Keynotes, Workshops and Training
Students thrive when enabled to think for themselves.
I enjoy speaking with teaching teams, conferences and professional bodies about how students learn to think for themselves, and what we can do to help. My talks draw on my own classroom research with large first-year accounting classes and MBA groups, and on an earlier career in audit at KPMG. I try to keep sessions practical, so that people leave with something they can try the following week.
I am Professor of Accounting Education and Professional Development at Alliance Manchester Business School and Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning and Student Experience at the University of Manchester. You can read more about me and the centre.
Recent keynotes
Thinking Beyond the Right Answer. How Intellectual Development, Playfulness and AI are Reshaping Learning
Warwick Business School Teaching and Learning Symposium, March 2026
Every September, students arrive wanting the right answer. This keynote uses Perry's scheme to show why, and why "will this be on the exam?" is a developmental signal rather than laziness. It introduces the TEACHER framework, makes the case that play is a route to depth rather than a break from it, and argues that AI is not the threat to education. Intellectual passivity is. The talk closes with five principles for teaching that develops judgement rather than recall.
Intellectual Development in Higher Education for Research-Informed Teaching
Accounting and Finance away day, Birmingham, June 2026
This session asks how pedagogical research can directly change what happens in the classroom. It draws on new research measuring first-year students' intellectual development, on the TEACHER framework and on active self-feedback. Participants reflect on how research-led teaching can improve student outcomes and how far we expect students themselves to engage with the literature.
Crafting your role in the age of GenAI
Around two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation. This interactive session asks what AI does, what it cannot do, and how people can shape their work so that AI adds to it rather than replaces it. Drawing on research on job crafting, everyone leaves with their own plan for crafting their role. I have given it at the student-led AI Nexus event, and it works for academics, professional services staff and students preparing for careers.
Other topics
From accountant to professor
My route went from audit at KPMG, through freelancing and motherhood, to a professorship in teaching. I talk openly about that journey as a woman in accounting, and about how to build evidence of teaching and scholarship that counts for awards and promotion.
Time and energy management for busy academics
An award-winning, practical workshop I run with my colleague Marie Dutordoir. It helps academics protect time for the work that matters most and look after their energy, not just their diaries.
Smarter study for professional exams
Drawn from the Smart Hacks courses I wrote for ACA students, this session helps learners study, revise and perform in exams more effectively.
Perry rater training
Three one-hour online webinars for educators who want to rate their students' writing on Perry's scheme, free for now. Find out more
What I hope people take away
Meet students where they are, and recognise they know more than they think they do. Create experiences that need real connection, away from screens. Be brave about play and take some risks. Design activities and assessments that reward thinking and make good use of technology. Work with students, not for them.
Writing, podcasts and media
I write and talk about teaching and learning when I can. Recent pieces include Encourage intellectual development in students to improve work readiness, written with Bill Moore, and ChatGPT as a teaching tool, not a cheating tool, both for Times Higher Education, and Three uncomfortable activities that accelerate critical thinking for accounting students for the BAFA Accounting Education Special Interest Group. In PQ Magazine I wrote about my route from PQ Lecturer of the Year to National Teaching Fellowship.
In 2025 ICAEW invited me to give a webinar on teaching ethics, about how I build ethics into first-year accounting teaching. You can join the ICAEW Academia and Education Community for free. I have also talked about AI in education on ITV's Good Morning Britain, and been a guest on the AMBS Original Thinking Podcast, the L&T Chat Show and Times Higher Education's Campus Talks.
Listen to Human Rights Assurance with Richard Karmel (Original Thinking Podcast, 2025)
Watch the Good Morning Britain clip
Training and consultancy
Alongside my academic role I do occasional training and consultancy on professional, study and wellbeing skills. Clients have included the Chartered Accountants' Benevolent Association, Ayming, Telefónica, ICAEW, The Prince's Trust and Manchester City Council. I also wrote "Accelerate Your Learning", a learning skills course in ICAEW's e-learning programme.
Practical details
Keynotes usually run for 40 to 60 minutes, and I also run interactive workshops and half-day masterclasses. I tailor each one to the audience and discipline, and use live polling and hands-on activities so that even large audiences take part.