A results driven pragmatist, Gabriel Jezierski’s belief in the importance and value of a University and Higher Education to improve society and transform the lives of individuals is evidenced in his 20+ years’ dedication and commitment to its improvement in the UK and Middle East: the improvement of quality, of the student experience and excellence in Learning and Teaching.
Uniquely, he has worked in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales with over 50 universities (Russell Group, N8, Red Brick and New), holding positions as a senior academic (Principal Lecturer) specialising in academic leadership in Strategic and Operational Planning and Change Management, Quality Improvement, Innovation and New Technologies; as a researcher, Head of Learning and Teaching, and in recent years leading strategic change in the increasingly recognised and undervalued, cvvvvv critically important area to improve retention - of student support – student (customer) experience and digital experience in central Academic Registry and Student Services.
His expertise, knowledge and academic leadership were recognized when he was seconded into the UK Higher Education Academy whose Mission is to ensure the pre-eminence of UK Higher Education Plc in the face of global competition, as its Senior Advisor for Wales and subsequently Head of Policy and Partnerships advising the devolved Governments of Wales and Northern Ireland’s Department for Employment and Learning on Higher Education. In these roles he was tasked with leading the strategic development, performance and evaluation at the national level of policy and Quality Enhancement (QE) - (improvement) in practice on behalf of the UK Vice Chancellor Group, Universities UK (Wales) working in partnership with university senior management teams to improve their leadership skills in some 15 universities, the then 23 UK academic subject communities, individual academics and with all major UK Higher Education agencies: QAA, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (now Advance HE), Centre for Recording Achievement, JISC, ALT and HESA as well as liaising with the English and Welsh Funding Councils on strategic thematic priorities such as the research-teaching nexus.
He has worked at the national, institutional, faculty/departmental/School and programme level as well as chairing meetings at the European level at the European Commission in Brussels.
Prior to working in Higher Education, he gained 10 years’ international experience in Europe and the Middle East including bilingual consultancy for the Catalan Regional Government in Spain in its Department of Education.
Since 2010 he has shared his knowledge and expertise acting as a ‘Retained consultant – critical friend’ to a QS UK university ranked in the top 3% of universities in the world and working via the British Council on behalf of the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (Education Evaluation Commission) running a range of specialist workshops in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He has recently stepped down from Cardiff Metropolitan University and is currently negotiating consultancy with universities in China and India.
Gabriel is a Professional and Executive trained coach and Prince II Project Management qualified.
