Bradford College

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    • Andrew Chang
    • Alan Jerome
    • Gordon Senior
    • Richard Wightman
    • Dale Smith
    • Bob Sowman
    • Rawaz Khan
    • Karl Oxford
    • Ramindar Singh
    • Michele Sutton
    • Councillor David Robinson
    • Nasreen Karim
    • Ian McAleese
    • Dr Kath Hodgson
    • Nabeel Hussain
    • Eve Gregory
    • Richard Brown
    • Helen Kinsella

Dr Kath Hodgson

 

 

As a specialist on the subject of Education, Dr Kath Hodgson was appointed, Director of Learning and Teaching Support at the University of Leeds.  Since her appointment in 2006, she has been committed to ensuring the university’s provision is both innovative and attractive to students – helping to deliver a provision that is truly outstanding.

In a candid interview, Dr Kath Hodgson reveals more about her years of experience working within the education sector - and why she is truly passionate about life long learning.

Dr Hodgson began her career working as a School Teacher for the Leeds Education Authority.  Explaining how she made the transition from School Teacher to Director of Learning, Dr Hodgson said: “I’d been teaching for nearly 20 years and I had no degree; I was a certificate trained teacher. The people coming into the schools all had degrees, so I went back to college to do an Advanced Diploma in Organisation & Management of Secondary Education.” Dr Hodgson smiled and added:  “I sort of got bitten with the bug of study!” Impressively Dr Hodgson has since gone on to add a string of qualifications to her bow, including a Certificate in Effective Management, MEd (Research) and a PhD (Education).

Dr Hodgson continued: “I enjoy studying.  I was the first person in my family to go to university.  The fact that I’d trained as a teacher was a step up for my family and going on to study further was unusual. This experience convinced me how important it was to get an education.”

Elaborating further on her family’s view on education, Dr Hodgson said: “They took education very seriously.  They did the best they could for me and were excited that I was training to ‘teach’, for a profession. It was something they were very proud of that I’d managed to do. It would never have occurred to them that I could do more, or should think of doing more.”

Committed to the benefits of gaining an education, Dr Hodgson said: “Once you can get people back into education and they actually enjoy learning, it starts to become a different and more rewarding experience. We all have to do things to pass exams, but I think it’s more important that education is about learning new things and gaining a new perspective.”

“What motivated me to join the Corporation? I think it’s about time I gave something back to education - as it has done a lot for me! Although I can do quite a lot in the context of the university, I think there are other areas of education that I would also like to get involved in and help with in some way.”

Over her career, Dr Hodgson has worked closely with the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) to review the quality and standards of higher education in a variety of universities and colleges.  She has also carried our extensive research into the areas of Curriculum Design and Evaluation (MEd) and Management of Learning and Teaching (Advanced Diploma and PhD) and is a former Governor of a Mencap special school. Mencap is the leading UK charity for people with a learning disability and their families.  

Speaking passionately about how she hopes to make a difference at Bradford College, Dr Kath Hodgson remarked: “I know the College has aspirations around developing its higher education. I hope I can help with this.  I’ve worked with Leeds Trinity University College and York Saint John University to help them gain degree awarding powers, as they used to be part of the University of Leeds. Dr Hodgson modestly added: “Hopefully I might have some higher education experience that I can throw into the mix.”

Not only is Dr Hodgson dedicated to helping the College gain degree awarding powers, she is also highly committed to seeing students succeed. Dr Hodgson concluded: “It’s lovely to have nice buildings as the students deserve the best, but what really matters is the quality of the teaching.  I’m very involved with the students in Leeds. I love working with them, so anything I can do to help the students here, would be greatly fulfilling. At the end of the day we’re all here for the students to see them gain their qualifications, enjoy learning and go on to enjoy successful careers!”