Neil has MSc in Teaching English Language in University Settings from University of Oxford, RSA Cambridge CELTA and DELTA, as well as BA (Hons) in Hispanic studies (Spanish and Catalan) from University of Bristol and a graduate Diploma in Translation (Italian into English) from Chartered institute of linguists (CIOL). He is currently studying part-time for a PhD with the Open university with a research topic of ‘Academic Writing as craft’.

He has SFHEA (and in the process of applying for senior fellowship BALEAP).

Before joining King’s Foundations/CIEL Neil worked in the field of in-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in the centre for Academic Language and Development (CALD) at the University of Bristol. Prior to that he was a Senior Teaching Fellow in Academic Centre for International Students (ACIS)/Modern Languages at University of Southampton. He has been an external examiner at Oxford Brookes and SOAS. Between 1999-2013 he lived and worked in Italy, working as a teacher/trainer at British Council Milan and teaching EAP in a number of Italian universities.

Neil’s current research interest is in Scholarship of teaching and Learning (SoTL), specifically in the context of university staff who enter HE teaching through a non-academic research route (e.g. from professional language teaching backgrounds). He is also interested in in-sessional EAP (having co-authored a book on this area of practice, published in 2023), as well as ecological approaches to curriculum design, academic and research writing and, in terms of theory, Academic Literacies and Critical Realism.

In his spare time Neil is a keen amateur artist, (drawing, painting, printing) and enjoys both playing and watching tennis.