Role
Professor Clare Furneaux is Teaching and Learning Dean with responsibility for the Student Experience.
She is also the Teaching and Learning Dean working with the Schools of Law; Politics, Economics and International Relations; and the Institute of Education.
Clare co-chairs the Sub-Committee on Student Experience and Employability (SCoSEE) and is Chair of the Post-Graduate Taught (PGT) Directors Community of Practice Committee.
Her first degree was in English and History from the University of Bristol; she has a postgraduate diploma and PGCE from Manchester, a Master’s in Applied Linguistics from Reading and a Doctorate in Education from the University of London.
Clare’s background is in teaching English as a foreign language, having taught at schools and universities in China, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Portugal and Nepal.
At Reading, Clare joined what is now the International Study and Languages Institute (ISLI). She later transferred to the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics, in the School of Literature and Languages (SLL), where she still teaches and conducts research into academic literacy.
Her previous roles have included Departmental and School Director of Teaching and Learning; School Director of Internationalisation; Academic Director of the University's first wholly distance MA programme in English Language Teaching and MA programme director.
She is a member of CeLM - the University's Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism; the University Board for Teaching and Learning (UBTL) and the Teaching and Learning Strategy Board (TLSB).
She was appointed as Teaching and Learning Dean in 2015.
“Being a Teaching and Learning Dean is a great privilege. Firstly, you are part of a really dynamic team of TLDs who lead teaching and learning across the University, working with our wonderful colleagues in the Planning and Strategy Office, Careers, and the Centre for Quality Support and Enhancement on strategic teaching and learning projects.
“We also help lead on the day-to-day running of Teaching and Learning processes and procedures across the University, with our highly efficient and knowledgeable colleagues in Student Services. In addition, each TLD works closely with a group of individual Schools and we see at first hand all the excellent work they do.
“My Student Experience brief also means close collaboration with our excellent Students Union and other students more generally and I really welcome the insights this brings.”
Clare was one of our first University Teaching Fellows and was made a National Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2009.
