Keynote speakers

Steve Edwards, philanthropist and activist

Social Mobility, fairness and discrimination in Higher Education

This keynote will discuss social mobility’s relationship to higher education. Drawing on the difficulties that exist when attempting to meet access requirements, and the inevitable discrimination that occurs, Steve will look at a range of ways in which fair access can be assessed, some of them novel. Alongside this Steve will reveal some popular interventions used by the University of Exeter to meet their access requirements, compared to a number of other UK universities.

Steve Edwards went to state schools before going to Oxford to read physics, He then worked for 20 years in the software industry in a variety of roles. He believes strongly in the value of education and the importance of equality of opportunity. He and his wife, Ros Smith, have a number of charitable interests, almost all supporting education, and he is now involved with running the bestCourse4me web site. BestCourse4me aims to improve social mobility by enabling students with the ability to benefit from university but from non-academic and disadvantaged backgrounds choose university courses that meet their needs and ambitions, and that are based on accurate and impartial information. He has recently published in Times Higher Education on the role of UCAS.

Click here to view the PowerPoint slides for Steve's keynote speech Nebulous Skullduggery.

Click here to view Steve's presentation through Echo360

Take a look at Steve's web site: Bestcourse4me which is free and utterly independent. It's a service provided by Student Information Services Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity founded in 2009.

Kenyon Bonner

Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Life, University of Pittsburgh

The Student Experience: The Pittsburgh approach

This keynote will address the various, and in some instances, unique ways in which the University of Pittsburgh engages its students in programs and services that are designed to improve student retention, increase student satisfaction, actively contribute to the education of the whole student and prepare students to be successful in the global community.

Kenyon Bonner graduated with a BA in psychology and philosophy from Washington and Jefferson College, and completed his M.Ed. in rehabilitation counselling at Kent State University, where he worked in a variety of student affairs positions from 1997 to 2004.  He is responsible for managing a comprehensive educational and social program for Pitt students that includes a dynamic New Student Orientation and First-Year Experience program, the Pitt Program Council, student governments, a Student Organization Resource Center that provides support for more than 350 student organizations, the student newspaper (The Pitt News) and radio station (WPTS-FM), the Student Volunteer Outreach program, and many services provided within the student union.  Bonner also oversees the Office of Cross-Cultural and Leadership Development and the Office of International Services, along with the University’s RISE mentorship program.

Click here to view the keynote speech presented by Kenyon through Echo360.

Click here to view the Youtube video played by Kenyon Bonner at the beginning of his keynote speech celebrating 'Pitt: 225 Years of Building Better Lives'.