Europe Partners

Karen Thomson

Karen is a Social Scientist with a background in psychology, she has a particular interest in cultural and cross-culture research. She completed her doctorate at Stirling University, which explored learning conceptions in a culturally diverse classroom. In additional to her substantive post as a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Karen has been the the Head of Learning and Teaching for the School of Life Sciences; the Associate Dean, Learning Teaching and Quality, for the School of Health and Life Sciences; and is now delighted to be undertaking a strategic international role for the School. She has been involved in a number of transnational education projects in Africa, South East Asia and India; and has experience of teaching in USA, Australia, Holland and Malaysia. Karen has held a number of positions on external boards and currently works with Changing the Chemistry to increase gender and cultural diversity on all types of Boards.

Janice Taylor

Janice is currently Programme Leader for Food Science. During her tenure the programme has developed close links with industrial partners, the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and industry bodies such as Food and Drink Federation Scotland (FDFS). The course is currently first in the UK for Food Science (THE, 2022) with 100% student satisfaction in the National Student Survey. As international lead for the department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Janice has taught in the Netherlands, as part of the Erasmus programme. She has encouraged Bio students to develop as global citizens by incorporating languages into their study and widening access to study abroad opportunities. She also has a new role as Deputy Head of Department for Biological and Biomedical Sciences.

Katie Thomson

Katie is a Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy and Department International Lead. She has over 15 years of teaching and learning experience having joined GCU in 2007. Before moving into academia she worked as an Occupational Therapist for over 20 years. Katie has participated in a number of international teaching and research exchanges and has a passion for providing students with a range of international learning experiences.

Daniel Baxter

Daniel Baxter is the Associate Dean of International for the Glasgow School for Business and Society at Glasgow Caledonian University. He leads the School’s strategic internationalisation efforts which encompasses Transnational Education, International Student Experience, Enhancement, Quality Management, and Higher Education Institution market development. His doctoral research delves into transnational education, focusing on lecturers’ experiences at Post-92 universities in Scotland. As a senior lecturer, he specialises in International Tourism and Event Management, teaching areas in tourism experiences, change management, and event tourism. His research extends to drag culture, LGBTQ+ Safe Spaces, and Social Sustainability.

Claire Bereziat

Claire Bereziat is Mobility Lead of the Glasgow School for Business and Society, and a lecturer in Tourism at Glasgow Caledonian University. In the field of tourism, Claire is interested in destination development, image, accessibility, food tourism and operations management. Claire is a strong advocate of collaborative peer-to-peer learning. She is currently looking at co-creation as the key enabling process for the development of intercultural competences – and SDGs.

Ruth Lighbody

Ruth is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at Glasgow Caledonian University. She is also the Internationalisation Lead for the Department of Social Sciences. Ruth’s research interests are deliberative democracy and community engagement, and how they can be used to implement policy changes which tackle social inequalities and environmental issues. Ruth was awarded a Fellowship at the Scottish Parliament to develop an evaluation framework for measuring deliberative principles and practice within the Parliament. Her recent publications have focused on the role of experts and evidence giving in deliberative processes, and she is currently undertaking research on parent and baby groups, and their role in developing community resilience and wellbeing.

Gerald Melvin

Dr Gerald Melvin joined the Department of Management at GCU in July 2022. Returning to academia after 10 years tourism industry experience with VisitScotland, Gerald gained a PhD from Heriot Watt University, researching how organisational learning occurs through control measures in not for profit collaborations. Currently Gerald teaches on a wide range of business subjects, in particular CSR and Sustainable Development. Gerald became internationalisation lead for the management department in January 2024. His interest in the role stems from a core belief in the immeasurable value of cultural exchange and academic diversity, fostered through his own years as an international student in Rome and Salamanca.

School of Computing, Engineering and Buil Environment

Charles Russell

Dr Charles Russell is the Associate Dean International for the School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment at Glasgow Caledonian University and leads on the School’s Internationalisation portfolio, including supporting international student recruitment and in country development of transnational educational partnerships, student and staff mobility and university to business and widening participation in international activities for all students in School.  Charlie is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management and was previously Deputy Head of the Civil Engineering and Environmental Management Department and a programme leader for the UG Environmental Management programme and was the first Programme leader for GCU’s Climate Justice MSc, who developed and established the first of its kind globally.  An expert in Carbon Management, Environmental Impact Assessment and Circular Economy, he has currently 5 PhD students working on Climate Justice and Climate Change research and is currently project lead for the Circle 2 Erasmus project developing educational interactive learning materials for key sectors in enabling the circular economy.

