Dr Ridwanah Gurjee

Ridwanah is also the School lead on UK Partnerships and Students and Teaching as well as leading key knowledge transfer initiatives contributing to the health prevention agenda, employability and student experience with the Centre for Volunteering and Community Leadership (CVCL), Community Engagement with Service Users & Carers (Comensus) and the Social Prescribing Unit.

Ridwanah has over 25 years' experience at the University and has significant expertise of leading the development, implementation, delivery and review of a substantial portfolio of transformational community projects that contribute to the Access & Participation Plan, making it now the largest University volunteering programme in the UK. This included the development of the Peer Mentoring Programme which became a university-wide retention programme as well as the project management and leadership of DfES funded community projects and Russell Commission initiatives that contribute to TEF-Silver, KEF & REF metrics, rated as world-leading and internationally excellent.

Riz has published widely in peer leadership and community mentoring, contributing chapters to the Sage Handbook of Mentoring which was a collaboration of mentoring practice and research from across the globe as well as the book on Transformative Education: Changing Lives and Transforming Communities. Ridwanah has also delivered several conference research papers for the International Mentoring Association, USA. One of these has been published in the International Journal of Social Work and Human Services. Ridwanah is also a member of the University Board and plays a vital role in supporting the strategic direction of the University, ensuring that we continue to deliver on our strategic objectives and fulfil our life-changing mission while operating in a financially sustainable manner to secure our long-term success.