The EA offers a wide range of professional support, resources, and networking opportunities for colleagues in higher education, whether you’re a lecturer, researcher, post-doctoral researcher, independent scholar, doctoral student, or teaching fellow. Our membership spans higher education institutions across the UK and around the world.  

Much of the work we do in higher education is linked to our work in secondary/further education, so that as a member of the EA you will have the opportunity to connect with colleagues in other sectors and learn about the journeys of your students before they enter your classroom.

On our website you will find a range of resources including:

We also offer members the opportunity to take part in an EA Hub, which bring together teachers in schools, colleges, and universities to share ideas, build teachers’ subject knowledge, and enrich their professional experience.

Join us

Our work in higher education is driven by the Higher Education Committee, working alongside our other Education Committees. Members of the HEC have a wide range of expertise and experience from across the discipline, including as teachers and researchers, writers, heads of department/faculty, and independent scholars.

The HEC meets three times a year to:

  • Provide a voice for HE English in dialogue with other elements of the education sector, with government and public bodies, and with the wider public
  • Promote the subject in collaboration with University English and the Institute for English Studies
  • Respond to high-level consultations that affect HE policy and practice in collaboration with University English, the Institute for English Studies, and the Arts and Humanities Alliance
  • Organise events and curate high quality resources derived from these events
  • Collect data on the health of the subject (e.g. applications)
  • Support academic research in high-quality print-publications (for example, EA’s monograph series with Liverpool University Press, English at the Interface, and the EA’s journal, English)
  • Participate in the Decolonising the Discipline initiative
  • Participate in the Common English Forum, which meets regularly with the Department for Education

The HEC is currently chaired by Katherine Baxter FEA. Katherine is Professor of English Literature and Deputy Faculty Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Exchange) in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences at Northumbria University. She has been a member of the English Association’s Higher Education Committee since 2020 and between 2016-2020 was general editor of English: the Journal of the English Association. She is also a member of the Decolonising the Discipline working group.

Other members of the HEC

Professor Marc Alexander, University of Glasgow

Dr Amjad Alshalan, King Saud University

Professor Isobel Armstrong, Birkbeck, University of London

Professor Martin Halliwell, University of Leicester

Dr Elspeth Jajdelska, Strathclyde University

Dr Suzanne Joinson, University of Chichester

Professor Claire Jowitt, University of East Anglia

Dr Nicole King, Exeter College, University of Oxford

Professor Clare Lees, School of Advanced Study, University of London (Institute of English Studies representative)

Dr Andrea Macrae, Oxford Brookes University

Dr Lyndsay Miller, University of Glasgow International College

Professor Anshuman Mondal, University of East Anglia

Dr Sarah Olive, Aston University

Professor Lynda Pratt, University of Nottingham

Dr Bronwen Price, Independent Scholar

Professor Antony Rowland, Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr Rachel Roberts, Reading University

Dr Maggie Scott, Independent Scholar

Dr Kate Walchester, Liverpool John Moores University (University English representative)

Dr Rachel Willie, Liverpool John Moores University

Dr Harvey Wiltshire, Royal Holloway, University of London

Dr John Wrighton, University of Aberdeen