Governance

Director and Deputy Directors
UBEL DTP is led by the Director, Professor Julie Dockrell (UCL) and supported by two Deputy Directors, Dr Richard Freeman (UCL) and Dr Meera Tiwari (UEL).
Management Group
The UBEL Management group is chaired by the Director and its membership includes the Deputy Directors, Training and Development Lead, DTP Manager and DTP Co-ordinator. The management group is responsible for managing provision for DTP students, strategic priorities, partnership collaboration and general oversight of DTP activities and grant management. The group meets on a monthly basis.
DTP Board
The UBEL DTP Board is made up of senior academics from each of our partnered institutions, as well as the UBEL DTP Director, Deputy Director, UBEL DTP Manager and UBEL DTP Co-ordinator.
Professor Julian Swann (Birkbeck)
Professor Rachel Harrison (SOAS)
Dr Simon Cohn (LSHTM)
Professor Matthew Bellgard (UEL)
Professor Paul Longley (UCL – Lead for Co-funded and Collaborative)
Dr Yenn Lee (SOAS – Training and Development Lead)
Stakeholders Group
The operation of the DTP is informed and supported by a Stakeholder Group, representing the diverse external and internal interests with which the DTP needs to engage. These include private, public and third sector research users, representatives from other RCUK DTPs/CDTs and social science investments, and internal support structures, such as careers and equalities, to inform thinking about ways of promoting academic and non-academic collaboration, widening participation and facilitating onward development of graduating students. The Stakeholder group is chaired by Professor Becky Francis and the group meets twice per year.
Partner Institutions
UBEL is a collaborative partnership – click here for more information about UBEL partner institutions.
Pathway Leads and teams
The UBEL DTP has 30 different disciplinary pathways in 6 groupings across 6 London institutions. Every UBEL student will belong to a pathway. Each pathway has an academic lead and belongs to a collaborative group of pathways. The pathway teams provide disciplinary expertise throughout the studentship cycle and encourage cross-institutional interdisciplinarity.
UBEL DTP support team
The UBEL DTP support team provide guidance to prospective and current students in relation to ESRC guidelines and internal DTP processes. The UBEL DTP support team are in regular contact with partner colleagues as well as the Director and Deputy Director.
Alison Freeman (alison.freeman@ucl.ac.uk) – DTP Manager
Jamie Kozak (j.kozak@ucl.ac.uk) – DTP Co-ordinator
Gita Tailor (ubel-dtp@ucl.ac.uk) – DTP Administrator
Ran Xu (ubel-dtp@ucl.ac.uk) – DTP Administrator
Student Representatives
UBEL student representatives are nominated on an annual basis to provide peer support to current students. The UBEL student representatives meet with the UBEL Management Group on a termly basis.
Student representatives for 2023/24:
Lottie Howard-Merrill lottie.howard-merrill.09@ucl.ac.uk
Helina Shebeshe 662194@soas.ac.uk
Caitlin Spooner caitlin.spooner.21@ucl.ac.uk
Linda Olanrewaju Adeyemo lolanr02@student.bbk.ac.uk
Abigail Lennox u1638800@uel.ac.uk