Professor Monika Foster has worked in Business Schools in the UK, Europe and Far East for nearly 30 years. She is currently the Head of School of Business and Management at the University of Sunderland. Monika has successfully led strategic initiatives to enhance the student experience, working with students as partners, including enhanced transitions for mature and international students and student-centred, work-based learning solutions for all undergraduate students.
Monika has championed innovation on programmes of study at university level by developing a strategy to embed internationalisation in the curriculum at Edinburgh Napier. She has been passionate about involving students as co-creators of the curriculum in the development of Executive Education and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) with businesses. She was responsible for developing a joint learning, teaching and assessment strategy with international partners in Europe, China, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore. Monika has led a number of international, cross-institutional and interdisciplinary projects to scope and design mechanisms for assisting students with the transitions. She’s particularly proud of her study of international student transitions as part of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Enhancement Theme Student Transitions.
Monika is currently working on a book commissioned by Routledge on Building Intercultural Learner Relationships: Towards a critical pedagogy for higher education in a multicultural globalising world, due to be published in 2021. Monika’s research interests lie in cross-cultural management, employability, internationalisation of higher education, intercultural aspects and leadership and change management (HR).
Monika’s external recognition includes the award of Advance HE Principal Fellow and a title of Visiting Professor from Shandong University of Finance, China. She is a Certified Business and Management Educator (CMBE) with Chartered ABS. Monika has published her research internationally and in the UK. She has served on a number of national committees and advisory bodies influencing student learning, including an Advisory Board to the former Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE) Internationalisation Framework. Her most recent appointments include a Member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools’ Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Committee, advising on national HE policy, including Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF); and HEA Consultancy role for the Advance HE programme ‘Leading Transformation in Learning and Teaching’ influencing pedagogy nationally.