Email: helen.higson@aston.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 204 3127

Until 1^st March 2021 Helen was Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Aston University.  She is now Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management in Aston Business School, and Director of Accreditations.  

Helen graduated from Newnham College Cambridge, and subsequently gained an MA from the Open University and a PhD from Birkbeck College, London University.  She has worked in the university sector since 1983 and a major part of that was spent in Aston Business School where she held senior management positions including Director of Quality, Associate Dean Undergraduate Programmes and Head of Learning and Teaching.  She is a trained executive coach.

Helen is Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management and a member of Aston Business School’s Operations and Information Management Group.  In 2003 she founded the Centre for Higher Education Learning and Management (HELM) and has undertaken extensive research in the areas of employability and work-based learning, intercultural competences and strategic issues in HE management.  Helen wrote a chapter on skills for the Wilson Review of Business-University collaboration on behalf of the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) in 2012.

Helen was Deputy Chair of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) Subject Level Main Panel and is a member of the Universities UK Outward Mobility Strategy Board.  She has also been a Subject Reviewer for Quality Assurance Agency (QAA); a member of the HEFCE Quality Assurance Learning and Teaching Strategic Committee; and a member of the Quality Assurance Framework Review Group.  Helen is a Governor of Ravensbourne University, London (currently Vice-Chair), a Trustee of Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) (currently Vice-Chair), and the IKON Gallery, Birmingham (currently Chair), and is a Director of the AdvanceHE Board.  Helen is on the Board of University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) and Chair of the GBSLEP Employment and Skills Board.

Helen is a National Teaching Fellow (NTF) and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and a Fellow of the Association of University Administrators (FAUA).  Helen was awarded the OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to Higher Education and in 2017 was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands (and Vice Lord-Lieutenant from 2020).

Research work in: intercultural learning, management of higher education, academic load models, quality procedures, reflective learning, links between theory and practice, pedagogy and research

Currently working on research projects on widening participation, BAME attainment gap and interculture learning and employability

Currently teaching a Masters module on Advances in Crisis Management and an undergraduate module on Effective Management Consultancy.  Designed and taught on the following modules: Business Game, Foundations of Management and International Foundations of Management, Policy and Strategy in Higher Education

Supervision of MSc and MBA dissertations

Successful supervisor of DBA and PhD students

Student mentor and placement tutor

Contributor to Aston University Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Have been involved in a range of professional development training for university administrators at Aston and other midland universities

2021                   CIM Level 7 Coaching and Mentoring qualification

1996                   PhD, Birkbeck College, London

1989                   MA in Literature and Criticism, Open University

1982                   MA in English Literature, Newnham College, Cambridge

1978                   3 A-levels at grade A, Peter Symonds College, Winchester

1975-6               10 O-levels, Winchester County High School for Girls

National Teaching Fellow (NTF)

Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PHEA)

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)

Fellow of Association of University Administrators (FAUA)

Currently Associate Dean Accreditations in Aston Business School.  In this role lead the Schools work on Athena Swan and Race Equality Charter accreditations.  Also leads regular accredation work with AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA and the Small Business Charter.  Coordinates School's League Tables group.

Chair of University Collborative Provision Strategy Group (CPSG) and Advance HE accredited Fellowship (RITE) scheme at Aston University.  

Luke Onuoha

Systematic Financial Resources Allocation Processes: A Model for Critical Resources Mobilisation and Deployment in Nigerian Universities