Science Museum Group, director of National Centre for Universities and Business, and in 2018 was appointed as the chair of UUK’s Funding Network.
David Ruebain
David is chief executive of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama. Prior to that, for eight years he was chief executive of Equality Challenge Unit (the UK higher education sector’s equality and diversity policy and research agency) until it merged with LFHE and HEA to form Advance HE, and before that he was a solicitor for 21 years – latterly as director of legal policy at the Equality & Human Rights Commission. David is also equality adviser to the Premier League, a member of the Rights and Justice Committee of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board of the Wellcome Trust, and a trustee of Action on Disability and Development International.
Pete Ryan
Pete is director of library and learning resources at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU). He has more than 25 years of experience in libraries within the public and university sectors, and joined CCCU in 2002. He is the current chair of the Society of College, National and University Libraries. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals , and spent five years in the role of treasurer for its Public Libraries Group. Pete has been actively involved in regional library developments and was a board member of the M25 consortia for academic libraries.
Julie Sanders
Julie joined Newcastle University as pro vice-chancellor (humanities and social sciences) in 2015 and became deputy vice-chancellor in April 2018, with special responsibilities for academic strategy and equality, diversity and inclusion. She was previously head of english at the University of Nottingham (2010-13) and vice-provost (teaching and learning) at Nottingham’s campus in Ningbo, China (2013-15). She is an English literature and drama specialist with research interests in early modern literature and adaptation studies.
Jenny Shaw
Jenny is student experience director for Unite Students, where she has worked since 2012. In 2014 she established a student services function for Unite, the first of its kind in the PBSA sector, and directed national research into student wellbeing and resilience. She chaired the Unite Foundation between 2014 and 2017. Prior to this she worked at senior level in the UK higher education sector to widen participation in higher education and open up new pathways to university for marginalised groups. She has worked for the universities of Hull, York St John and Middlesex, and provided consultancy to the HE Academy, the Equality Challenge Unit and Supporting Professionalism in Admissions.
Anand Shukla
Anand is chief executive of Brightside, a social mobility organisation that mentors more than 10,000 young people every year as they make decisions about higher education and careers. He writes regularly for the Guardian and Wonkhe on issues relating to social mobility and widening participation and has served on Higher Education Funding Council for England’s strategic advisory committee on teaching excellence and student opportunity. Prior to joining Brightside, Anand was the chief executive of Family and Childcare Trust. Anand is also a member of the Speakers for Schools network, which provides state schools and colleges with talks from industry leaders.
Hannah Smith
Hannah is a co-director at People & Planet, a student-led network celebrating its 50th year campaigning for environmental and social justice. Hannah leads on research for campaigns and the People & Planet university league, which has ranked UK universities on environmental and ethical performance over the last 10 years and is published with the Guardian. Hannah has worked in sustainable development for over 10 years, starting out in the higher education sector. She has also worked with environmental lawyers to tackle air pollution and with a climate justice NGO in Australia. Hannah studied the pedagogy of sustainability in higher education and believes the UK university sector has a powerful opportunity to move us towards a safer climate and more socially just society.
Vivienne Stern
Vivienne is the director of Universities UK International (UUKi). Universities UK International helps UK universities engage with international partners, and represents their distinctive strengths and interests overseas. Previously, Vivienne was head of political affairs at Universities UK where she was responsible for developing and implementing the political strategy for the membership body representing 134 UK universities. She has also worked at the UK Parliament for the chair of the Education and Skills Select Committee. She is a graduate in English Literature from the University of Cambridge.
Adam Tickell
Adam is vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex. On joining in 2016 he pledged to build on the traditions of creativity, interdisciplinarity, innovation and intellectual rigour in both education and research. He is focused on redefining the distinctiveness of the university for the 21st century, enabling it to thrive in a new political and economic landscape. He has worked in leadership positions at the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol and at Royal Holloway. A highly regarded economic geographer, his work in developing new political economic geography is among the most influential of his generation. His work has explored finance, English local governance and the politics of ideas.
Kevin Van Cauter
Kevin is principal consultant higher education at the British Council, where he leads its work in the areas of transnational education (TNE) and higher education partnerships around the world. For more than a decade Kevin has been regularly asked to author articles on UK TNE and student mobility, and has presented at conferences on the subject all over the world. Kevin has commissioned a number of research reports, most recently including the Impact of Transnational Education on Host countries (2014), Transnational Education Data collection systems: Awareness, Analysis and Action (2015) and TNE: A classification framework and data collection guidelines (2017).
Greg Walker
Greg is chief executive of MillionPlus, the association of modern universities. He is a university governor and former deputy chief executive of Colleges Wales, having previously served as acting director of Universities Wales. He has been a member of a number of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales committees from 2006-16 and played a significant role in the much-praised Diamond review on HE funding in Wales in 2016. Greg is completing an MBA in higher education management at University College London. He taught political science at Cardiff University in the mid-2000s, where he later gained a PhD.
Shân Wareing
Shân is deputy vice-chancellor (education) and chief operating officer at London South Bank University (LSBU), and a professor of teaching in higher education. She led LSBU’s 2017 TEF submission and Bucks New University’s 2013 REF submission, and currently leads LSBU’s student journey transformation programme, Leap. Her first degree was in English literature and language at Oxford University, from where she also has a rowing half blue. She is a National Teaching fellow, a fellow of the Leadership Foundation, a principal fellow of the HEA, and winner of the 2017 Wonkhe award for best piece of original analysis or argument.
Stian Westlake
Stian is policy adviser to the minister of state for universities, science, research and innovation, and a senior fellow of Nesta. He is co-author of Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy.
Andy Westwood
Andy is vice dean of humanities and professor of government practice at the University of Manchester. He is a visiting professor of further and higher education at the University of Wolverhampton and an occasional adviser to the IMF and OECD. He is currently a specialist adviser to the House of Lords Committee on Economic Affairs and was previously a special adviser to ministers at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and a senior adviser at HM Treasury and the Departments for Education and Communities and Local Government. He writes regularly for Wonkhe, Times Higher Education and the Guardian.
Andy Youell
Andy has over 25 years experience working at the heart of data and information issues in higher education. In addition to running data operations at the Higher Education Funding Council for England and Higher Education Statistics Agency, Andy led the Hediip programme which created a new architecture for the information landscape, a model that is now being carried forward in the Hesa data futures programme. Andy now works as a writer, speaker and advisor on data issues in the UK and overseas.
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