fbfe Conference - Jan 2008
CHAPLAINCY FOR ALL - meeting students spiritual needs in the multi-faith context of further and higher education.
On 15th of January 2008,fbfehosted its 2008 conference at the Church House, London. Click the link to view the conference documents.
PROGRAMME
Chairs:
Morning: Bishop Kenneth Stevenson, Bishop of Portsmouth
Afternoon: Dr Ann Limb, Chair of fbfe
| 09.30 | Registration |
| 10.00 | Welcome and opening Keynote Speech - Bishop Kenneth Stevenson Keynote Speech - Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Further and Higher Education |
| 11.15 | Questions and Discussions |
| 11.40 | Workshops 1: Developing a Vision of Chaplaincy for All in the Context of Current Conversations on Equality, Diversity and Community Cohesion [more info] |
| 12.40 | Feedback and Penary Discussion |
| 13.00 | Lunch |
| 14.00 | Keynote Speech - Les Ebdon, Vice-Chancellor, University of Bedfordshire Keynote Speech - Paul Head, Principal, College of NE London |
| 14.45 | Round Table discussion by practitioners of recent work relevant to the conference theme:
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| 15.30 | Workshops 2: Topic based [more info] |
| 16.15 | Closing Remarks from Chair |
| 16.30 | Close |
| 17.00 | Launch of Faiths in Higher Education Chaplaincy report |
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Bill Rammell MP
Bill Rammell is Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education. He was elected Member of Parliament for Harlow in 1997. He was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell in June 2001, and promoted to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in October 2002. Bill Rammell also served on the Education and Employment Committee in 2000 and was also a member of a Select Committee on European Scrutiny in 2001. Before entering Parliament, Bill Rammell was the general manager of the University of London Union, Head of Youth Services for Basildon Council and worked for the National Union of Students and British Rail. He was a member of Harlow District Council from 1985 to 1997. He was President of Cardiff University Students Union in 1982/83. Bill Rammell is married with two children who are educated in local secondary schools.
The Rt Revd Dr Kenneth Stevenson
The Rt Revd Dr Kenneth Stevenson is the eighth Bishop of Portsmouth. Born near Edinburgh, he is part-Scottish and part-Danish, and is involved in strengthening the relations between the Anglican Churches of the British Isles and the Lutheran Churches of the Nordic and Baltic countries. He was recently made a Knight Commander of the Kingdom of Denmark's Order of the Dannenbrog. As a senior bishop in the Church of England, he sits in the House of Lords. He is also Chairman of the Church of England's Board of Education.
He became bishop in 1995 after spells as a parish priest in Lincolnshire and Guildford and as a university chaplain in Manchester. He is an author and a scholar, with a particular specialism in history and liturgy, and was a visiting Professor at Notre Dame University, Indiana, USA in 1983. He collaborated with the Bishop in Europe, Geoffrey Rowell, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in editing Love's Redeeming Work, an anthology of Anglican spirituality and theology which has become a best-seller. His recent experience of being diagnosed with leukaemia and his subsequent treatment has had a profound effect on his faith and work, including his latest books are Rooted in Detachment: Living the Transfiguration (2007), and an Advent book entitled Watching and Waiting (2007).
Professor Les Ebdon
As Vice Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, Professor Ebdon has led the University through a successful development programme, which has seen significant growth in student numbers to over 17,000 and a merger in August 2006 with the Bedford faculty of De Montfort University to form the new University of Bedfordshire. Professor Ebdon is active regionally as the Chair of the Association of Universities in the East of England, as a Director of the Bedfordshire and Luton Economic Development Partnership and until recently Director of the Luton and Dunstable Partnership. Nationally, he is the Chair of the university think-tank Million+, a Board Member of the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association, a member of the Universities UK Board, and Chair of the Universities UK Student Experience Policy Committee.
He obtained both his BSc and PhD at Imperial College, London. After lectureships at Makerere University, Kampala and a senior lectureship at what is now Sheffield Hallam University, he was appointed in 1981 as Reader in Analytical Chemistry at Plymouth, then Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Plymouth in 1992, a position he held until his appointment as Vice Chancellor of the University of Luton in September 2003. His research interests are in environmental analytical chemistry and have led to some 250 learned publications and to several awards.
