Collaborating with Higher Education Institutions
Higher Education Knowledge Sharing
Work collaboratively with university professors and academic staff being informed by research and data when working on projects.
I worked with and for Access SUMMIT (AS) in the mid 90's just after its creation, initially as a guide, advisor, and internship provider, before working directly for them as a Freelance Disabled Student's Allowance(DSA) Needs Assessor and Specialist Software Skills Trainer from 2000-2005. During this time, I also assisted a University of Salford Learning Support secondee to AS in organizing a summer internship programme for disabled students studying at the University of Salford.
Access SUMMIT(AS) was established in 1997 by a consortium of higher education professionals including Professor Gerald Conroy, Carol Wilson and other influential professionals working to support disabled students, graduates, and international students enrolled on courses at one four Greater Manchester universities. In 2019, AS was rebranded as The University of Manchester – Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS). At the time of AS's creation in 1997 and up through to 2019 the centre became one of the UK’s largest and leading integrated HE-based assessment and support providers for disabled students.
Not only did I support AS staff when the Centre was first created, but I also established London Business School’s (LBS) first award-winning Student Support Service for disabled students in the mid noughties too. According to a senior member of LBS management, the model, policies, and procedures I developed were subsequently adopted by staff supporting disabled students across many of the Colleges that make up the University of London’s federated system.
Today, I am exchanging information and observing what works and what doesn’t in collaboration with higher education institutions and their researchers, locally, nationally and internationally. Insights gathered from these working sessions inform future governance, initiatives to support individuals, while guiding the work I do today as disability inclusion guide informed by the industrial and organisational field.
Working relationships with professors, academic, and non-academic staff include:
• The Pennsylvania State University (aka Penn State University) USA
• University of Kentucky USA
• University of London Federation members including London Business School (LBS)
• University of Manchester
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill USA
• Purdue University USA
• University of Hertfordshire
• University of Linz Austria