About Dr Mark Irwin

Personal Attributes

  • Goal and action orientated.
  • Self-reliant, efficient and flexible with the ability to think both creatively and strategically.
  • Able to lead, inspire, influence and motivate.
  • Resourceful, resilient and efficient.
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills and capable of presenting to a range of audiences.
  • Able to manage change and understand and respond to both public sector/community and commercial goals.
  • Highly IT literate and fluent in a wide range of software applications.

Professional Experience and skills

I am a teacher and scholar with subject expertise in popular music, music technology and education. I am also an experienced senior academic manager with an exceptional track record in terms of managing growth and change. My career to date has provided me with significant experience of:

  • line management;
  • leadership in quality assurance, learning & teaching, research & enterprise;
  • development and implementation of academic and quality assurance/enhancement strategy policy and process;
  • teacher training and staff development;
  • chairing committees and leading working groups:
  • I have acted as Chair for BIMM Institute’s Quality Assurance Committee and as Deputy Chair to its Academic Board;
  • I have acted as an exam board chair and expert advisor on academic regulations and appeals;
  • I currently Chair of BIMM Institute’s Learning, Teaching & Enhancement Committee, Research and Enterprise Committee, Curriculum Steering Group and CMA Working Group;
  • project and budget management including large virtual and physical infrastructure and capital projects;
  • course and module leadership, curriculum development and management;
  • course approval/validation and periodic review having led and advised course development teams on over twenty occasions;
  • Chair or expert external panel member of approval/review panels on eleven occasions.

I also have significant experience of working as an external quality/subject expert including:

  • External Examiner: Southampton Solent University 2007-2010, Kent University 2012 to 2015, University of Bedfordshire 2017-current;
  • QAA reviewer 2011-current;
  • member of the QAA Alternative Providers Forum 2013-2017;
  • external member of University of Sussex Collaborative Provision Committee 2013-16;
  • external member of Bath Spa Universities Academic Quality and Standards Committee 2014-17;
  • Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) International Peer Reviewer 2017-current;
  • PhD examination: Thomas Wilson ‘approaches to a pop-derived musical language’ Royal Holloway University 2017;
  • member of the HEA’s Quality Advisory Board 2017-current;
  • TEF Subject Pilot Panel Member Creative Arts 2018.

Qualifications and Awards

  • Diploma in Advanced Analogue and Digital Recording and Production Techniques: Media Production Services (1993).
  • MA in Audio Production with Distinction: University of Westminster (2004).
  • Nominated as a Rising Star by TVU for the HEA National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (2004).
  • Visiting Research Fellow London College of Music TVU (2007).
  • West Focus Knowledge Exchange Fellow (2007).
  • Fellow: Higher Education Academy (2011).
  • Doctor of Education: University of Sussex (2016).
  • Principal Fellow: Higher Education Academy (2016).

Continuing Professional Development

Over my career I have continued to update my skills and attended a wide range of training events including: software training (including website and database design); VLE and student records systems; computer coding for music; management training (Institute of Leadership & Management & ACAS); Belbin and PRINT profiling; health and safety training (IOSH & ROSPA); research methods training; research supervision, and writing for publication (TVU Graduate School, Westminster and Sussex Universities); quality assurance method training from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA); TEF panelist training (HEFCE & QAA).

Professional Memberships

  • Full member: Audio Engineering Society (AES).
  • Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (FRSA).
  • Founding member- Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ARP and J-ARP).
  • Member of the Centre for Higher Education Equity Research (CHEER) University of Sussex.
  • Member of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Research (CTLR) University of Sussex.
  • Member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM).
  • Member of the National Association for Music in Higher Education (NAMHE).
  • Member of the 21st Century Music Practice Research Network.
  • Member of Guild HE’s Innovation, Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange (IEKE) and Quality Assurance Managers Networks.
  • Member of UK Music’s Music Academic Partnership (MAP).
  • Member of the Editorial Steering Group of the Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice (JPAAP).