It takes a village: New term, same old challenges? Tackling the barriers to education
It takes a village:
New term, same old challenges? Tackling the barriers to education
Tuesday 1 October 2024, 1-2pm (UK time)
From systemic and societal issues to economic or personal challenges, barriers to education are many and varied.
Warwick was born in 1965 with a purpose to increase access to higher education. Nearly 60 years later, we’re breaking down barriers to education and research opportunities for the brightest minds of all backgrounds with the goal of making a positive impact on the world.
As a new academic year begins, hear from our expert panel on how these barriers can be tackled and why it matters to us all.
A recording of the event will be made available shortly afterwards, and all those who register will receive a link to the recording by email.
Host
Kulbir Shergill - Director of Social Inclusion, University of Warwick
Kulbir is a board level cultural change and business transformation professional, driven by inclusion and people-oriented strategies. Her skills lie in being able to use cross-sector experience of working in large complex businesses and customer focused public service entities to optimise the impact of strategies that she leads on. At Warwick, Kulbir leads the development and implementation of the Social Inclusion strategy, along with the Social Inclusion team, working in partnership with stakeholders across the University and with external partners to increase diversity of Warwick’s community and develop an inclusive culture.
Speakers
Dr Rebecca Morris - Associate Professor, Education Studies, University of Warwick
Becky is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education Studies. Prior to her career in higher education, she worked as a secondary English teacher. Becky’s research interests include education and social policy, social justice and inequalities, the teacher workforce, widening participation, curriculum studies, and English/literacy.
Dr Tom Perry - Associate Professor, Education Studies, University of Warwick
Tom is an Associate Professor whose research and teaching focuses on advancing and connecting education research, policy and practice. This includes research into current policy and practical questions as well as methodological work – especially in relation to research capacity and impact of applied and mixed methods research. Substantive topics on which Tom has worked include structural reform; applied cognitive science; educational disadvantage and inequalities; school accountability, improvement and evaluation; and school workforce training and development.
Natasha Porter OBE (BA English Literature, 2006) - CEO and Founder of Unlocked Graduates and advisor to the Children’s Commissioner and a commissioner for The Times Crime and Justice Commission.
Natasha is the CEO and founder of Unlocked Graduates. She developed the concept while working with Dame Sally Coates on her review into prison education and has led the organisation from its inception in 2016. Since then, Unlocked Graduates has recruited over 750 graduates to be prison officers, working in 38 prisons across England and Wales, currently reaching almost 20,000 prisoners.
Natasha has a background in public sector start-ups and was previously a teacher and senior leader in inner city schools, co-founding King Solomon Academy and leading their frontier cohort to groundbreaking GCSE results in 2014. Natasha has also worked as a government adviser and at the Westminster think tank Policy Exchange.
Natasha is an advisor to the Children’s Commissioner and a commissioner for The Times Crime and Justice Commission. She is a charity trustee at Impetus PEF and Get Further, with a particular interest in improving outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. She sits on the Grants and Evaluation committee at the Youth Endowment Fund and the Building Future’s Advisory Board at Prison Reform Trust. In 2022 Natasha was awarded an OBE for services to HM Prison and Probation Service.