An academic specialist in Literature and Culture, Tim Crocker has twenty years’ experience across the spectrum of lifelong learning. Alongside part-time undergraduate teaching, (including distance tuition for the Open University), he has worked with disadvantaged and returning learners for a variety of organizations, such as the WEA, Citizens Advice Bureau and Unison.

In 1997, he was appointed coordinator of literature for Newcastle University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning, where he also led the Part-time Degree in Humanities and academic foundation programme for international students. In 2004, he took up his current post, leading CLL after its transfer from Newcastle to Sunderland under a pioneering – and highly successful - partnership to advance university lifelong learning across the North East region.

In 2009, the ‘ELQ’ rule made half CLL’s programmes unviable in their existing form. The response: 'Explore', a radical new mode of study which transforms student experience whilst cutting delivery costs.