CUC Structure
Combined Universities in Cornwall is an unincorporated association of universities and colleges which have signed a written constitution with the aim of developing and expanding higher education in Cornwall.
CUC is governed by two groups which are composed of representatives from the CUC partner universities and colleges. The chair of each group rotates between institutions.
The overall direction for CUC is set by the Steering Group, which mainly consists of vice-chancellors and principals. The Steering Group is currently chaired by Professor Wendy Purcell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Plymouth University.
An Executive Group is charged with delivering the strategy set by the Steering Group. This group is currently chaired by Professor Mark Overton, Deputy Vice Chancellor (External Affairs), University of Exeter.
CUC also has a small Partnership Support Team which works on behalf of the partnership.
The CUC Partnership Support Team
CUC Director - Dr. Sue Brownlow
Business Support Manager - Marian Bond
Coordinator - Nigel Hewitt
Marketing & Communications Manager - Sam Kirby
Widening Participation Coordinator - Kate Poole
Administrators: Denise, Emma and Nikki.
Dr Sue Brownlow – Director, CUC
Sue Brownlow took up the post of CUC Director in 2009. Her key aims for CUC are to improve the way Cornwall's businesses work with and gain from higher education, and to keep driving up the ambitions of people in Cornwall to gain the higher level skills that will help them prosper.
Sue’s career spans work in both the public and private sectors, with organisations including KPMG, Bevan Ashford solicitors (as human resources director – she’s not a lawyer!), the national Further Education Development Agency and the South West RDA. While living in Bristol Sue also served as a member of the local authority and board member of Bristol Airport.
Sue is married to a Cornishman and has three school-aged children and two grown-up step-children. She has lived in South East Cornwall, where her family have established a small vineyard, since 2002. In what little spare time she has, Sue enjoys singing with the East Cornwall Bach Choir.
Nigel Hewitt - CUC Coordinator
Nigel joined CUC as Coordinator in 2003 and has responsibility for the coordination of planning for European funded Projects within CUC. Over eight years in post, Nigel has seen the investment of over £200 million into the CUC initiative and has been part of the growth of Higher Education in Cornwall which has tripled in scale to over 7,500 students today.
Originally a Mining Engineer from Camborne School of Mines, Nigel started his career in the mining industry in Africa as an underground production manager before focusing on the development of life-of-mine economic models. Returning to the UK he worked in finance, specialising in investments in mining and resource stocks. Nigel returned to Cornwall in 1992 to take up senior posts in financial and project management in a range of economic development initiatives culminating in his role with CUC.
Nigel is a Fellow of the IoM3 and a member of the Regional Studies Association and The Institute of Leadership and Management. He served as Chairman of the Cornwall Branch of The Chartered Institute of Management (2003 – 2005) and is currently a serving member of the CSM (Alumni) Association. His outside interests include rowing, shanty singing and scuba diving.
Marian Bond – Business Support Manager, CUC
Marian Bond joined CUC in May 2009. She helps business support organisations and businesses understand what services are available, why they would want to use them and how to access them. This includes: giving briefings and presentations, editorial, website, business networks, awards, sponsorship and enquiry handling – making CUC’s offer relevant, tangible and attractive to more businesses. This overview allows her to understand how CUC partners support Cornwall’s economic challenges.
After moving back to Cornwall permanently, Marian worked as Inward Investment Manager for Cornwall Pure Business. Prior experience helps her appreciate issues facing business and includes executive roles in SMEs in academic publishing and premium collectibles (design, marketing, distribution), in addition to a number of senior marketing management and business development roles.
A modern languages graduate, she understands the value of personal development having undertaken postgraduate and management development programmes whilst working full-time. Prior to moving back to Cornwall, Marian held a number of community based leadership roles on a voluntary basis.
Samantha Kirby – Marketing and Communications Manager, CUC
Sam Kirby looks after all the marketing, public relations, website, VIP visits and other communications for CUC. This involves using every channel possible to make sure people are aware of the benefits and opportunities of studying at or working with the Higher Education institutions in Cornwall.
Sam moved home to Cornwall in 2007 to work as Head of Marketing at University College Falmouth. Before that she was Regional Manager for PADI International, looking after sales and marketing opportunities for scuba diving businesses in Egypt and Eastern Europe. Prior to that Sam held various advertising, marketing and product management roles at Virgin Megastores HQ in London.
Sam grew up in Cornwall, studied her MA (Russian) at St Andrews University and is an affiliate member of the CIM. In her spare time Sam enjoys kayaking around the Cornish coast, playing the saxophone and teaching people to freedive. Sam is a former member of the UK Freedive Team.
Kate Poole - Widening Participation Coordinator
Widening participation has been a constant theme throughout Kate’s working life and she has become convinced that learning changes lives. Before moving to Cornwall 13 years ago she ran a series of out of school classes for looked after children, and set up and ran a Vocational Guidance Service for people affected by homelessness across London. After working with HE institutions across the south west training and supporting PGCE students, she then started work at Cornwall College as a Careers Advisor working with FE students and women returners. More recently Kate has run the Vocational Programme for Aimhigher in the Peninsula for 5 years and in that time co-ordinated the LSC funded AdvAnce research project and developed the Cornwall College HE Student Ambassador Scheme. Partnership work has been fundamental to the success of the Peninsula programme and Kate is delighted to work with CUC where partnership is such an integral component of the work. Finally- just to prove that she practices what she preaches - Kate last year completed her MA in Management and hopes to put her newly honed research skills into good use.
In her spare time, Kate makes the most of living in beautiful Cornwall, has set up and runs a very successful and enjoyable bookclub and is a volunteer youth work specialising in Art and Drama