Dr. Billy Wong (Associate Professor in Widening Participation, University of Reading) has been appointed by the University of Reading’s Access and Participation Committee (APC) as the new Director of Research and Evaluation (Access & Participation).
As reported in the University’s staff portal (staff internal access only), this new role – which is on a part-time basis – will oversee the research and evaluation of access and participation works and projects related to the University’s Access and Participation Plan (APP), which sets out the university’s strategic approach to ‘improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups to access, succeed in and progress from higher education’ – and is monitored by the Office for Students (OfS).
On his appointment, Dr. Wong said:
“This is an exciting new role where I hope to make use of my knowledge and experience in higher education research, especially in supporting the ways in which we design, measure and evaluate impact as a particular form of research”.
Professor Peter Miskell (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience and Chair of the APC) said:
“I’m delighted that Billy has been able to take up this new role. The appointment is timely, as the OfS is placing increased scrutiny on how universities evaluate the effectiveness of their Access and Participation Plans. We are fortunate to have someone with Billy’s knowledge and experience to lead our work in this area.”
Anne-Marie Henderson (Director of Student Success and Engagement, University of Reading) added:
“This is a really important step for the University of Reading in ensuring our approach for supporting underrepresented students is successful. We need to be transparent about what works and what doesn’t and I’m really looking forward to working with Billy on this”.
For more information on Billy’s research, visit his staff profile page here. You can also follow him on Twitter here.
