University of Exeter Medical School

Professor Musarrat Maisha Reza is a multi-award-winning Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Health Equity and Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at the Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences (CBS), Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. She received her PhD from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2017 for her research in the role of Irisin on skeletal muscle. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, ASPIRE Senior Fellow and Education Incubator Fellow.

 

She is an elected Councillor and elected Senator, helping to shape the university's institutional strategy and served as a member of the University Education Board- Taught Programmes, actively contributing to Exeter's Education Strategic Performance Targets. She is the Module Lead and tutor on the core (CSC2023 Experimental Design and Statistics) and optional module (CSC2025 Decolonizing Medicine, An Introduction). Her pedagogical expertise extends to a diverse range of modules including Disease, Diagnostics and Therapeutics, Human Physiology, and Pharmacology, facilitating special study units (SSU) and problem-based learning for Medical students. She supervises final-year project students and Master's students. She was the Year 2 Lead for the Medical Science Programme (2020-2023), providing leadership, management and oversight to Academic Tutors and Module Leads in the Medical Sciences programme. Professor Reza is a Visiting Professor at Venice International University (VIU), Italy and European School of Oncology, as well as an External Examiner to two Russell Group Universities.

 

Professor Reza has garnered well-rounded expertise in advising strategies and policies for EDI boards. Her tenure as the Race Equality Resource Officer at the Medical School underscored her dedication to leading initiatives to enhance the retention, progression, and sense of belonging for ethnic minority and international students. As the Director of EDI, Professor Reza established the CBS Wellbeing, Inclusion and Culture Committee (WICC) and works strategically with the committee to embed EDI across the department. Her work is aligned with the university's Success for All strategy,  and the vision to ‘Lead the progress towards creating a fair, socially just and inclusive society’. She represents Exeter on the UK Medical Schools Council (MSC) EDI Alliance and co-chairs the national Decolonising Medical Curricula Working Group. She is an elected member of the MSC EDI Alliance Board.

 

Outside academia, Professor Reza remains a stalwart in her advocacy for youth rights and participation in decision-making. She served as the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Students’ Association representing the needs and aspirations of national student councils in the Commonwealth. Her commitment to international collaboration is exemplified through her appointment as an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society and an ASEAN Youth Fellow. She was also appointed to the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report Advisory Board. Of note, she was invited to speak at a United Nations High-Level Event on Global Citizenship Education and various high-level international platforms. While working in academia, she retains her passion for global advocacy and representation on issues close to her heart.

 

External Academic Appointments

  • Visiting Professor, European School of Oncology 2025-present
  • Visiting Professor, Venice International University, Italy, 2023-present
  • External Examiner, Queen's University Belfast, UK, 2023-present
  • External Examiner, University of Leeds, UK, 2023-present

 

Leadership Appointments (UK):

 

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