Professor Nawaz was originally nominated for his award by his previous employer, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Professor Raheel Nawaz PFHEA is the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Digital Transformation at Staffordshire University. He provides strategic leadership and management of the University’s continuing digital transformation agenda and leads transformative action across the University to deliver enhanced academic experience.
Professor Nawaz is a renowned expert in industry-academia co-creation, especially for high impact work integrated programmes like Degree Apprenticeships. He has advised on the establishment and launch of such programmes in Spain, New Zeeland, Canada and Pakistan. He has addressed the Westminster Education Policy Forum twice and has been commissioned by the QAA to systematically analyse the Degree Apprenticeships pedagogies across English universities and advise the sector on best academic practices.
Professor Nawaz is also a leading researcher in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Education. He holds five adjunct professorships/directorships and sits on the boards of research and charitable organisations like the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence (Pakistan) and TechSkills (UK). He has advised national policy organisations including the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Science and Technology (Pakistan). He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed research articles and his career grant capture stands at over £14 million. He has graduated 19 PhD students so far. According to Google Scholar, he is among the top-10 most cited scholars in the world in the fields of Digital Transformations, Applied Artificial Intelligence, and Educational Data Science.
Professor Nawaz’s NTF application focused on his trailblazing work on Degree Apprenticeship pedagogies. Rather than approaching Degree Apprenticeships provision as part-time programmes, he implemented the emerging concepts around “4th Generation Universities” and developed teaching, learning and assessment methodologies, practices and frameworks tailored for the specific needs of student-apprentices and employer-partners. His work led to outstanding student achievements, resounding endorsements from employer-partners, unequivocal acknowledgement from the relevant government (regulation and policy) bodies, and several awards and accolades from the sector.
