Teaching and Learning

Network Aim: To provide an opportunity for colleagues across London to network and discuss teaching, learning and the student experience. The network will explore issues that are specific to London, as well as the impact of national policy on London providers. It aims to discuss and impact policy. The network will also explore issues of pedagogy, methods of delivery, curriculum development, and the wider student experience. It will also provide a forum for the discussion of the London context on particular student groups, as well as the role London institutions can play in developing good practice, improving attainment, widening participation and lifelong learning.

Membership: Institutional strategic lead for Education/Academic (Deputy Vice Chancellor/ Pro Vice Chancellor/Deputy Principal or equivalent)

Chair: Prof. Diane Houston, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education, Birkbeck, University of London.

Diane Houston is Pro Vice Chancellor for Education at Birkbeck, University of London. She is a professor of psychology whose research interests lie in social and personal predictors of academic performance, processes of prejudice and discrimination, theoretical approaches to women’s work participation and equality in the workplace.

Diane has led a number of strategic initiatives since her appointment at Birkbeck, including the Student Experience Review, a significant piece of research into the awarding gap, and a strategy for digital education which has transformed Birkbeck’s approach to flexible and blended learning. She is currently leading on a cross-college review which will result in a refreshed portfolio of UG and PGT programmes in time for the College’s 200th anniversary.

Prior to her appointment at Birkbeck, Diane was the founding Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Kent and before this Head of the School of Psychology. She also spent three years (2003-6) as the academic advisor to the UK Government’s Women and Equality Unit as well as serving as advisor to the Women and Work Commission in 2006. Diane is currently chair of the London Higher Teaching and Learning Network and a member of the Universities UK (UUK) Life-Long Learning Advisory Group.