Plenary speakers
As chair of the Scottish Higher Education Enhancement Committee, the conference will be convened by Professor Andrea Nolan.
The conference plenary sessions will bring perspectives relevant to Developing and Supporting the Curriculum. Speakers will present their different areas of work with higher education staff, students and curricula with the aim of providing examples of approaches to support the development of students’ graduate attributes.
Videos of the plenary sessions will be posted to the Enhancement Themes website shortly after the conference.
Speakers' biographies
Professor Andrea Nolan, Senior Vice-Principal, University of Glasgow and Chair of SHEEC (Scottish Higher Education Enhancement Committee)
Andrea Nolan graduated as a veterinary surgeon from Trinity College Dublin and after a short time in veterinary practice, embarked on an academic career which took her to the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol and the Technical University, Munich, leading to her appointment as a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow in 1989.
She was appointed Professor of Veterinary Pharmacology in 1998 and took up the post of Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine a year later. She was appointed Vice Principal for Learning & Teaching in the University of Glasgow in 2004, and in 2006 incorporated internationalisation into her portfolio. She was appointed Senior Vice-Principal in 2009.
Her academic career has been developed in the discipline of veterinary pharmacology, with particular interest in the management of pain in animals.
Professor Philip Winn, Professor of Neuroscience and Head of the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde
Phil is a psychology graduate of the University of Hull. He spent much of his career at the University of St Andrews, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Science from 2005 to 2007 and Vice-Principal (Learning & Teaching) from 2007 to 2009. In these roles he was a member of the Universities Scotland Learning and Teaching Committee and SHEEC, and has experience as an ELIR reviewer.
In 2010 he moved to the University of Strathclyde, first as Deputy Principal (Strategy) with responsibility for developing the University Strategic Plan through to 2015. Having completed this, he took over as Head of the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences in April 2011.
Professor Edward J. Coyle, Arbutus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Edward J. Coyle received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University in 1982. He serves as the Arbutus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is the Director of the Arbutus Center for the Integration of Research and Education, and is the Founder and Director of the Vertically-Integrated Projects (VIP) Program. Dr. Coyle is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and was a co-recipient of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering’s 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Award for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. He was also a co-recipient of the American Society for Engineering Education’s 1997 Chester F. Carlson Award for Innovation in Engineering Education and the IEEE Signal Processing Society’s 1986 Best Paper Award. Dr. Coyle is a Fellow of the IEEE and his current research interests include multidisciplinary education, wireless computer networks, and digital signal processing.
An acronym: IEEE, usually called the “I triple E”, is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer.
Conference abstract
Dr Mary Gilmartin, Lecturer in Geography, National University of Ireland
Mary Gilmartin is a graduate of the University of Kentucky, and is a Lecturer in Geography at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Mary teaches Geography at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, from introductory modules with up to 500 students to PhD modules with 10 students or less. She has been centrally involved in developing the undergraduate and postgraduate Geography curriculum at NUI Maynooth, and in facilitating student participation in curriculum development. Mary is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Geography in Higher Education, book review editor of Social and Cultural Geography, and carries out research on contemporary migration.
Professor Beverley Oliver, ALTC National Teaching Fellow 2011 and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning Futures), Deakin University, Australia
Through her National Teaching Fellowship (Assuring Graduate Capabilities), she is engaging curriculum leaders of undergraduate courses from any discipline to work with their colleagues, industry partners, students and graduates to: define course-wide levels of achievement in key capabilities, articulated through standards rubrics; embed the rubrics into student portfolios and course review portfolios and share the challenges and opportunities of such approaches through scholarly publications.
Previous nationally-funded projects include: the ALTC Good Practice Guide: Assuring Graduate Outcomes, the ALTC Teaching Fellowship Benchmarking partnerships for graduate employability and an ALTC Competitive Grant Building Course Team Capacity for Graduate Employability. Beverley's leadership of other projects include: Curtin University’s Curriculum 2010 project (curriculum reform focused on graduate employability, curriculum mapping, ePortfolios and evaluation of curriculum effectiveness) and eVALUate (Curtin University’s online student feedback system).
Her leadership has been recognised with two ALTC Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2008 and 2010). She publishes in a range of teaching and learning areas, including assuring graduate attributes and capabilities, employability; student, graduate and employer evaluation; curriculum renewal, mapping and analytics; ePortfolios and student ownership and use of emerging devices and Web 2.0 applications. Beverley is the Editor of the Journal of Learning and Teaching for Graduate Employability.
Sam Fowles, Director of Representation, University of St Andrews Students’ Association
Sam graduated from the University of St Andrews in 2011 with a degree in Modern History. He was elected to serve as Director of Representation for the University of St Andrews Students Association. He joined the steering group of the national enhancement theme shortly after. During his time in office he has lead national campaigns for fair access to education and against the eviction of rioter’s families from their council houses.
Sam Chairs the Board of the Forward Thinking Initiative and has worked on a number of educational development innovations at St Andrews including student lead tutoring and module evaluation.
Correen Dickson, Student, University of Stirling
Correen is a third year student of the University of Stirling reading History, Politics and Professional Education and is a member of the National Union of Students (NUS) Scottish Executive Committee (SEC). Being a long-time activist and campaigner for social change, volunteering in numerous trade unions and as a national student leader, she has worked to effect beneficial change for students. Taking a lead on campaigns such as ‘Still In the Red’ within her own students union, organising local activism as a regional organiser and working collectively as part of the SEC she has engaged thousands of students to achieve a £7,000 minimum income for the poorest students and a governmental u-turn on cuts to colleges.
Locally within her own university Correen has undertaken a number of significant roles within learning and teaching, championing ‘Recognising Achievement in Teaching Excellence’ (RATE) a Stirling specific teaching awards programmes as well as representing students at the highest levels within the institution.
Correen is currently working with the Quality Assurance Agency Scotland on upcoming Enhancement Led Institutional Reviews as well aspiring to continue her role within the NUS and taking forward the national campaign to widen access into higher education.