Speakers
Presentation
This session provides an overview of the different pastoral support models open to higher education providers to implement. It explores key implications for Student Services, in relation to resourcing and collaboration, as well as for the ways in which faculties and students experience the different models.
Levi is director and principal consultant at Plinth House Limited, a training and consultancy company dedicated to supporting universities to deliver excellent student-facing services and effective pastoral support.
In his consultancy work, Levi delivers service reviews and supports the development of institutional policies and procedures relating to the management of serious welfare incidents, mental health support, fitness to study, personal tutoring, and other specialist support issues. A significant focus of the company’s work is focused on helping universities respond effectively to distressed students – including training academic and professional services colleagues on how to respond effectively in the moment when working with a student who is distressed.
Prior to setting up Plinth House in 2017, Levi worked within higher education as a director of student support services, having managed service portfolios at King’s College London, Northumbria University, and the University of Leeds. Before joining the higher education sector, Levi held a range of equality and diversity roles, having worked as the Scottish Parliament’s equality lead, head of public affairs at the Commission for Racial Equality, and a researcher for Stonewall. Levi was also policy director at the Equality Challenge Unit, prior to the organisation’s merger with other higher education bodies to become Advance HE.
Levi has served as a member of the Disability Experts Panel of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Consulting and the Chartered Management Institute.