Meet Dr Kate Gilliver, a new Academic Partner

What your new role will be?

I’m the Academic Partner for Assessment and Feedback. We know that assessment and feedback are areas where as an institution there’s plenty of room for improvement; with colleagues in the Learning and Teaching Academy we’ll be working with schools and students to develop and disseminate best practice, including support packages for individual schools and more widely on particular themes.

What are your priorities in your new role?

We know that there’s been a number of A&F related initiatives and projects over the last few years and a priority with this role is to ensure that what we’re doing now has lasting impact and brings about positive change for staff and students.

Immediate priorities include:

• Feedback – working with colleagues to ensure that all students receive valuable and usable feedback on their assessed work in a timely manner.
• Group work – we know that collaborative work is a really effective way of learning, and being able to work effectively in groups is something that many employers are looking for in our graduates; we want to ensure that there is effective support for both staff and students doing group assessments and to remove any obstacles to running group assessments.

What led you to this role?

I’ve just finished leading my school (School of History, Archaeology and Religion) through major changes to its degrees as Director of Learning & Teaching, and I guess I was looking for a new challenge!

The potential to have a positive impact on students’ experiences across the university is something I’m really looking forward to.

More about Dr Gilliver

I grew up in Dorchester, the Roman town of Durnovaria, and with regular visits to museums, archaeological sites and studying local history in school, perhaps not surprisingly fell in love with everything Roman at an early age.

I spent a year working as a volunteer at Dorset County Museum before studying Classics & Classical Archaeology at King’s College London, then progressing to my PhD at UCL After a year at the British School at Rome I arrived in Cardiff in the early 90s. I teach Roman history in the School of History, Archaeology & Religion.

My research focuses on the practicalities of Roman campaigning with particular emphases on fieldworks and encampments, and on behaviour and atrocities in Roman warfare.

Before this secondment as Academic Partner for Assessment and Feedback I was Associate Dean for Joint Honours in the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, and was also Director of Learning & Teaching in SHARE.

Outside of work I support Cardiff Rugby and am a keen mountain walker and a member of Mountain Rescue.