Dr Musarrat Maisha Reza

Dr Reza is an award-winning Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences and the 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. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, ASPIRE Senior Fellow and Education Incubator Fellow.

She is an elected Senator (2022-2026), helping to shape university academic 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 Masters 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. Dr Reza is a Visiting Professor (2023) at Venice International University (VIU) Globalisation Programme and an External Examiner to two Russell Group Universities.

Dr Reza has garnered well-rounded expertise in advising strategies and policies for EDI boards. Her tenure as the Race Equality Resource Officer (2020-2023) 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, Dr 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 was recently elected to the MSC EDI Alliance Board (2024-2027).

Outside academia, Dr 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.

Qualifications:

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, AdvanceHE, UK, Aug 2023
• ASPIRE Senior Fellow, University of Exeter, UK, Aug 2023
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, AdvanceHE, UK, Dec 2021
• Postgraduate Certificate of Higher Education Practice (PGCert HEP), University of East Anglia, UK, 2021
• Doctor of Philosophy, School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2017
• Bachelor of Science (Hons), School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2013

Career:

• External Examiner, Queen's University Belfast, UK, 2023-present
• External Examiner, University of Leeds, UK, 2023-present
• Visiting Professor, Venice International University, Italy, 2023
• Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences, Education and Scholarship, University of Exeter, UK, Feb 2022-present
• Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences, Education and Scholarship, University of Exeter, UK, Aug 2020- Jan 2022
• Lecturer in Biomedicine, Academic Teaching and Scholarship, University of East Anglia, UK, 2019-2020
• Skeletal Muscle Biologist, Research Fellow, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, 2017-2019

Leadership (UK):

• Elected Board Member, Medical Schools Council EDI (MSC EDI) Alliance
• Medical Schools Council EDI (MSC EDI) Alliance, University of Exeter EDI Lead
• Co-chair, Decolonising Medical Curricula Network, MSC EDI Alliance
• Faith Guidance Drafting Group, MSC EDI Alliance (Active Inclusion, Challenging Inclusion: Supporting Students of Different Faiths)
• Academic Intersectionality Mentoring in Medical School, Founding Committee
• Association of International Medics UK (AIM UK) Advisory Board (International Medical Student Guide- First Edition)

Leadership (University of Exeter):

• Elected Senator (2022-2026)
• Member of the University Education Board- Taught Programmes (2022-2024)
• Student Outcomes Steering Group (SOSG)
• Underrepresented Students Working Group, Success for All
• Faculty (Health and Life Sciences) Mentoring Working Group
• Faculty (Health and Life Sciences) Parental Leave Working Group