Jas Sangha

Jas has been teaching on various pre-qualifying social work courses since 2005 and started his teaching career at Oxford Brookes University before moving to Anglia Ruskin University. Jas completed his PhD in 2020 where he researched the progression experiences of minority ethnic students. His research and teaching specialisms are in higher education, social work studies, race and racism. Jas qualified as a Social Worker in 1996 from Oxford Brookes University and actively maintains his registration.

jas.sangha@aru.ac.uk

Background

Jas is currently employed as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Race Equality Lead at Anglia Ruskin University. Jas joined Anglia Ruskin University as a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Social Work in 2012. Before that he was Programme Lead and Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University.

Jas has held numerous positions in Higher Education, with teaching, learning, assessment and curriculum development responsibilities (Senior Lecturer, Course Leader, Module Lead and Personal Tutor), and with line management responsibilities (Acting Deputy Head of Department). Jas teaches on a range of modules, supervises PhD students, regularly supervises Masters Dissertation students and Undergraduate students undertaking their major project.

In his role as Race Equality Lead, Jas leads, in his faculty, on the development of a shared understanding of the Race Equality Strategy to facilitate staff and student engagement with related activities and interventions. This work encompasses innovative practice in the design of decolonised and diversified curricula, internationalised learning, anti-racism training for staff and students. Jas works closely with staff and students from minority ethnic backgrounds to understand barriers to their success and designs initiatives in response.

On a voluntary and professional level, Jas has gained extensive experience in adult community care having worked with disabilities, mental health, older people and young adults.

Research interests

Jas is an active researcher having now undertaken a number of research projects focused on higher education and race equality resulting in publications in journals and book chapters. His research studies have focused on understanding the experiences of minority ethnic students in higher education, developing a knowledge bank on anti-racist resources, understanding the needs of minority ethnic students on placements, and designing an evaluation review process for a module on the theory and practice of anti-racism.

Teaching

Jas has significant lecturing experience in higher education. Jas is responsible for teaching and assessing on a range of modules, across all years, on the pre-qualifying Social Work courses at an undergraduate level (BA Honours Social Work) and at a postgraduate level (MA Social Work) as well as guest lecturing on other courses and for other organisations.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
• MSc in Higher Professional Education
• Post Graduate Teaching Certificate
• NVQ Level 5 in Operational Management
• Practice Teaching Award (Social Work)
• Diploma in Social Work
• Fellow of The Higher Education Academy
• Qualified and Registered Social Worker with SWE

Selected recent publications

Sangha, J., 2022. Community Cultural Wealth in the Context of Social Work Education. Social Dialogue: The International Association of Schools of Social Work, 26. Available at https://socialdialogue.online/sd26/12_article.html

Sangha, J., 2021. What are the experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic students in relation to their progression on an undergraduate social work course in one university in England? Social Work Education. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2021.1960305.

Sangha, J., 2021. How models are used to cure racism and other curious tales. In: W. Reid & S. Maclean, eds. 2021. Outlanders. Hidden Narratives from Social Workers of Colour. Staffordshire: Kirwin Maclean Associates. pp.49-54.