Personal profile
Academic Biography
Mike Wren is Senior Lecturer in Social Work.
Mike completed his first BA degree in Education including associated learning and teaching qualifications in Higher Education, while practising as a social worker developing shared care schemes, for children with significant special needs and their families working within a local children social services department. Prior to this, he worked in a variety of senior social work roles across; education, children social services and adult community-based health teams developing inter-professional practices, projects and practice learning opportunities.
Mike came to Teesside in 2004, as Course Co-ordinator for the innovative joint degree awards providing student-centred approaches to enable students to successfully complete their BSc (Hons) Social Work, Learning Disabilities & Mental Health Nursing courses. Having first established links as a practice educator, with the University to provide practice learning opportunities for social work students and more specifically joint degree courses.
As a senior lecturer, course and module leader Mike has also pursued interests in ensuring that ‘experiential learning’ is integral to the student experience of team teaching that is strengthened by the direct engagement of people with ‘lived’ experience and their involvement with inter-professional services. Working also alongside current practitioners engaging with curriculum planning, design, delivery and evaluation.
Mike completed his MA (Education) in 2011 and was awarded Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in 2017 to recognise the impact of this direct work; capturing the student voice in course leadership and actively promoting the employability potential for our social work graduates.
Mike is very interested in encouraging more Young People Leaving Care to access Higher Education at Teesside, and leads an established project that first began in 2009 encouraging YP and social work colleagues to sustain their contributions toward social work course assessments that aim to enhance the communication skills of social work students.