We’re excited to announce that one of our staff members, Fatima Iftikhar, has been awarded a prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship. She will be 1 of 150 Fellows travelling across the world over the next 12 months researching cutting-edge solutions to important topical issues.
This summer Fatima will be travelling to the USA for 6 weeks to research how Universities and Colleges use Community and Civic Engagement as a tool to boost the success of students typically under-represented in Higher Education, in particular students from BAME and low-income backgrounds.
She will be visiting a wide range of Higher Education Institutions and Non-Profits who have developed best practice in this area. Stops on her trip include Campus Compact, Guttman Community College, The Bonner Foundation, Stanford University and the American Association of Community Colleges.
‘Leading our work at Kingston University over the past two years I have seen how Student Hub’s approach to social action can transform student experience and improve chances of students successfully progressing through university and landing graduate level employment. I am excited to research how different approaches involving community engagement in the USA are being utilised at huge scale for these purposes. I hope to bring back insights on how it is used in a variety of interventions that support inclusive learning and teaching practices, boost scholarship programmes and close attainment gaps. Ultimately looking at how it can be used as a tool to address challenges the UK Higher Education sector faces in ensuring the best outcomes possible for under-represented students.’
- Fatima on what she hopes to learn during her trip.
Keep an eye on our blog for the release of her Fellowship report this Autumn which will share her learnings. In the meantime, you can follow her travels on this blog and on her twitter @IftikharFatima.