Academic Affairs Committee

This Committee is responsible for monitoring the University's performance against the key strategies of Teaching, Learning and Assessment, and Research. The Committee is also responsible for ensuring that high levels of academic standards and student experience are achieved and maintained.

 Academic Affairs Committee - Constitution and Terms of Reference (CTRs)

Kevin Baughan OBE

Chair, and independent member of the Board of Governors

Kevin is the former Deputy Chief Executive of Innovate UK where they focused on the development and delivery of Innovate UK’s investment portfolio regionally, nationally and globally. Progressing from roles as Innovate UK’s Director of Technology and Chief Development Officer, Kevin championed and pioneered many new important initiatives such as the proposals which led to the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and the forging of closer working partnerships with Venture Capital funds leading to the Investment Acceleration programmes.

Kevin has an extensive track record in delivering transformative growth through leading edge innovations, in particular for the telecommunications industry, where they held leadership positions with BT, Nortel Networks and Virgin Media. Whilst Director of Technical Strategy at Virgin Media: Kevin pioneered Virgin’s rollout of the UK’s first mass-market superfast broadband in 2008; championed Virgin’s migration to a new generation digital entertainment service in 2010 and then as Director of Wireless, was responsible for the roll out of high-speed WiFi access across the London Underground in time for the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Kevin holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Birmingham in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Aston University and an MBA with distinction from Imperial College.

In addition to their role as a Governor at Coventry University Group, Kevin is a Trustee on the Board of the City and Guilds Group and an industry advisor on innovation.

Kevin is also a member of the Board of Governors.

Dr David Secher

Independent Governor

David Secher is an independent consultant in the areas of research commercialisation, intellectual property and technology transfer, in the UK and internationally. Assignments include work in Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South America, Africa, and Europe. He is based in Cambridge University, where he is a Life Fellow of Gonville & Caius College.

In 2002, together with Lita Nelsen of MIT, he founded Praxis (now PraxisAuril), the leading UK knowledge exchange organisation. He served as chairman or as a director until 2014 and is now Patron. For his contributions to “creating environments that favour enterprise, specialising in the practical aspects of commercialising the results of academic research”, he was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2007.

Previous roles include Senior Bursar, Gonville & Caius College; CEO of the N8 Research Partnership; Director of Research Services, Cambridge University; Director of Drug Development, Cancer Research Campaign; Director of Monoclonal Therapeutics, Celltech Ltd.; and Tenured Group Leader, Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology. As a consultant, he has advised universities, governments and individuals on commercialisation of intellectual property, as well as acting as a non-executive director of technology and investment companies. He is a director of Crossword Cybersecurity plc.

Secher graduated from the Cambridge University (Churchill College) with first class honours in biochemistry. His PhD work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology was with César Milstein (Nobel Prize-­winner for discovery of monoclonal antibodies). Together with Derek Burke, Secher made and patented the first monoclonal antibody to human interferon.

David is also a member of the Academic Affairs Commitee.

Attila Emecz

Independent Governor

Attila (Atti) is Senior Director, Custom Solutions at Elsevier where he works particularly, although not exclusively, with governments and research funders in developing analytical solutions to help in research strategy, research delivery and national assessments.

Prior to joining Elsevier, Atti worked at the University of Surrey from 2014 to 2019 in various roles including as Vice-Provost, Research and Innovation and as Director of Research Strategy. He introduced the first formal Research and Impact Strategy at the University.

Atti remains a visiting professor at the University. During his time at Surrey, Atti was also Executive Secretary for the ERA Foundation whose objectives included encouraging young people into engineering careers and on promoting the contribution that engineering and manufacturing make to society.

Between 1990 and 2014, Atti worked for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council the largest funder of UK university research. He was an Executive Director from 2003. On behalf of all UK Research Councils, Atti led the work on improving the efficiency of peer review and on encouraging impact to be delivered from the research and training the Council's support. He was responsible for developing three Corporate Strategies, for the introduction of a number of schemes for accelerating impact and for leading the evaluation team responsible for assessing the effectiveness of EPSRC policies, including for impact.

Davinder Dosanjh

Independent Governor

Appointed to the Academic Affairs Committee in September 2021, Davinder has had extensive experience in education both has a school teacher and has a senior leader. She has worked with Ofsted for seven years as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors. During that time Davinder worked on projects with the Department for Education and undertook a study visit to The Hague, exploring governance and self-evaluation in European countries. Davinder was Head of Secondary Teacher Training and Associate Professor at Birmingham City University, with strategic responsibility for the Teach First programme in the East and West Midlands. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Davinder was also an Executive Director for a large multi-academy trust, leading its school centred initial teacher training.

Davinder is passionate about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and has been a member of the Diverse Educators, Initial Teacher Training and Education national group.

Bianca Andrei

Student Governor

Appointed as a student governor in 2022, BIanca is the Education Officer at Coventry University Students’ Union and a member of the SU’s Board of Trustees. As the Education Officer, she serves as the voice and support for students across the Coventry University Group and seeks to ensure that students are at the heart of every decision taken. She recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in Multimedia Computing and has been actively involved in the Rep System since 2018 (been a Course Rep, Senior Course Rep, Library Service Rep, and Education School Rep for CEM). Back in 2020, she had her placement year in Germany following two minor courses at Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart (App Design and Development, Advertising).

Desmond Omokaro

Student Governor

Desmond was appointed as a student governor in 2022 and is the President at Coventry University Students’ Union and a member of the SU’s Board of Trustees. As the President, Catarina heads the Executive Team at the Students’ Union and leads on campaigns and democracy, across the Coventry University Group. Desmond is from Benin City in Nigeria and has just graduated from an MSc in International Business Management, having completed a Bachelors’ degree in Political Science.

Kerry McGreavy

Staff Governor

Kerry was appointed as Staff Governor in September 2022. Having joined Coventry University in 2011 as an Employment Personal Tutor based within the Faculty of Business & Law, in 2018 she moved into a role managing the apprenticeship team, and is now the Head of Apprenticeships within CU Apprenticeships (Better Futures).

In 2013 Kerry, as a mature student, joined the first cohort of part time learners to study through the newly formed Coventry University College (later becoming the CU Group), achieving her BA in Management & Leadership in 2017.

Kerry developed an interest in coaching and mentoring during her early years as an Employment Personal Tutor, writing her dissertation on the topic while establishing a student mentoring scheme with the Government Economics Service. When the Coventry University Coaching and Mentoring Academy was formed in 2018 she joined the first cohort of internal staff to be trained as coach/mentors, and has continued to support colleagues though her involvement with the Academy ever since.

She also developed an interest in supporting the career ambitions of women, and has been part of both the Athena Swan Action Team and the Gender Leadership and Development Group. Kerry later joined the first cohort of staff members to undertake the Aurora programme, and has used these experience to further inform the support she offers colleagues through the Coaching and Mentoring Academy.