Patricia Munoz-Escalona

Prof. Patricia Muñoz-Escalona is a BEng (Hons) Materials Engineering, with a MSc in Mechanical Engineering, a MSc in Learning and a Ph.D from University of Bath in the area of manufacturing. She has held academic positions in different universities in the UK and abroad, and is the champion for COIL in Engineering at GCU. She is the Academic lead for Formula Student and STEAM lead for her school, as well as Programme Leader for Mechanical Systems Engineering, a CEng, a MIMechE and a Senior Fellow HE. She has 30+ years of experience in the area of materials and manufacturing processes.

Michael McGuire

Michael is a Lecturer in the Department of Construction and Surveying at Glasgow Caledonian University. He has over 30 years’ of digital construction experience in an education and an industry setting.  As the Worldskills UK nominated expert, Michael educates the best and brightest young students within the UK for European and world wide competitions every year. Since 2018, Michael has led expert educators and industry professionals in digital construction and BIM across 21 countries including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea and led the launch of Competition-Based learning of digital construction across Asia in Abu Dhabi in September 2023.

Research and Innovation Office

Mark Anderson

Mark is Director of Research and Innovation at GCU and has helped to embed social innovation as a core part of its mission.  As well as overseeing GCU research and innovation portfolio, he leads several international cooperation projects around the world, in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, Central Asia. One of his main focal areas is setting up community-facing ‘Social Innovation Support Units’, specifically dedicated to helping universities engage with their local stakeholders in order to confront societal challenges.

Zarina San Jose

Zarina is European and International Projects Administrator at the Research and Innovation Office of GCU. She is an experienced programmes and event manager from the Philippines, focusing on youth development and education policy work. She completed an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Education Policies for Global Development, and has worked on various programmes relating to education at all levels, including informal education (such as the Alternative Learning System in the Philippines) and technical-vocational education. She also has experience with youth development programmes, particularly regarding human dignity and human rights.

International Partnerships Office

Angela Miller

Angela Miller is Head of International Partnerships at Glasgow Caledonian University. She has 29 years experience of working in Higher Education with 23 of those being at GCU in many diverse professional service capacities at senior level. Further, her experience covers different areas of of academic partnerships with a strong focus on Transnational Education. She also has significant experience in strategic planning and development, quality assurance and enhancement as well as international relationship management.

Petra Bauer-Bjorklund

Originally Swedish, Petra joined the Social Enterprise Academy in June 2016 after having worked in a training setting in Thailand for 5 years. She worked in the Scotland delivery team for a number of years, supporting the programme delivery across the sector before moving into her current role in the SEA Global Learning Lab.

In her role Petra lead user led, innovative product and programme design and development – maintaining and adapting existing baseline products for the organisation. She is also responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of mechanisms for recruiting, managing and supporting the continuous professional development of the Academy’s essential network of facilitators

Jessica Kemp

DUYTAN UNIVERSITY

HANG LE

THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY

Asst. Prof. Dr. Prapaporn T. Mongkhonvanit is the Dean of the School of Global Studies at Thammasat University. She was a Board Member of the National Council on Social Welfare of Thailand and the Founding Director of the Social Policy and Development (SPD) International Programme at Thammasat University.

Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology

Mr. Samboeun Hean is Currently the Vice President of the Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology, where he is responsible for the educational development and managing the whole process of undergraduate and graduate programs.

He holds a master’s degree in computer science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence. He has been involved in teaching, research, and innovation programs for more than 15 years. His experiences with the curriculum design, teaching, and learning methodologies were embedded in extracurricular activities of the training program, such as the Digital Technology Competition, the IoT and Robot Competition Programs, and managing the incubation and acceleration programs for tech startups.

BINUS UNIVERSITY

ARI MARGIONO

Ari is an associate professor at Binus Business School teaching humanity-centered design and entrepreneurial strategy. His research is on social entrepreneurship and digital transformation strategies. He received his PhD from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia and Masters of Economics and Social Studies in International Politics from Aberystwyth University, in Wales, United Kingdom.

