Steven Jones

Biography

I am a researcher in Higher Education at Manchester Institute of Education. My current administrative role is Director of Postgraduate Research for SEED. I teach on BA (Hons) English Language for Education and the University''s PGCert in Higher Education. I am also an elected member of Senate.

Since completing my PhD (funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council) in 1999, I''ve worked for several UK universities. At the University of Manchester, I have served as Director of Undergraduate Studies (2007-2010) and Director of Social Responsibility (2010-2011) for the School of Education, and as an academic lead for the Faculty of Humanities New Academics Programme (2012-14).

I''m a member of the Sutton Trust Research Group, and have given papers at major international conferences in Mannheim and Freiburg (Germany), Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), Verona and Bertinoro (Italy) and San Francisco and Chicago (USA). I''ve been interviewed about language use on BBC TV''s The One Show (2010, 2011) and about my Higher Education research on BBC Radio Four''s Today programme (2012). My funders have included the British Academy, the Society for Research in Higher Education, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and the Sutton Trust, and I''ve undertaken consultancy work for OFFA and HEFCE. I''ve presented research findings to Universities UK (2012), the Employers and Education Taskforce (2011, 2012, 2014) and the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills (2014), as well as delivering a Westminster Briefing (2013) and speaking at the Sunday Times Festival of Education (2013). In 2016, I was a member of the Academic Reference Group that reported directly to the government’s Social Mobility Advisory Group, and I have twice taken part in roundtable discussions led by the Rt Hon Alan Milburn on behalf of the Social Mobility Commission (2013, 2016).

In 2015, I was one of four academics invited to discuss their research at the office of the Minister for Universities and Science, Jo Johnson, in relation to the Teaching Excellence Framework and its associated metrics. I subsequently presented findings in the House of Commons alongside the Minister and Iain Wright MP at the November 2015 meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Universities group.

I am proud to be Vice Chair of Governors at Burnage Academy for Boys in South Manchester.

Areas of expertise

• LB2300 Higher Education
• P Philology. Linguistics