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From the Bard to the Business School

Dr Jenny Naish has joined the University’s Business School as Assistant Dean for Partnerships.

In this new post Jenny will play a leading role in developing the school’s work-based learning programmes, particularly at postgraduate level. Jenny is originally from London and grew up in Guildford. She is a graduate of Warwick and Middlesex Universities and her early roles include:

• Director of the Bear Garden’s Museum in London (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre)
• Director of theatre and museum education for the former Inner London Education Authority (ILEA)
• a management consultant, specialising in professional and organisational development. – clients ranged from financial services in the stock exchange to strategic health authorities.

Jenny said of these diverse roles: ‘My job at the Globe was fantastic. I was incredibly young to be given such an amount of authority, where I was involved in the recreation of a full sized replica of an early seventeenth century theatre for performance and educational work. I worked with wonderful people at ILEA and as a management consultant brought role play techniques into the commercial sector to help develop leadership qualities.’

National Teaching Fellowship In 1991 Jenny moved into higher education, with the first of several roles at Middlesex University to develop and implement work-based learning, where she initiated a major partnership with Marks & Spencer. Jenny was later awarded the first National Teaching Fellowship for this field. National Teaching Fellowships are awarded by the Higher Education Academy in recognition of excellence in teaching and learning.

Jenny said: ‘I care passionately about work-based learning. Seeing M & S Food Managers who had few qualifications but extensive experience going on to achieve their master’s degrees and changing their lives was particularly rewarding.’

Jenny’s other roles at Middlesex were Head of International Development for work-based learning and finally Head of Accreditation.

She said of her new role at º£½ÇÖ±²¥: ‘We’ll be looking to significantly expand the programmes offered by the Business School to employers. This is a wonderful part of the country and the University is a friendly, welcoming place with huge potential.’

• The University has received a £5.13m grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England to help º£½ÇÖ±²¥ deliver a significant institutional change programme designed to enable 3,000 employees take advantage of new higher education and learning opportunities.
• The initial £5.13m award – one of the biggest awards to any university to support employer engagement – will be supplemented by another £4.5m to support additional student numbers and a further £3.3m contribution expected from employers to support the programmes over the next three years.

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