Professor Liz Austen

Liz Austen is Professor of Higher Education Evaluation and Associate Dean Learning Teaching and Student Success in the College of Social Sciences and Arts. At Hallam, Liz is one of the founding members of the university’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)Network. Externally she works as an independent consultant on HE sector contracts, and is a regular keynote speaker on all things evaluation in HE. Liz also leads a cross-sector network called the Evaluation Collective.

Forthcoming edited book: Delivering and Evaluating Participation after Access: Higher Education in a Marketised System (Emerald Publishing, due October 2025)

LinkedIn: LizAustenBooth

Professor Toni Schwarz

Professor Toni Schwarz is Executive Dean of the College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences, and Executive Academic Lead for Student Experience.

Toni’s background is as a nurse and educator, and she has worked across a range of clinical environments in both the NHS and private sector. As a clinical leader, Toni has set up a number of new services, particularly across the community health care setting. She also has regional and national connections to professional organisations who regulate many of our courses.

Her move into Higher Education began as a lecturer practitioner and was prompted by her work supporting students in clinical practice and her desire to ensure that maximising student opportunities for learning was kept at the forefront of their educational experience. Toni remains closely linked to clinical practice to ensure that research and educational programmes remain relevant to the real world and work towards improving people’s overall health outcomes.

Toni joined the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Directors in May 2021.