Sarah-Jane is Scholarship and Enterprise Development Manager at Hereford College of Arts. She is a firm believer in the power of creative education to transform individual futures and society. Previously she worked on a national HEFCE-funded project (The AoC Scholarship Project) and prior to that she lectured in Critical Studies at HCA.

Sarah’s background is in English Literature, but she has 15 years experience in education, including work as an educational developer designing digital learning programmes and leading initiatives to teach critical thinking across a range of sectors. Her current educational initiatives (Re-Fabricate) look at how a collaboratively designed ‘open’ creative space work to support Scholarship and Enterprise within the curriculum. She is excited to be working with a range of creative voices within and outside HCA on this project.

Sarah is currently working towards her PhD, which critically investigates the place, space and practice of higher level creative arts and crafts education. In the last few years she has presented her work at various conferences, including the HEA ‘Inspire’ Conference in Brighton, the SEDA conference in Manchester and the AOC HE Research and Scholarship Conference. In the next few months she will be presenting at ESLTIS – Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship, and RAISE18 – Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement, in Bristol University and Sheffield respectively.

Sarah is currently on the editorial panel for the Scholarship Framework, a member of the Learning Skills and Research Network ‘Networking the networks’ task force, and on the judging panel for the Association of Learning Technologists  annual awards.

Sarah loves the hidden spaces and curious cabinets of HCA and how working in a creative arts college inspires innovation and imagination. In terms of her creative practice she is a published poet and was shortlisted for the Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year competition.