Victoria Collins

Email:
v.collins@reading.ac.uk
Phone:
01183784726
Job title:
Associate Professor

Responsibilities:

As Pre-sessional English Language Programme Director (Academic Year) , I lead the academic development and operational management of Autumn-June courses which equip international students with the skills and language for HE study.

As School co-Director of Academic Tutoring (SDAT), I promote the ATS within ISLI, support Academic Tutors, and students’ engagement with their studies and development.

Background

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and I have worked on English for Academic Purposes and Academic Skills courses in UK HE since 2005 in teaching and leadership roles. I have also led and taught courses for international exchange students on contemporary Britain.

I worked at the universities of Central Lancashire, Kingston, Loughborough, and Royal Holloway, University of London before joining the University of Reading in 2017. Prior to this I taught English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in state and commercial sectors in the UK and overseas: Spain, Slovakia, Ecuador and France.

For 20 years, I also acted as an Examiner for international English Language exams for two global examining boards. My appointments for these boards spanned 8 different countries.

From 2018-2021 I acted as External Examiner for the 8 week Pre-sessional English Language Programme at the University of Surrey.

From 2023, I hold the External Examiner role for 4 Pre-sessional English Language modules at the University of Leeds.

Currently appointed as External Examiner for four content based Pre-sessional English modules at Leeds University.

I peer review publications for the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education.

Academic qualifications

2017 Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) Royal Holloway, University of London

2008 MA TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Sheffield Hallam University

2003 Cambridge DELTA: Level 7 Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Distinction in the written examination International House, Wroclaw, Poland

1997 Trinity Certificate TESOL: Level 5 Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Grade A Greenwich Community College

1996 BA ( hons) Social Policy and Administration, 2:1 The University of York

Professional bodies/affiliations

Association for Learning Technologists (ALT)

The Global Forum for EAP Professional (Baleap)

European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing (EATAW)

Selected publications

Devane, D. and Collins, V. (2024). Assessing the changes in international students' EDI awareness: A transformation or small shift?. InForm (23), 13-16. https://static.reading.ac.uk/content/PDFs/files/Inform/InForm-Issue23.pdf

Collins, V. 2021. A creative tool I recommend. Creative Disciplines SIG, October 15 [Blog]. Available at https://baleapcreativesig.wordpress.com/2021/10/15/mid-month-musings-5/

Collins, V. 2021. 5 terms of remote teaching- have we reached our halcyon days? The ISLI Blog, June 14 [Blog].

Collins, V. 2021. What can we do to appeal to visual learning style in an online classroom. Creative Disciplines SIG, March 15 [Blog]. Available at https://baleapcreativesig.wordpress.com/2021/03/15/mid-month-musings-1/

Collins, V, 2021. Organising a peer review event of synchronous online teaching. CQSD T & L Exchange.

Collins, V., 2020. Building rapport with your online community of learners. Modern English Teacher, 29(4), pp.25-27.

Collins, V., 2017. A change of gear: first steps into teaching on a university pre-sessional programme. Modern English Teacher, 26 (3), pp.22-25

Conference papers and presentations

King’s College London. BALEAP Professional Issues Meeting: The glue that holds collaborative endeavours together: intra-personal relationships (co-presented with Sue Blackett, Henley Business School) |MARCH 2024

University of Warwick, BALEAP biennial conference: Making the ‘case’ for a curriculum infusion: linking academic course content to EDI topics ( co-presented with Daniel Devane) |APRIL 2023

University of St Andrew's EAP conference: Non-invasive reflective inquiry in an intensive EAP teaching environment |FEB 2022

University of Reading CQSD T & L session: What makes a great writing assignment? |DEC 2021

ALT Annual conference (Association of Learning Technology) [online]: Cognitive load for English as a second language novice e- learners: a case study of challenges and responses from a multidisciplinary perspective (co-presented with Sue Blackett, Henley Business School) |SEPT 2021

University of Glasgow [online], BALEAP biennial conference: Going beyond course evaluations: incremental steps to building comprehensive quality enhancement at module level (co-presented with Sarah Mattin) |APRIL 2021

Northumbria University [online], BALEAP Professional Issues Meeting: One cohort, one task, but 15 different academic disciplines: how to integrate subject specificity on an EGAP Pre sessional Programme ( co-presented with Sarah Mattin) |MARCH 2021

University of Reading CQSD T & L Showcase: Building rapport with online learners |SEPT 2020

Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden, EATAW: A contemporary review of writing in the Business School (Lead presenter, co-authored with Dr Karin Whiteside) |JUNE 2019

Coventry University of London Campus, Symposium: BAWE 10 years on: Utilising the BAWE Genre Family Framework to redesign a discipline specific in sessional provision: An analysis of core module PGT Business School genres (Presented by Dr Karin Whiteside, co-authored) |JUNE 2019

EATAW, Royal Holloway, University of London: Collaborative marking across the curriculum |JUNE 2017

BALEAP biennial conference, University of Leicester: Saving a sinking ship: how a Pre-sessional was redesigned to weather any storm (co-presented with Katie Shaw, Royal Holloway, University of London) |APRIL 2015

University of Limerick, EATAW (European Association for Teachers of Academic Writing): Developing realistic approaches to respond to the subject-specific writing needs of postgraduate students (co-presented with Karin Whiteside) |JUNE 2011

Recent Publications

Collins, V. & Mattin, S. (2024). Going beyond course evaluations: Incremental steps to building comprehensive quality enhancement at the module level. In B. Morrison, C. MacDiarmid, I. Haghi, & A. Williams (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2021 BALEAP conference: Exploring pedagogical approaches in EAP teaching. Garnet.

Winner of the Baleap Impactful Collaboration Award 2023

Winner of the Baleap In sessional SIG logo design 2023