Dr Sheila Pankhurst, Director of Studies, Anglia Ruskin University

Dr Sheila Pankhurst is Head of the Department of Life Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, and was formerly Director of Studies for the Faculty of Science and Technology at Anglia Ruskin. She has a keen interest in issues relating to the student experience and to retention, and is a member of the management team for Anglia Ruskin’s HEFCE/Paul Hamlyn Foundation funded project on student retention, looking at the relative importance of the roles of student advisers and personal tutors in undergraduate retention. Her background as a research scientist (she is a zoologist by training) has given her wide experience of data analysis, and an understanding of the importance of basing management decisions on the best possible evidence.