DR Elisabeth cook BMus(Hons), PhD, MBA, PGCE, HonRCM, FRGS

HE Consultant

Lis trained as a musician and followed a portfolio career (teacher, performer, editor with The Macmillan Press) while studying for her PhD. She then trained as a secondary school teacher and spent six years as a class teacher and Head of Performing Arts before being appointed Assistant Director of the Junior Department at the Royal College of Music. After two years she transferred to the Senior College where her substantive role for the next 17 years was as Head of Undergraduate Programmes, combining this with the role of Head of Academic Development from 2011. During this time she undertook a variety of external consultancy engagements, principally as an external examiner within the music conservatoire sector, and with the Open University and the Quality Assurance Agency. These experiences, together with her full-time employment, provided the foundations for the work that Lis now undertakes as a higher education consultant. She was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal College of Music in 2004.

Away from work and music, Lis’s other main interest has been mountaineering. She is a qualified mountain leader and, as a volunteer for a walking company, led walks and trained aspiring leaders in outdoor group management and navigation for 20 years. She is now active with climbing clubs in Scotland and the Lake District. The decision to take early retirement in 2015 and relocate to Scotland to spend more time in the mountains and writing about the outdoors has materialised to an extent, but she has continued her association with the Open University and, until recently, the QAA.