Category: Projects

Sheila Trahar, University of Bristol   The back story Listening to Academic Voices: International Stories of the UK Experience, like all publications, has a story and, like the stories that its contributors tell, one that is chequered and multilayered. The story reflects the rapid changes that we are experiencing in higher education in the UK;it seems, therefore, appropriate to tell it here. In 2010, Fiona Hyland, the Academic Coordinator of ESCalate, the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Education, and…

Joanna Al-Youssef, University of Nottingham   The beginning When I volunteered to contribute to this publication, it struck me that I would be positioning myself face to face with a part of me I do not usually explore in depth or even take much notice of. I suddenly realised that I would be exploring a layer of my identity that is so vague and feels almost artificial as it appears to be the creation of others’ perceptions outside of myself…

Irene Macias, University of Bath   The pains of self-reflection It has taken me much longer than I anticipated starting this account. The reason for this is that having jumped at the chance to collaborate in this publication, and having been sparked by the meeting organised in March with all the participants, where we shared experiences and perspectives, I have then found it unexpectedly hard to offer a coherent account of being an international academic. And I use the adverb…

Ulrike Niens, Queen’s University Belfast   Reflecting on my experiences as an academic member of staff, who was not born in the UK but working in UK higher education, presented me with a number of challenges. For me it raised questions relating to identity, overlapping categories of inclusion and exclusion as well as a sense of exposure which I see partly reflected in my research, teaching and my daily academic work in general. While the above description as an academic…