Dr Graham Holden          

https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamholdensheffield

I was the Director of Teaching and Learning at Sheffield Hallam University until February 2019. Since then I have been working as an independent higher education consultant and researcher, providing support for universities in response to subject TEF, supporting strategic development of online learning and leading curriculum innovation activities across the sector. Institutions I have worked with have include Anglia Ruskin University, Edge Hill University, Salford University, Oxford Brookes University, University Campus Oldham and Imperial College

As part of my consultancy I works as Client Relationship Director  with Invisible Grail who support leadership development across the higher education sector and create innovative approaches to team and individual development based on storytelling and writing.

I am a Senior Fellow of the HEA and a Visiting Fellow in the Sheffield Institute of Education at Sheffield Hallam University.

From 2017-2019 he was the Deputy Director of the University Alliance’s Teaching Excellence Alliance (TEA). Alliance universities have developed areas of collective distinctiveness in learning and teaching which focuses on sustained student success in professional and technical education. The Teaching Excellence Alliance (TEA) sought to enhance and promote this approach, at a time when scrutiny of teaching performance, value for money and skills gaps and productivity are high on the political agenda.

In collaboration with Penny Sweasey, I devised and developed the Sandpit an innovative approach to curriculum development which was awarded the SEDA for Education Development Initiative of the year in November 2020

As Director of Teaching and Learning I was responsible for the academic leadership and strategic direction of learning and teaching, as well as institutional responsibility for academic quality. I led the Directorate of Learning Enhancement and Academic Development which supported the University’s priorities in relation to teaching quality, curriculum innovation and digital education.

During my time at Sheffield Hallam I led a number of key initiatives focused on the development, reward and recognition of excellent teaching. This included the development of a new Academic Career Framework which enabled clear progression pathways to professoriate across all aspects of the academic role. I championed the introduction of the student-nominated Inspirational Teaching Awards which annually results in over 3000 student nominations for over 1700 staff.

My subject disciplinary background spans the areas of business management, computing and IT, engineering and physics.