Before joining the faculty at Binus, Ari had a career in the non-governmental organization sector. He began as a Program Officer at an international NGO based in the United States and later contributed to research on governance issues during Indonesia’s transition to democracy with the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Support Facility for Indonesian Recovery. Following his tenure at the UN, Ari led the Economy and Social Justice campaigns for Oxfam Great Britain, integrating Gender and Governance issues as central themes throughout the programs and served as the Deputy Director of Helen Keller International in Indonesia.

FEBBY PRATAMA

Febby is the Head of Business Incubator at BINUS University, Malang Campus, Indonesia. He is also a Faculty Member at the BINUS Business School Undergraduate Program. Febby received a Master’s in Management from Brawijaya University, Indonesia. Febby teaches various courses in the field of entrepreneurship, including design thinking, entrepreneurial strategy, prototyping and market validation. Febby is also a professional, she is a facilitator for various training in the industrial world, both public and private sectors. He is also doing international collaboration with many strategic partners like Singapore Polytechnic and University of Northampton.

Febby has managed a business incubator for students since 2019 and has succeeded in creating hundreds of entrepreneurs in Indonesia. He also conducts research on entrepreneurship, digital transformation, and design thinking, for example “Crucial Factors that Influence the Emergence of Sustainable Technopreneurs: Initial Insight from Indonesian Startups”. He is very passionate about the entrepreneurship field.

BRITISH UNIVERSITY

Lee McMillan

Teaching Practitioner

Programme Lead – Event Management

Raised and educated in the UK, Lee holds a TEFL, PGDBJ and an MA Degree in History from the University of Glasgow.

Lee moved to Vietnam in 2015 working as an IELTS teacher, examiner and VTV4 presenter before starting her role at BUV in 2018 under part time employment as an English teacher, In 2020 she moved into Faculty teaching Events, Marketing, and Tourism Management.

Working also as BUV Academic International Partnership Advisor, Lee will draw on her experience as a Broadcast Journalist and corporate Sales & Event Manager, helping her engage international partners and corporations. She will continue to strengthen her corporate relationships here in Vietnam.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

•  Teaching English as a Foreign Language, 140HR Certificate (2015)                                                                     

   IELTS.org, London, UK

• Postgraduate, Broadcast Journalism (2006-2007)                                                                                                                  

  The University of the West of Scotland, UK

• Master of Arts, History (1996-2000)                                                                                                                                 

  University of Glasgow, UK

Dr. Hamza Mutaher

Lecturer

Raised and educated in Taiz, Yemen, Hamza completed a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Applications from Osmania University, India, in 2013. In 2015, Hamza completed a Master of Computer Science (Computer Network) degree from SRTMU University, India, and worked on a face recognition system project. In 2022, Hamza completed his PhD thesis (Maulana Azad National Urdu University) titled: Security Countermeasures for OpenFlow Controller-Based Software Defined Network.
In addition, Hamza passionately continues to work on different research to improve network security against network attacks using various robust authentication techniques.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Doctor of Philosophy (2016-2022)

  Maulana Azad National Urdu University, India                                                                                                                                       

  Thesis: Security Countermeasures for OpenFlow Controller-Based Software Defined Network

• MSc Master of Computer Science (Computer Network) (2013-2015)

  Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, India

• BCA Bachelor of Computer Applications (2010-2013)

  Osmania University, India

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

• British University Vietnam (BUV)
  Professor (2022-Current)
  Lecturer in Computer Science

Don Hickerson

Teaching Fellow

Programme Lead – International Business Management

Don completed a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Confederation College (Canada) and immediately began working for BC Parks. There he fostered a reverence for outdoor recreation, beginning the process of certification from the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides. An unfortunate injury halted his career path resulting in a return to academia.

Don subsequently completed an Honours degree in Sociology from Lakehead University. During this time, an Internship at the Vietnam National University greatly altered his research focus, which he used to complete a Master of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario and further this focus as a PhD student. In 2015 Don took formal leave from his PhD work at Western to concentrate on being a father.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

• PhD Student                                                                                                                                                                                       

  Western University, Canada                                                                                                                                                  

• Master of Arts, Sociology – Specialised in Migration and International Relations (2012)                                                       

  The University of Western Ontario, Canada

• Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Sociology and Psychology (Double) (2007)                                                                                       

  Lakehead University of Western Ontario, Canada

• Bachelor of Arts, Business Administration (1990)                                                                                                               

  Confederation College, Canada