Professor Ruth Pickford

Professor Ruth Pickford is Director of Learning and Teaching at Leeds Beckett University. She is an international award-winning project manager, researcher and teacher, and a respected speaker and writer on higher education.

Ruth is a systems engineer by professional background and in her former career as a business analyst developed complex business systems to support multinational mergers. Since moving into higher education, Ruth has written bids, led and provided oversight for research projects totalling £7 million. Extensive international consultancy work in universities including NUI Galway, Aalborg and Griffith has given her a broader perspective on higher education and she has been invited to deliver addresses at international conferences in Adelaide, Atlanta, Brisbane, Dublin, Jacksonville and Washington D.C. She has directed over 20 conferences and presented more than 50 conference papers. Her books on teaching and learning in higher education have been translated into several languages.

In her current role, Ruth leads Leeds Beckett University’s Centre for Learning and Teaching. She sits on the University’s Senior Management Group and is a member of Academic Board. Ruth is a strong advocate of CPD. She has gained useful insight into academic leadership and governance through serving both as an HE/FE college governor and as the elected Academic Board representative on Leeds Beckett’s Board of Governors, and through successfully completing programmes such as the ILM level 7 in Strategic Leadership and the HEA’s Executive Development Programme. She works closely with national bodies to develop academic practice and leadership in the sector. In 2016 Ruth was invited by the Higher Education Academy to be a member of their Assessment and Feedback Advisory Group. She is currently an associate of Advance HE and is a member of the small core team that established and now delivers the Deans’ Development Programme.

Ruth’s teaching and leadership of teaching have been recognised through a University Teacher Fellowship, an Enterprise Fellowship, Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, The Chancellor’s Award, a UK National Teaching Fellowship, and The International Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology. She is a founding member of the Association of National Teaching Fellows.