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Dr Sarah Williamson
Dr Sarah Williamson

Dr Sarah Williamson BA (Hons), PHD

Executive Director, Summer Programmes

  • Senior Leadership Team, Centre for International Education and Languages

Research interests

  • Education
  • History
  • Culture
  • Languages

Biography

Dr Williamson is an executive director at King’s College London, responsible for strategy and leadership in Summer Programmes. She develops original ideas, leads high performing teams and delivers financial successes. Her education programmes are sector-leading.

Her doctorate, granted by King's in 2010, is on 20th century Spanish history. She is an expert in the field of international education and has 22 years creative programming experience in Higher Education, the last 15 of which have been spent in a institutional-level leadership roles. 

She has travelled extensively, negotiating international university partnership agreements, setting up transnational education programmes and consulting for vice-chancellors, executive deans and chief operating officers in Asia, North America and Europe seeking to better define their HE institution's international strategy and improve their international research and exchange relationships.

Before joining King’s, originally in the Department of Spanish, she worked in the NHS and for Imperial College London in Imaging Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine, as a data manager and junior coordinator for the Intergroup Exemestane Study, a randomized, double blind clinical trial of breast cancer drug, Exemestane, having previously taught at secondary schools in France and Spain.

Research Interests

International Education:

  • Strategic plans for short courses programming in HEIs
  • Business models for short courses in higher education
  • Curriculum design
  • Integrating education abroad as an accredited component of a higher education degrees
  • Short courses as an opportunity for inclusion in higher education
  • Teaching cultural competency through international education
  • Internationalisation at Home initiatives

History

  • Possibilism in 20th century socio-political journalism in Spain
  • Spanish culture during late Francoism

 

Publications

(CONFERENCE PAPER) "Short term research modules: innovations in East-West Undergraduate Education", Williamson, S et al., 27-31st March 2022, APAIE Conference.

(BOOK CHAPTER) “Improving Inclusion: Short Courses as an Opportunity for Transnational Education”. Williamson, S & et al., 2021 in Importing Transnational Education. Tsiligiris, V., Lawton, W., Hill, C. (eds.) Palgrave Macmillan. p. 251 – 261.

(CONFERENCE PAPER) “All Eyes On Us: How Established Summer Schools Overcome Challenges”. Williamson, S, et al., September 13, 2018, Annual Conference of European Association for International Education (EAIE), Geneva, Switzerland.

(CONFERENCE WORKSHOP) “Summer School Euros: Costs, Resources & Business Models”. Williamson, S, et al., September 11, 2018, Annual Conference of European Association for International Education (EAIE), Geneva, Switzerland.

(CONFERENCE PAPER) “Improving Inclusion: Short Courses as an Opportunity for Transnational Education”. Williamson, S et al., July 11, 2018, “Transnational Education: Innovations in Practice”, Second TNE-Hub Symposium, City University, London UK.

(CONFERENCE PAPER) “Diversifying Summer Programming: A Game Changer in Internationlisation”. Williamson, S, et al., September 12-15, 2017, Annual Conference of European Association for International Education (EAIE), Seville, Spain.

(CONFERENCE POSTER PRESENTATION) “Changing Lives: Strategies for Building Inclusive Summer Schools”. Williamson, S et al., September 12-15, 2017 Annual Conference of European Association for International Education (EAIE), Seville, Spain.

(CONFERENCE) “Changing Lives: Strategies for Building Inclusive Summer Schools”. Williamson, S et al., May 28-June 2, 2017, 69th Annual Conference of NAFSA Association of International Educators, Los Angeles, California.

(BOOK) Triunfo Magazine: An Iconic Cultural Product of Late Francoism. Williamson, S. 2010.

(BOOK CHAPTER) Collage and Pastiche in Triunfo Magazine. Williamson, S. 2007 in Exploración y proceso: investigando la cultura hispánica. Boyle, C. (ed.). Valencia: Biblioteca Valenciana, Valencia, p. 129-139.