Paul Head
Principal of the College of North East London (CONEL) since October 2002. Before joining CONEL in 2001, I worked for fifteen years in higher education as a senior manager at Thames Valley University (1996-2001), the Surrey Institute of Art and Design (1990 to 1996) and the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) (1985 to 1990). I was an elected member of the National Union of Students Executive from 1982 to 1983 and then worked for the British Youth Council (1983 to 1985). I attended Secondary Modern School in the 1970's before becoming a further education student in 1979; I went to the University of East Anglia in Norwich and graduated in 1982.
Dr Ann Limb
Dr Ann Limb is Chair of the National Council of Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education and is an educationalist, charity entrepreneur and businesswoman, born in Moss Side, Manchester. A former Board Director and Group Chief Executive of the University for Industry (Ufi Ltd), she was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the UK government's e-flagship projects 'learndirect' and 'UK online'. Ann is now Vice President e-learning with the international strategic management consultancy gov3 (www.gov3.net) as well as working as a government adviser both in the UK and overseas. She is a member of the Prime Minister's Digital Inclusion Panel and sits on the Education Committee of David Cameron's Public Services Improvement Policy Group.
Ann spent the first half of her career working in education including 14 years as Principal and Chief Executive of Milton Keynes College and Cambridge Regional College. She also undertakes a significant amount of voluntary and charitable work, including chairing the National Extension College, the Anne Frank Trust UK and the Helena Kennedy Foundation, the charity she founded that promotes social inclusion and widening participation in further and higher education.
The Revd Hugh Shilson-Thomas
The Revd Hugh Shilson-Thomas has been the Church of England's National Adviser for Higher Education and Chaplaincy since 2003. After a theology degree Hugh worked for the Church in inner city Liverpool before training for ordination. He was a curate in two parishes in South East London, and then spent six years as Ecumenical chaplain of Kingston University, during which time he served on the Kingston Racial Equality Council and managed a project looking at cross cultural awareness raising in the university. This was followed by four and a half years as chaplain of Robinson College, Cambridge. His current responsibilities include advising on higher education policy matters and supporting the network of the Church of England's chaplains in higher education institutions. In this he works closely with ecumenical partners, and he has a particular interest in the role chaplains can play building good relations between people from different faith backgrounds. The Church of England has been hosting a project researching the engagement of faith communities in chaplaincy work, and a report Faiths in Higher Education Chaplaincy is published today.
Alan Murray
Alan Murray has been Churches' National Adviser on Further Education since 2003. He has worked as a senior manager in Further Education and as a civil servant in the Further Education Unit of the DfES. He began his career as an RE teacher, then Head of Department in schools and has also taught in universities in UK and abroad, publishing two books and a variety of policy documents, reports and articles. In the 90s, he co-founded and managed Focus Consultancy, an educational consultancy delivering UK and international projects for government and the European Union. He is retiring this summer and will take up a Visiting Research Fellowship in the Department of Education at Kings College, London, directing the project All Faiths and None developing material for spiritual and moral development for young people at 16-19.
Dr. John Wise
Dr. John Wise M.A. MBA, Chief Executive of fbfe, the National Council of Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education, has worked in post-compulsory education since 1979. From 1985 to 1997 I was Vice Principal at Stanmore Further Education College in North-West London. In 1997 I left the College and joined the Corporation of London Education Department as Executive Officer for FELORS, a small education charity that provided services for local authorities and their partners in post-16 and adult education. FELORS managed support networks in student awards, special educational needs, lifelong learning and e-learning, and delivered an associated programme of seminars and conferences.
In 2005 I set up my own education consultancy and shortly afterwards became Treasurer and then Executive Director of NEAFE. I have been working for the past few months to bring NEAFE and Faiths in FE Forum together into the new National Council of Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education (fbfe) and have recently agreed to become the new council's Chief Executive.
I am an elder and Church Secretary at St John's United Reformed Church Northwood.
Organised by the Church of England Board of Education in association with The Methodist Church, fbfe (The Council for Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education) and The Churches' Higher Education Liaison Group.