Keynote speakers
Deirdre Anne Murphy MEd FHEA, Lecturer in the LTA at City of Glasgow College
As a multi-disciplinary 3d designer-maker and arts educator, Deirdre worked in creative education for over 2 decades. With a wealth of experience in managing staff and resources, restructuring and developing courses, course materials and assessment strategies, she has led on a breadth of courses to engage and progress a diverse range of students.
Now in her new Learning Innovation and Development role within the Learning and Teaching Academy at City of Glasgow College, and a recent graduate from the MEd Learning and Teaching in the Arts programme at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, her interests lie in promoting and supporting learning, teaching and assessment practices that imbed inclusion and promote self-determination, with an approach that incorporates partnership, collaboration and co-creation.
Vic Boyd, Head of Learning and Teaching Academy (LTA)
Dr Vic Boyd has worked in tertiary education for nearly 30 years in a breadth of research, development, teaching and leadership roles. She is particularly passionate about both inclusive and technology-enhanced learning and teaching, and these parallel threads have run though her career path as well as her research outputs, publications and sector contributions. Vic’s research and practice interests focus on exploring and enhancing staff and student digital confidence, embedding co-curricular academic literacies, improving learner self-efficacy and contextual re-framing of academic integrity principles. Advocacy for both inclusive and digitally-enabled student success remain the basis of her professional values and continue to shape the projects in which she is involved. Vic is currently Head of the Learning and Teaching Academy at City of Glasgow College, where she feels privileged to lead the Learning Innovation and Development and Learning Technology teams. She is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and of the Association of Learning Development in HE as well as member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. She is a co-lead for the STEP Understanding the staff development landscape required to support diverse learner journeys in the tertiary sector project and a member of multiple communities of practice that aim to better understand and inform academic and professional practice across the changing tertiary sector.
Abstract
As the learner population across Scotland’s tertiary sector becomes increasingly demographically, experientially and motivationally diverse, institutions are presented with an opportunity to rethink how student journeys are designed. This session considers student success through the lens of inclusive tertiary learning journeys, exploring how progression into, through, between and beyond different types of formal, intentional learning can be shaped to reflect the realities of a changing learner population.鈥�
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Drawing on the City of Glasgow College Student Success Framework, the presentation highlights how a whole-system approach might shape coherent pathways that foreground belonging, wellbeing, and progression at every stage. The framework emphasises relational practice, early engagement, and the importance of designing learning environments (physical, virtual and blended) that recognise and respond to learner diversity. It also calls for a sector-wide community response in curating a network of support for staff and students alike.鈥�
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By shifting focus from individual adaptation to systemic design, this session offers a conceptual lens, and early implementation reflections, on how inclusive tertiary education can enable students to participate, progress, and succeed across increasingly complex learning journeys.鈥�
Charlie Ball, Head of Labour Market Intelligence at Jisc
Charlie is the in-house specialist on the graduate labour market. Charlie researches and analyses all things to do with post-18 employment, including regional economies, skills supply and demand and postgraduate issues, usually with a careers and employability perspective.
Tom Lowe, Principal Lecturer and Assistant Head of School (Student Experience) University of Westminster
Tom Lowe has researched and innovated in student engagement across higher education for over twelve years, in areas such as student voice, retention, employability and student-staff partnership. Tom currently works at the University of Westminster as Assistant Head of School (Student Experience) in Finance and Accounting where he leads on student experience, outcomes and belonging. Tom is also the Chair of RAISE, a network for all stakeholders in higher education for researching, innovating and sharing best practice in student engagement. Prior to Westminster, Tom was a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Portsmouth, and previously held leadership positions for engagement and employability at the University of Winchester. Tom has published three books on student engagement with Routledge; ‘A Handbook for Student Engagement in Higher Education: Theory into Practice’ in 2020, ‘Advancing Student Engagement in Higher Education: Reflection, Critique and Challenge’ in 2023, and most recently ‘Student Belonging in Higher Education: Perspectives and Practice’ in 2025. Tom has supported over 40 institutions in consultancy and advisory roles to improve student engagement, where his most recent research focuses on Student Attendance post Covid-19.
Prioritising Student Engagement at the Heart of Student Success
Colleagues in tertiary education currently find ourselves in a student engagement crisis. Prior expectations saw students’ engage in learning in the classroom, create friendships through clubs and hang-outs on campus, and those struggling could be identified and supported in-person by our staff, but now our students’ interactions with our universities are more complex and often unknown. Increasingly students are reporting to be time-poor, through prioritising part-time work, being strategic in choosing what they are engaging with (and when), and taking advantage of online engagement options as an alternative to attending class. It is also within this complicated context of student engagement, that universities and colleges are working hard to support student success relating to a variety of academic and outcome measures. This is not only due to moral obligations as educators to support students’ ambitions, but also to meet the requirements of a sector under pressure from finances and regulatory reporting. To address this context, this keynote will focus on the changing nature of student engagement, where recommendations will be made to place students at the heart of our policy and practice, to improve student success. This talk will draw on literature from the field of student engagement, and empirical studies conducted post-Covid-19 which explore students’ perceptions of time management and attendance in commuter majority higher education. This keynote will endorse curiosity in an ever-changing context, where through only discussing and engaging with students in partnership, can we truly understand and manage expectations for the tertiary education of the future.
Invited Speaker
Dr. Tom Farrelly
Dr. Tom Farrelly is an Academic Developer/Lecturer at Munster Technological University (MTU) in Ireland's southwest with over 25 years of experience in higher and further education.
His initial degree in Social Science was obtained through the Open University (OU), giving him a particular affiliation with, and insight into, supporting remote and distance learners. Holding a Doctorate in Education (focused on Virtual Learning Environments) and an MEd in Adult and Community Education, his expertise spans diverse pedagogical areas. His key research interests include Digital Education, the impact of Generative AI on learning, and actively advocating for Open Access (OA) publishing.
A self-described 'critical technophile,' Dr. Farrelly promotes effective and inclusive digital teaching and learning strategies. He is also the originator of the widely adopted, rapid-fire Gasta presentation style for dynamic academic engagement.
An active researcher, he also plays a key role in supporting the MTU research landscape by serving as one of the two co-chairs of Munster Technological University's Human Research Ethics Committee.
