Dr Julia Pointon

National Teaching Fellow 2009 Julia Pointon works in the discipline of Human Resource Management and Organisational Studies. She combines academic management with a strong interest in the practice of learning and teaching in higher education. She is involved in curriculum and programme development, teaching, research and in working with an extensive range of external international partners and stakeholders. She is Principal Lecturer and programme Director in the Business School at DeMontfort University, where her work provides a national focus for institutional teaching and learning excellence for international students. Julia has recently completed her Doctorate in Education. With the student intake of her programmes reflecting widening participation, Julia became interested in understanding more fully and consequently improving the student experience. She has initiated, facilitated and undertaken research projects which have had an outstanding impact on the student learning experience, the work of academic and support staff and on the reputational capital of the University. She has gained an impressive reputation among the academic international community for her commitment to the identification and spearheading of good practice in order to raise the profile of learning and teaching and for her unremitting contribution to the wider agenda of International engagement. Her personal and professional recognition of the wider implications of International student teaching and learning has aroused curiosity and inspired academics both internally and from elsewhere across the country. Her enthusiasm and passion has been embodied in the establishment and ongoing work of an International Special Interest Group which she leads with the support of the Business Management, Accounting and Finance (BMAF) sub group of the Higher Education Academy. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/business/ourwork/sigs/internationalisation In this context Julia has had a sustained and impressive impact and has initiated an engagement with a wider academic and professional community that extends significantly beyond her immediate professional and substantive institutional roles. Julia was awarded a University Fellowship in 2006. The Fellowship rewarded her past achievements and contribution to assessment, learning and teaching while at the same time celebrated her potential to continue to support the work of staff and students and stakeholders in the international arena. As a TF Julia quickly developed a strong reputation for being willing to tackle controversial issues and promote new ideas, this led to invitations for national and international projects and has formed the basis of her current application for recognition as an NTF.