Andrew has worked at the Conservatoire for 13 years and is the strategic lead for the RCS’ Fair Access work and the suite of postgraduate learning and teaching qualifications.
Andrew’s career in education spans 38 years. During this time, he has held academic and senior management posts in both the College and HE Sectors in Scotland. Andrew is a specialist in widening access and before joining RCS, was Director of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Articulation Hub. Andrew’s other areas of expertise include curriculum design and technology-enhanced learning and teaching, and he has worked in the past as a consultant, director and project evaluator /critical friend for a variety of e-learning and curriculum design projects across the UK.
Nationally, Andrew and has played a significant role in the development of a new quality standards framework and professional accreditation scheme for widening access and widening participation practitioners for Scotland’s community of access and participation practitioners (SCAPP), an organisation setup by the Scottish Government to support widening access to higher education.
As Director of Fair Access at the Conservatoire, Andrew represents Fair Access on the Conservatoire Senior Management team and reports on their work to the RCS Board of Governors via the Fair Access Committee. He also reports to the RCS Academic Board on academic matters relating to contextualised admissions and Fair Access programmes (Transitions and Widening Access to the Creative Industries (WACI)). He is responsible for fair access policy development in line with Scottish Government priorities and targets. Part of this work requires him to lead on the planning and development of Fair Access work at a strategic level and report on activities internally and to external bodies such as the Scottish Funding Council. Nationally, he sits on the steering group of the Scotland’s Community of Access and Participation Practitioners (SCAPP) and has played a key role in developing a professional accreditation framework for professionals working in widening access and widening participation across the Education system in Scotland.