Mr Ian Fellows

I am a Senior Lecturer at the Business School of Canterbury Christ Church University, supporting partners to deliver excellent teaching and learning experiences for our students. Before this, I was a Senior Lecturer in Enterprise and Employability at Birmingham Newman University, leading and teaching on programmes across a number of subject disciplines. I am an external examiner for Leeds Trinity University and Buckinghamshire New University. I am also a Section Editor for the GiLE Journal of Skills Development.

I am a Chartered Manager, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Certified Management & Business Educator, a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting, a Fellow of Enterprise Educators UK and a member of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network. I have two Masters degrees (MA and MSc) and am an active researcher and Doctoral candidate.

Before transitioning to academia, I held a range of leadership positions for almost 25 years across the private, public, and third sectors in three countries.

I have been lecturing in Business Management for seven years following a twenty-five-year career holding senior leadership positions in public, private and third-sector businesses. As Canterbury Christ Church University’s senior regional academic for the Midlands area, I have overseen the delivery of a range of Business Management and Accounting & Finance programmes across three partner institutions through both validated and franchised arrangements. I also have Programme Leader experience with Birmingham Newman University, including curriculum design, programme validation and responsibility for overseeing module delivery by lecturers across eleven subject areas. I have also won and successfully delivered five externally funded projects focusing on skills development, partnership working, knowledge exchange, and student enterprise.

I am an experienced mentor and assessor of junior academics, with a strong history of guiding and informing teaching design and pedagogical development. I currently support colleagues as a mentor to apply for their Fellowship and Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Direct Teaching Experience:

• Senior Lecturer in Enterprise and Employability, Birmingham Newman University. August 2020 – July 2024 (Lecturer – Aug. 20- Feb. 22)
• Subject Leader: Business Management Foundation Year, Accounting and Finance Foundation Year

Module leader (degree subject in brackets):

Postgraduate Personal Development Planning (Business Management, Health Mentor, Drama), Postgraduate Critical Reflective Practice (Business Management, Health Mentor, Drama), Postgraduate Work-based Learning Theory to Practice (Business Management, Health Mentor, Drama), Postgraduate Research Methods (Business Management, Health Mentor, Drama), Postgraduate Work-based Research (Business Management, Health Mentor, Working with Children, Young People and Families), Master's Thesis (Business Management), Negotiated Work-Based Research Dissertation (Accounting and Finance, Business Management, Maths), Dissertation alternative Enterprise Project (Applied Humanities, Business Management), Work-related Learning (Accounting and Finance, Applied Social Science, Business Management, Counselling Studies, Criminology, Maths, Physical Education and Sports Science, Working with Children, Young People and Families), Introduction to Work-related Learning (Accounting and Finance, Counselling Studies, Maths), Advantaged Thinking (Counselling Studies, Working with Children, Young People and Families), Academic and Professional Identity (Business Management, Accounting and Finance), Corporate and Business Law (Business Management, Accounting and Finance)

• Founder and Academic Lead, e.school, Birmingham Newman University. June 2022 – July 2024
• e-School is an Enterprise and Employability hub that connects student talent with local and regional entrepreneurs to drive economic growth and prosperity, and provides consultancy and scale-up support to local businesses and social enterprises.Programme Lead, Birmingham Skills for Enterprise and Employability Network. January 2018 – June 2023.
• BSEEN was an ERDF-funded partnership between four local universities that supports aspiring student and graduate entrepreneurs in Birmingham.Programme Lead, Higher Level Skills Match and HLSM Extension Projects. January 2018 – December 2023.
• HLSM and HLSME were ESF-funded partnerships between three local universities that supported the skills development of regional SMEs in part through student and graduate research, work experience, and employment opportunities. Programme Lead, Early Years Career Progression Pathways Project. January 2021 – December 2023.
• EYCPP was an ESF-funded partnership between Birmingham Newman University, Birmingham City University, Barnardo’s, and West Smethwick Enterprise that supported the skills development of regional Early Years providers to support ongoing work experience and employment opportunities. Lecturer and Mentor, HEADStart Programme. June 2018- September 2020.
• An enhanced induction programme for new university students

I am an active researcher examining effective pedagogy for predominantly non-traditional students in the contemporary higher education landscape. My forthcoming Doctoral thesis will explore the role of second-career educators who join academia from industry, adopting an autoethnographic lens that uses my own publications and career trajectory as a case study.

To complement my educational research, I am also undertaking research into the social economy of the UK in this ongoing period of constrained economic viability and increasing pressures brought by the ongoing withdrawal of services at national and local government levels. In addition to this, I am a member of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network and a Section Editor for the GiLE Journal of Skills Development.

Recent publications:

• Generative AI Robs Students of the Joy of Learning (2025)
• We Have Enough Neurotypical Thinkers Already: Why Accommodating and Developing a Neurodiverse Workforce is the Right Strategic Approach to Navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution (2025)
• Do Academics' Views on Leadership Align with the Literature, and How Does This Impact Their Teaching of Widening Participation Students? (2025)
• Disrupting the Third Space Through Playfulness, Mattering, and Unbounded Perspectives (2025)
• What the Literature Tells Us About the Transition of Second-Career Academics into Higher Education (2024)
• Exploring Attitudes to Negotiated Assessment in First-Year Widening Participation Undergraduates at an English University (2024)
• Supporting Widening Participation Students Without Creating Dependency or Leaving Them Unprepared for Work in the Neoliberal Era: A Discussion Paper (2024)
• The Evolution of Learning and Technological Innovation: Preparing Students for Successful Careers (2023)
• Critical Educators Should Embrace the Employability Agenda (2023)

Professional accreditations

• Certified Management & Business Educator (CMBE), January 2026
• Member, British Academy Early Career Researcher Network, December 2025
• Fellow of Enterprise Educators UK (FEEUK), February 2024
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), September 2022
• Fellow of the Institute of Consulting (FIC), April 2022
• Chartered Manager (CMgr MCMI), August 2019

External Examining

• Buckinghamshire New University. BA (Hons) Business Management
• Leeds Trinity University, School Scholars System. BA (Hons) Business and Management
• Programme Validation Panel Member for University of Hertfordshire, Pre-Masters Business Programme & Foundation Degree Business and Management

Board Memberships:

• Educational Advisory Board, Cherished CIC. April 2023 – February 2025
• Supporting educational intervention programmes for at-risk pupilsBirmingham Commonwealth Association Education Committee, April 2023 – July 2024
• Supporting educational engagement and attainment among the Commonwealth diasporaSocial Enterprise Mark HEI Network. May 2019 – May 2024
• SEM Network supports the growth, prosperity and accreditation of social enterprises nationally and internationallyWest Midlands Combined Authority Social Economy Growth Team
• Highlights include the development of WMCA bid for Trailblazer Devolution Deal fundingAutism West Midlands. March 2018 - February 2022
• Member of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Finance Committee