I’m the Director of Sheffield Institute of Education at Sheffield Hallam University. This involves overseeing all the degrees, CPD and Research to do with teachers and wider education workforce. I love my job as it is so connected both to practice that makes a real difference to lives and also academia that researches and supports it.

I am also involved in a lot of external work – right now this is particularly focused on advising the government about Initial Teacher Training, other forms of teacher development and supporting social mobility in deprived areas.

My time at Birmingham was to do a PhD. Mostly it was away from campus but with huge support from my supervisors and the rest of the university support structure for doctoral students. I gained a lot from my studies – both in knowledge and confidence. Becoming a Dr gave me to boost to apply for promotion and I haven’t looked back since. I was also working fulltime and had two small children. As my job was in HE it gave me a great insight into the challenges students face in juggling priorities and how important it is that university staff support them. Birmingham was brilliant in this respect.

My advice to PhD students would be to not be as detached from university life as I was. Since supervising doctoral students myself I know it can be lonely and isolating. There is much to be gained from peer support and the university does this well.

A few years after gaining my PhD my son become an undergraduate at Birmingham University and it was the making of him. He chose to use the opportunity to come out as gay and the university was totally brilliant and supporting and celebrating this. Like me he gained a lot from his studies but (unlike me as a PhD student) he also gained so much from throwing himself into university life. In particular he become involved in LGBT support. He has drawn on this experience and the skills it developed in his future career – now working as a civil servant for the DfE.

So my advice to UG students is embrace the opportunities the university presents you with in all the breadth of forms. It is a wonderful inclusive place that will challenge and support you in a wonderful way if you let it.