Student Success and Attainment Manager Sheree Palmer has been awarded Senior Fellowship of Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy).
Sheree heads up a team that prioritises inclusive learning and teaching practices for Kent’s Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice (LSSJ). She works with colleagues in LSSJ’s Education and Student Experience team and across the Division to ensure barriers to success are removed for all students studying at Kent Law School (KLS), the School for Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR), and the Centre for Journalism (CFJ).
Senior Fellowship demonstrates a personal and institutional commitment to professionalism in learning and teaching in higher education. Senior Fellows must demonstrate a thorough understanding of effective approaches to teaching and learning support as a key contribution to high quality student learning. As experienced members of staff, they must also demonstrate impact and influence through their leadership, management and mentoring.
Reflecting on the rigorous application process, Sheree said: ‘I was able to evidence how my previous experience of educational leadership of high-performing teams in schools and pedagogical expertise enable me to lead with impact at Kent.’
Before taking up her role at LSSJ, Sheree lead on student success at KLS and was able to cite evidence of her work with law students: ‘We were able to close the BAME awarding gap in 2019/20 (the gap between UK BAME and UK White students graduating with a 1st or 2:1) which is pretty astonishing when you consider it was 34% the preceding year!’
Sheree’s work in knowledge development and sharing best practice across Higher Education has extended across the University. It includes:
- devising and leading the first residential pre-Welcome Week Summer School for BTEC students at Kent Business School
- presenting at external conferences such as the Open University International conference on Access, Success and Participation
- presenting at Kent’s Learning and Teaching Conferences
- supporting the Decolonise the Curriculum conference at Kent in 2019
- supporting Kent Law School’s successful bid for an Athena SWAN Bronze Award
Sheree is particularly proud of the Academic Coaching for Excellence (ACE) scheme she implemented at KLS: ‘ACE, my most exciting innovation here at Kent, has proven success in raising attainment and increasing the personal development of students. We now have a team of 18 academic colleagues delivering the programme. All of this work is underpinned by a clear methodology and strategy which is the result of over a decade of trialling interventions, working with schools across a region, undertaking case studies and research into best practice of “what works” in education. One important thing I highlighted was the benefit of being able to work with wonderful, highly skilled, motivated colleagues in KLS.’
Sheree is grateful to LSSJ’s Head of Division Professor Toni Williams (formerly Head of KLS) and to colleagues across the Law School and University for their support with her work. She said: ‘Fellowship at senior level is a mark of quality as you are required to prove your direct leadership impact, so, I hope it will result in greater recognition from academic colleagues which will make it easier to effect necessary change. The award is also portable and internationally recognised so a great thing to have in the longer term.’
Sheree is one of over 140,000 Fellows across the world, including (from Kent): Emeritus Professor Nick Grief, Dr Suhraiya Jivraj, Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris (KLS); and Dr Beth Breeze, Dr Caroline Chatwin, Dr Tracee Green, Vanisha Jassal, Dr Johanna Woodcock Ross (SSPSSR).