Board of Trustees

Doug Cleaver has over 25 years of experience as an academic, having taught and assessed at all levels, and led activities ranging from new course developments to REF submissions. Throughout, he has developed a particular expertise in doctoral provision and, in 2011, he became academic lead for research degrees provision at SHU. He introduced a Doctoral School model in 2014, has overseen innovations such as PGR Learning Contracts, and set up major collaborative programmes with industrial, NHS, and academic partners.

Doug is also a prize-winning Professor of Materials Modelling, publishing regularly in the field of soft condensed matter, and reviewing/​attending funding panels for EPSRC. He has served on the steering committees of several scientific professional body groups, and run national and international conferences.

Doug has supervised over 20 doctorates to completion and examined even more. He has also combined his scientific and PGR specialities by joining the selection panel of the Institute of Physics ​“Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund”, devised to support doctoral students from groups that are currently under-represented in the discipline.

Doug joined the UKCGE Executive Committee in July 2018 and was elected as Chair in July 2021.

Professor de Wilde has worked in the Higher Education sector since 1988, firstly as an academic and then in academic development. After several years as an academic in Bioengineering Department at Imperial College, Janet moved to Scotland— joining Heriot-Watt University then the University of Edinburgh.

In 2011, Janet became the Higher Education Academy as Head of STEM before joining Imperial College London to lead the Professional Development Unit for 8000 postgraduates. In 2020, Janet joined Queen Mary, University of London to lead the Queen Mary Academy, a new unit with the remit to develop excellence in Education and Learning, Teaching Recognition and Researcher Development.

Her interest is focused on improving research culture through inclusivity and change. She hosts an Annual Roundtable Debate to facilitate national postgraduate education.

Janet joined the UKCGE Executive Committee in July 2018 and was elected as Vice-Chair in July 2021.

Julie Sheldon is Dean of the Doctoral Academy at Liverpool John Moores University, where she manages Level 8 awards and postgraduate researcher development 

She has over 25 years’ experience as a research supervisor, and as a PhD examiner. She brings her accumulated experiences of doctoral education to a Research Supervisor module, and leads the Supervisor Development Programme.

Julie is also a Professor of Art History and has published widely on nineteenth and twentieth century art. She remains an active researcher in the subject, although she is increasingly interested in doctoral education, and she is the co-editor (with Victoria Sheppard) of Online Communities for Doctoral Researchers and their Supervisors: Building Engagement with Social Media (Routledge 2021).

Julie joined the Executive in 2018 and was elected as Honorary Secretary in January 2021.

As Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow, Duncan has oversight responsibility for approximately 800 doctoral candidates.

Duncan trained as an economic historian at Glasgow and the LSE. He has developed a European Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters programme and a joint PhD degree with colleagues in Japan. He has been a journal editor, a learned society Trustee and served four years as an elected member on the Court (Governing Body) of the University of Glasgow.

Duncan sits on the Deans Group of the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science.

Duncan joined the UKCGE Executive Committee in July 2020 and was elected as Honorary Treasurer in July 2021.

Dr Michelle Morgan is currently Dean of Students at the University of East London. Michelle is extensively published in the area of improving the student learning experience at undergraduate and postgraduate taught level in, through and out of the student study journey. Her two edited books that revolve around her Student Experience Transitions Model (SET) are designed to help academic and professional service colleagues support students. She has developed a free portal for staff that provides a range of information and links for anyone interested in improving the student experience in higher education www.improvingthestudentexperience.com

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 over 50 publications and has presented over 130 national and international conference papers (including 45 keynotes and 30 invited papers).

Prior to her current post, she was Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the Student Experience at Bournemouth University. Michelle’s research includes being the creator and PI/​Project Lead of an innovative £2.7 million 11 university collaborative HEFCE grant looking at the study expectations and attitudes of postgraduate taught (PGT) students. The project report received praise from across the sector including UKCGE, OFFA, the HEA and the Engineering Professor’s Council and contributed evidence to the introduction of the Postgraduate Loan Scheme www.postgradexperience.org

In 2005, she was the recipient of a special award from the University of Sussex’s Students’ Union for Outstanding Achievement and Excellence. She is a Principal Fellow of the HEA and Fellow of the AUA. She was nominated for Teacher of the Year in 2011 and in 2015 she received the student-led L&T Award from the Students Union at Kingston University. She co-wrote and co-presented a 5 part Radio series for BBC China in 2011 on the student learning experience.

Michelle joined the UKCGE Executive Committee in July 2018.

Dr Dawn Duke is the Head of Programmes for the Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF).

She strategically leads professional development programmes aimed at early-career biomedical/​health researchers in Africa, supporting their career development as emerging research leaders.

