Professor Annie Hughes

Throughout my academic career I have been privileged to interact with inspiring students from a huge range of backgrounds who have taught me the inherent value of diversity. These interactions have driven my commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion as key considerations in higher education and academic teaching.

In my current role as Head of the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre (LTEC) in the Education Directorate, I have been responsible for ensuring academic learning and teaching practices are inclusive and act to ensure an equality of opportunity for all students. Inclusive practice underlies the work of the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre (LTEC) which also supports staff to gain Advance HE UKPSF accreditation through our Introduction to Learning and Teaching Programmes and Kingston's Academic Practice Scheme (KAPS). LTEC also runs extensive CPD for staff, supports the quality assurance and enhancement processes of our institution and the enhancement of Kingston courses through the Kingston Course Enhancement Programme. LTEC also encompasses technology-enhanced learning and enterprise education.

With Nona McDuff (OBE), I developed Kingston University's Inclusive Curriculum Framework which was awarded the Guardian Award for Teaching Excellence in 2017. This framework supports the inclusivity of Kingston's academic framework and is embedded in our quality assurance and enhancement processes.

Kingston's approach to tackling degree awarding gaps has been shared across the UK HE sector through various mechanisms including an Office for Students funded project to share our approach with five other UK institutions.

Qualifications

• 2018: Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA)
• 2017: Higher Education Academy, National Teaching Fellow (NTF)
• 2016: University Teaching Fellowship, Kingston University (UTF)
• 2015: Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)

Relevant publications

• Hughes, A. (2022) "Unsettling fieldwork: Reflections of Whiteness and antiracist practice in the pedagogies of fieldwork" Area, DOI: 10.1111/AREA.
• McDuff, N. Hughes, A., Ross, F; Tatam, J. and Morrow, E. (2020) Improving equality of opportunity in higher education through the adoption of an Inclusive Curriculum Framework, Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 28:2.
• Hughes, A. and McDuff, N. (2020) Inclusive teaching and learning practices in Geography in Walkington, H. Hill, J. and Dyer, S. (eds.) The Handbook of Teaching and Learning in Geography, London: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
• McDuff, N., Hughes, A. and Sharma, S. (2019) Chapter: Inclusive curricula. In: Marshall, S. (forthcoming) A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Fifth edition. Routledge.
• Hughes, A., Mohamad, K., McDuff, N. and Michener, C. (2019) Curriculum co-creation as a transformative strategy to address differential student outcomes: the example of Kingston University's Student Curriculum Consultant Programme, Compass, Vol 12, No 1 (2019)
• Hughes, A, McDuff, N. and Beacock, O. (2019) Three unis discuss what they're doing about the attainment gap
• Balloo, K., Evans, C., Hughes, A, Zhu, X. and Winstone, N. (2018) Transparency isn't spoon-feeding: How a transformative approach to the use of explicit assessment criteria can support student self-regulation, Frontiers of Education, 3 (69): 1–11.
• Ross, F; Tatam, J.; Hughes, A.; Beacock, O. and McDuff, N, (2018) The great unspoken shame of UK Higher Education: addressing inequalities of attainment. African Journal of Business Ethics, 12(1), ISSN (print) 1817-7417.
• Parker, H. Hughes, A., Marsh, C., Ahmed, S., Cannon, J., Taylor-Steeds, E. Jones, L. and Page, N, (2017) Understanding the different challenges facing students in transitioning to university particularly with a focus on ethnicity. New Directions in the Teaching of Physical Sciences, 12, ISSN (online) 2051-3615.
• Hughes, A. (2016) Exploring normative whiteness: ensuring inclusive pedagogic practice in undergraduate fieldwork teaching and learning. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 40(3), pp. 460-477. ISSN (print) 0309-8265. DOI: 10.1080/03098265.2016.1155206.

Specialisms

• Inclusive learning and teaching in higher education
• Assessment and feedback practice in higher education
• Quality enhancement in higher education

I lead the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre at Kingston University reporting to the PVc (Education). The Centre has three key strands, each with its own academic lead – Academic Staff Development, Technology Enhanced Learning and Enterprise Education. The Centre also runs the Inclusive Curriculum Consultants Programme and has a focus on developing Inclusive Curriculum through the implementation of Kingston's Inclusive Curriculum Framework. This framework embeds inclusivity from concept to review to include inclusive course content, inclusive delivery (learning and teaching strategy), inclusive assessment, as well as accessible and inclusive feedback practices. We are achieving this through developing the knowledge and skills of our staff in culturally competent teaching and an understanding of critical pedagogies. We are also working closely with Planning and Data Insight to ensure our course leaders and academic teachers understand the changing demographic of their student cohorts, as well as the diverse ways in which their students are doing university (e.g. commuting).

University responsibilities

• Head of the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre
• Member of the Education Committee
• Member of the Regulatory Framework Committee
• Member of the Teaching Excellence Steering Group