Professor Ian Neal

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Emeritus Professor

I moved to the School of Education at the University of Sunderland in 1993 as Senior Lecturer and was later promoted to Principal Lecturer in Education. I was Programme Leader for the Secondary Programme of School and College-based Initial Teacher Training and later became Subject Area Leader for Education. I was then promoted to Associate Director of the School of Education (Head of Initial Teacher Training and Quality Enhancement), to Associate Dean of the Faculty with responsibility for Research, External Engagement, Resources and Staffing in the Faculty which includes Education, Culture and Social Sciences and then to my last position as Dean of Faculty.

In my professional life, I have travelled widely, providing educational consultancy in South America, Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well as most countries in Europe for governments and other agencies such as the United Nations and the British Council.

Teaching and supervision
Publications
Further information

Teaching and supervision

I teach on the secondary professional year, providing the keynote lecture in the learning and teaching series. I supervise a number of Doctoral students working on topics such as:

Working relationships between academic and administrative staff within the Faculty of Education and Society
The role of empathy through storytelling in young driver road safety education
Educating and training tomorrow’s police workforce today and today’s police workforce for tomorrow
But sir my agent told me: establishing the practice of University of Sunderland agents in India, leading to the recommendation of improved practice

Research interests for potential research students

My main research interests are web-based learning, management of education, competence-based assessment in higher education, and quality assurance and enhancement in compulsory and higher education.

Publications

Jump to: Article

Number of items: 7.

Article

Neal, Ian and Houston, K (2013) English as an Additional Language: some lessons from an International School. education-today.net, 2013 (4).

Neal, Ian and Williamson, Phil (2013) Independent Distance Learning – is it worth it? Education-Today.net.

Neal, Ian (2011) Preparing student teachers for Teaching Practice: early placements in Initial Teacher Education. Edication-Today.net.

Currie, Catherine and Neal, Ian (2011) Shakespeare and the Spheres:the representation of astrology, astronomy and folklore surrounding the moon in King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest. Education-Today.net.

Neal, Ian (2008) DOING OTHER PEOPLE’S TRAINING PRESENTATIONS - a guide for teachers in implementing a scheme. Education-Today.net.

O'Brien, Angelique and Neal, Ian (2007) Boys’ Writing: A ‘Hot Topic’ … but what are the strategies? Education-Today.net.

Neal, Ian (2002) Business Process Review/Re-engineering at the University of Sunderland – the immediate effect on staff and systems. Education-Today.net.

This list was generated on Thu Jun 12 13:18:54 2025 BST.

My academic career started as a Research Psychologist in Staffordshire before training as a teacher and gaining my PGCE. I began teaching in a large Merseyside comprehensive school, later moving to a school in Cambridgeshire. Initially, I taught biology and science to O level and biology to A level. I later included maths, computing and IT, becoming Head of Computer Science in the mid-eighties. I rose to Senior Teacher, in charge of the curriculum and pastoral arrangements for forms 3-5 (now years 9-11).

I then moved to the University of Cambridge, teaching on their PGCE and researching schemes of Achievement Recording. I developed the UK's first International Student Centred Review scheme which operated around the world, including Europe, Asia and South America.

Last updated 28 February 2024