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Spotlight on... Anne Moore

26 June 2019

Anne is Business Development Manager for the UCL Centre for Languages & International Education (CLIE) and co-chair of the UCL LGBTQ+ Equality Advisory Group (LEAG).

Anne Moore Business Development Manager for the UCL CLIE and co-chair of the LEAG.

What is your role and what does it involve?

I am Business Development Manager for the UCL Centre for Languages & International Education (CLIE) and lead on strategies to maximise the development of a portfolio of degree preparation courses (for example, Pre-sessional English courses and undergraduate foundation courses). I have worked all over the world for UCL and love the challenge of bringing together different people and ideas to develop and promote market-leading, academically challenging, accessible and rewarding courses for international students. CLIE is not only a showcase for UCL; it also allows access to UCL degrees for a wider group of international students and is the first UCL step for almost 2,000 international students each year.

I also hold roles within the national HE LGBTQ+ equalities arena within an Advance HE affiliated network and also at UCL. Since 2017, I have been replacing a lunch break, as well as ruining my (already poor) eyesight reading and replying to emails on the tube with the joy of Co-Chairing the formidable UCL LGBTQ+ Equality Advisory Group (LEAG). LEAG steers the largest staff network at UCL of around 600 LGBTQ+ staff and supporters (‘Friends’) and exists to support LGBTQ+ staff and research students and champion their equality. 

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

This year I turn 40 and also celebrate 13 years at UCL. 

Before this role I worked for ten years in marketing roles for the CLIE and before that for London’s largest FE college (it wasn’t so different in fact). I really enjoyed building relationships with schools, universities, funding bodies and commercial educational organisations which still refer pre-degree level students to pre-degree courses today.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

During my time at the CLIE I am most proud of my input into our increased responsiveness as a Centre operating in a very competitive external environment.
The 2 initiatives I feel most proud of are those which the CLIE Marketing & Business Development Team has worked together with CLIE academic and administrative staff on to ensure our pre-degree courses continue to lead the market in terms of the academic challenge and the opportunities they provide to students.

In particular it is the evolution of CLIE’s UPC courses (Undergraduate Preparatory Certificates) making these an explicit route into UCL degree programmes for academically able international students. Alongside this I’d put the development of our Pre-university summer course - now in its 4th year of delivery in CLIE’s now well-established 4th ‘term’ (the summer term! We don’t stop!). This course gives younger international students a unique taster of UCL and our UPC course. 

Finally, I’m also really proud that LEAG’s (the LGBTQ+ Equalities Advisory Group) membership now has nearly 20 strong and superb voices and identities on it from a range of senior academic and professional service staff, as well as 2 vice-provosts and a member of UCL Council. LEAG recently supported the UCL Trans Lives Conference and will also attend Black, Trans and London Prides this year - our largest ever contingents thanks to the amazing support of our COO Fiona Ryland.

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list

CLIE joined the UCL Institute of Education, as a distinct teaching centre in January 2019. I am really enjoying some initial collaborations with IOE teams in Marketing and Communications at present, as well as with Enterprise colleagues on strategy in this area in light of new course development CLIE may generate. 

I am also looking at our plans for recruitment visits and activities over the next academic year to ensure our existing courses are exposed to as many international markets possible and are as diverse as possible, against our targets.

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

Impossible question. But top-of-mind are:

Film – The English Patient
Book – Trumpet by Jackie Kay
Album – Coming Up – Suede

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?

I had to ask a very trusted colleague on this who has a great sense of humour (and is also from the Marvellous Midlands):

What cheese would you use to hide a horse with?

Mascarpone 

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

All 10 of the ‘god’ children (age 2 to 12 yrs) in my life, WITHOUT their parents, as then they behave best. Their views are, without doubt, the best too.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I had a belief in my younger self that I was not lesbian, that it was just about the person, not the gender. A part of me still thinks like that and labelling feels odd. I suppose time has helped though and has proven the L in LGBTQ+ to be mostly my descriptor of preference! I’ve also asked myself - why this avoidance of labels? And realised it is because of my younger self’s fear of labels meaning judgement. Judgements I made about myself and I wasn’t really ready to deal with when I was younger.

I have learnt that, people are usually quite unconcerned with others’ sexuality or gender. The impact is usually felt by the person who cannot express it freely, not by those they share it with (or can’t share it with) in my experience. 

My advice to my younger self would be to own the moment, including everything you feel in it. Acknowledge when you are reasonably comfortable and confident to reach out and communicate information about yourself - as well as where you are at with it as well. You don’t need to have all the answers and have made all the decisions. Do it your way. Any poor reactions to it are less likely to take it away from you then, if it’s owned by you. I’d also say that no one judges us more harshly than we do ourselves at times.

What would it surprise people to know about you?

I was born on Friday 13th and am incredibly lucky. 

What is your favourite place?  

Any allotment or art studio. Or banks of the River Trent, on horseback.