SEFI 2021 Annual Conference – Keynote Speaker: Beverley Gibbs

Lasting Impact in Turbulent Times

Beverley Gibbs | New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering

Colleagues who have been reflecting and innovating for years will have been astounded by the speed at which higher education has adapted to the changed circumstances brought on by the pandemic. Yet, even as we pursue transformed learning, teaching and assessment, our historical roots remain influential – in traditional approaches that have simply been moved online, and in exerting a pull to ‘go back to normal as soon as possible’. 

In this talk, Beverley will highlight some changes that are likely to prove enduring, and those which are a poor substitute given all we know about how engineers learn and the work they do. She will share the structures and approaches NMITE has developed in the absence of a decades-old cultures and traditions, and draw out principles which can inspire refreshed views in any institution.

Beverley is Chief Academic Officer at NMITE,  the first new greenfield higher education provider in the UK for several decades. Welcoming its first students in September 2021, NMITE’s flagship programme is an accelerated MEng Integrated Engineering. Beverley trained as a Production Engineer through an apprenticeship route, and worked in manufacturing, mining and construction sectors before transitioning to an academic career. In 2020 she initiated and co-edited ‘Emerging Stronger: Lasting impact from crisis innovation’ for the UK Engineering Professors’ Council, a May/June 2020 snapshot of immediate responses to the pandemic including case studies and student voices from across UK HE. A second edition will be published in 2021.