Dr Christine Jarvis

National Teaching Fellow 2010 Christine has a particular interest in the transformative potential of fiction, including literature, film and television. Fiction enables learners to have intense vicarious experiences, she believes; in effect it can speed up the process of learning that might occur through ordinary lived experience, enabling learners to have many lives and relationships, including some that are rare and unusual. She is currently working on a chapter outlining the transformative potential of fiction for a handbook in transformative learning that is to be published by Jossey-Bass. Much of her career has involved promoting widening participation. She worked in further, adult and community education for 12 years and focused extensively on enabling students to make the transition to HE, on developing and teaching access to higher education for mature students from widening participation backgrounds, and on the delivery of higher education programmes in further education. Her commitment to enabling everyone who is able to benefit to participate in HE led her to design and deliver new courses in FE and HE that would provide access opportunities. This has included the development of work-based and foundation degrees. She has just completed the development of a CPD framework for the university to enable individuals who may be trapped in low paid work to access personal and professional learning. Christine recognises that widening participation involves ensuring that HE has systems to enable all students to achieve their potential. Between 2003 and 2006 she managed a Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund project to develop academic skills support. This entailed the development of a new academic role, the academic skills tutor, who supports students to ensure they have the generic academic skills needed to succeed. Staff and students have found the role so valuable that there are now 14 such tutors in the University of Huddersfield and their work has significantly enhanced the student experience. She leads an action learning set as part of the university's postgraduate certificate in professional development for HE teachers and enjoys working with new colleagues as they develop their teaching skills. Christine took up the post of PVC Teaching and Learning at the University of Huddersfield in 2015.