Ruth Graham has worked as an independent consultant in engineering education and entrepreneurship since 2008. With 18 years professional experience in engineering, engineering education and technology-driven entrepreneurship, much of her work is focused on supporting university-based change across the world and helping to equip engineering graduates to solve the complex challenges of the 21st century.

Ruth has a first class degree in Mechanical Engineering and was awarded a PhD in fatigue analysis of aircraft structures in November 2001 from the University of Hull, in partnership with BAE SYSTEMS. She came to Imperial College in autumn 2002 to work within the Railway Research group in the Mechanical Engineering Department. During this period, Ruth was also actively involved in programmes of research and development to widen international participation in engineering and science.

From 2005-08, she led the EnVision project at Imperial College London, initially as a scoping study and later as a strategic programme of educational reform. The project’s objectives were to transform the undergraduate curriculum, learning experiences and learning spaces across all nine departments in the Faculty of Engineering, improve its culture of support and reward for teaching excellence, enhance its international profile and secure external funding to support the project’s goals. Her work also called for horizon-scanning and international community-building in engineering education across industry and academia.

Since 2008, Ruth has worked as a consultant with engineering industry, universities, professional bodies and charities/foundations to support and improve engineering teaching and learning worldwide and develop new strategies for university-based technology-driven entrepreneurship. Her activities range from international studies benchmarking effective practice to targeted support for individual universities and engineering schools to improve their strategy, culture and reputation in engineering education and/or entrepreneurship. Areas of current interest include the influence of university reward procedures on institutional capacity for change and the role of entrepreneurship and innovation as a driver for positive change in engineering education.  Recent and current clients include MIT, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Schlumberger Foundation, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), and UCL. Examples of her work are provided under Recent projects and Recent publications.

For a two-page printable biography (October 2014), please click here.