UCU Life Changers Text

InOiring
Rudents
Jane Challenger
Gillitt
Professor
William Beinart
Jim Bradley
Dr Hazel Cox
Jane Hadcock and
Katherine Chisnell
Dr Rehan ul-Haq
Tessa Hall
Carolyn Harries
Arthur Keefe
Dr Kevin McCarron
Dr David Middleton
Leo Murphy
Paul Sander
Dr Tony Stead
Chris Beaumont
Dr David Middleton
Open University
Penny Evans was at breaking point. A mature
student looking after a very ill family member,
who required round the clock treatment, these
commitments were making her Open University
degree untenable. She
contacted her tutor, Dr Dave
Middleton.
‘I said that I didn’t think I
would be able to carry on,’
remembers Penny. ‘And he
said: “Stick with it, you’ve got
enough points to get through
your assessed work for this
module, just keep going and try
and get to the exam.” And he encouraged me and
he pushed me.’
The encouragement paid off for Penny, who
made it through her degree with Dr Middleton’s
consistent support. ‘Any time I
was wondering where to go next
and what do, I would air it with
him.’
Dr Middleton finds that
handling mature students’
personal issues can involve a
careful balancing act. ‘They want
to be judged as students in their
own right. So I’m always clear
that when we’re in tutorials,
they’re one of the group, and
whatever personal issues are
coming with them, it’s not for me to tell that to
everybody else.’
Dr Middleton is used to challenges. He came
from a working class estate, and was the first
member of his family to go to university. He
’Dave Middleton was
there all the way through
my undergraduate years
and my early masters.
He was a great teacher.’
entered higher education late, following a number
of years campaigning on social justice issues in
his hometown of Milton Keynes.
Academia was a way for him to contribute to
society. ‘I wanted to work with people. I’d gone
into academia as a mature student myself, I just
felt I wanted to give something back.’
’I don’t get the impression that it’s a 9-5 job with
him,’ says Penny. ‘He would
actually turn up to a Saturday
lecture with an electric kettle, a
box of the best chocolate
biscuits, and lots of paper cups.
And he would go round us all
with a pad of paper and ask
who wanted tea and who
wanted coffee.
‘He was writing these course
books, he was studying part-time, he had a family,
and he was in charge of several tutors and
associate lecturers, but the man still had time to
get a box of biscuits.’
Dr Middleton says he is just
putting students at ease. ’I think
you should be as comfortable in
a tutorial as you would be at
home, so I just try and replicate
that. I feel that if you’ve made
the effort to get there on a
Saturday morning and it’s cold
and wet, then you should get a
reward for that.’
The reward for Penny has been
far more than just tea and
biscuits, however. ‘Not only am I
doing a full time PhD now,’ she says, ‘but I’m
lecturing in Politics and I’m working as a research
assistant. And Dave Middleton was there all the
way through my undergraduate years and my
early masters. He was a great teacher.’
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