She is also editor and contributor to the SAGE book series, ​‘Success in Research’. Dawn believes that the world would be a better place if the amazing research that is done within universities had an even greater impact on policy, society and the economy and is dedicated to working at an institutional, national and international level to ensure this future becomes reality.

Experienced in PGR policy development and implementation (institution-wide and programme-specific) Karen leads on community and engagement to support student wellbeing, partnership building, supervisor training and professional development at the University of York where she has developed successful professional development doctoral European collaborations and directed an Advance HE accredited GTA programme.

Karen is an active contributor to national debate around doctoral education and regularly gives presentations. She is well networked with a publication record spanning 25 years.

Karen has been recognised for her part in the Research Leaders Programme through a Times Higher Award for Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers and a Praxis-Auril Internal Knowledge Exchange Award for the Enterprise Fellowship programme.

Karen joined the UKCGE Executive Committee in July 2020.

n his 19 years at the OU, James has led on PGR strategy and policy and on the development and production of online training courses and materials for supervisors and PGRs. This allowed him to establish a virtual research environment for PGRs in 2014 across the University and our partner institutions.

James was Director of Research Degrees for the Science Faculty for 5 years with responsibility for leading and managing the Faculty’s 500 PGR students. James became the first Graduate School Director at the Open University, establishing its new Graduate School in 2016 supporting 1000 part-time and full-time PGRs.

James joined the UKCGE Executive Committee in July 2020.

Professor Mansour’s career in higher education thus far has given her a broad international background in higher education especially in the Middle East and in UK HE. This has given her the expertise in developing and leading diverse postgraduate portfolios and engage with policies and procedures, international partnerships and policies and regulations.

Hala is highly committed to building research centred and entrepreneurial mind with a focus on research excellence through PGRs learning and growth and my passion for effective, supportive and ethical research leadership that guides my roles and responsibilities in management. Hala is an active, creative and dynamic researcher, organizational excellence professional and educator.

Hala joined the UKCGE Executive Committee in July 2021.

Experienced in doctoral training partnership management and multi-institutional collaboration, Rachel currently works in the Researcher Academy at the University of Nottingham as a Doctoral Training Partnership Manager, managing the Nottingham BBSRC DTP and acting as Training Lead for the NERC Envision DTP.

She has previously held roles in the University Graduate School at the University of Birmingham and Off Campus Student Affairs at the University of Nottingham. She has significant expertise in equality, diversity and inclusion in the postgraduate space, through the development of successful interventions for recruitment and active work on widening participation to postgraduate study via the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON), taking a particular interest in socio-economic background and postgraduate student support and wellbeing. She has provided advice and guidance to support the development of EDI in postgraduate education across multiple institutions.

Rachel joined the UKCGE Executive Committee in July 2021.

Carolyn is the Director of the Doctoral College & Centre for Research Capability and Development at Coventry University with responsibility for 900 doctoral candidates and the strategic leadership for the delivery of quality research degree programmes and researcher development activity from PhD to Professor.

Carolyn has worked in the HE sector for 14 years, in numerous strategic roles supporting PGT and PGR. She is currently the Co-Chair of the UKCGE Graduate School Managers Network, Chair of the University Alliance Head of Graduate Schools Network, and sits on the EUA-CDE thematic steering group for Cotutelle and Dual Award programmes. Carolyn is also about to enrol as a part-time PhD candidate in September 2021.

Carolyn joined the UKCGE Executive Committee in July 2021.

Tina Ramkalawan is Director of the Graduate School and Reader at Brunel University London, responsible for doctoral and post-doctoral researcher development across the institution. She also leads the Brunel Integrated PhD programme. Tina has an interdisciplinary academic background in psychology, health & medical research. Her own doctoral research at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research, University of Nottingham, contributed to the establishment of the UK NHS Newborn Hearing Screening Programme. Tina has worked in academia for over 25 years, at universities including Nottingham Trent University, University College London and Bristol University. She has initiated and managed doctoral and post-doctoral programmes for funders including the MRC and EPSRC. She is a chartered psychologist and a qualified coach and mentor, and is currently a co-opted member of the UKCGE Executive Committee.

Tara Moore, Professor of Personalised Medicine, concurrently holds a chair at Ulster University in Northern Ireland and is Chief R&D Officer for Avellino Labs in Menlo Park San Francisco USA

Gale studied Philosophy and Theology at Oxford University before working as a residential care worker in a therapeutic community in Warwickshire. On returning to Edinburgh she continued to pursue academic study whilst working first as a care worker and later as a teacher in units and schools for young people described as having social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). Her PhD, completed in 2005, mapped the separate provision available in Scotland for these young people, and explored the experiences of a group of young people of being educated separately. In 2004 she took up a post as lecturer in primary education and SEBD at Edinburgh. Her academic leadership roles have all been related to postgraduate provision, particularly PGT. Since 2019 she has been chair of the UKCGE working group on postgraduate student experience.