Hi, my name is Kate Owen. I'm Director of Medical Studies at WMS, and I've been on both sides of ITLR. I've been part of the ITLR process for Warwick Medical School but I've also been on the panel for the Professional services cluster which includes the Academic Development Centre, WIHEA, EPQ and IATL.

So I think I've been at Warwick for quite a while, so I think I've got quite a good idea of how processes work smoothly. I think at the Medical School we've been through quite a lot of change, and I think that's given me quite a good understanding of change management, how people work together, which I think has really helped me be able to give some kind of insights into that. Particularly with a cluster where a lot of what we're talking about is how people interact with each other. And I think we've experienced a lot of that at the medical school and I and I think that's helped kind of feed into that as well.

I think it was really interesting because we got to talk to people who we might not have had their voice been heard before actually. They were really important to teaching but perhaps don't directly face-to-face teach. And I think we uncovered some things. I think that we could really help give their voice, more credibility and more weight within the departments. So I hope that the outcome of it for some of those particularly Professional Services staff will be really positive because they've really been listened to and the things that they've said will be a really big part of our reports, I think.

And in terms of how their cluster works and communicates and how they support different members of their staff, I think that will be a real positive outcome for them. I think its about recognizing, isn't it, that teaching is not just about people that face-to-face teaching. Its about everyone else that's involved. Its such a big process and all of those people are really important. Without any one of them, it doesn't work smoothly. It doesn't work properly. And I think they should have their voice heard really strongly in their teaching and learning review.

 

I've really enjoyed working with other people from across the university. I think particularly during the pandemic, I think there was quite a lot of silo-ing and you'd be stuck with the people that are in your department. So getting to work with people from Philosophy and with a library and an external and students on our panel has been a really positive experience, I would say. And I think we all bring different things to the table which is good. But I think we've worked really well together and just getting to hear a bit more from the departments in the cluster, about what they do, about what their aims and aspirations are. Its been really interesting.

But I think the highlight for me is the thinking that we can give some really positive feedback. I think we've identified some areas that actually will really help them to develop as a cluster. And I think, yeah, feeling that you've done something which you think will help people, help people's voice be heard, help give some strategic direction, particularly around inclusion, actually, I think if that works out, that would have been a really positive thing, I think.