Dr Abass Isiaka is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning. His current project develops a social history of disability inclusion policies in Higher Education in West Africa since 1945 through speculative ethnographic archival research. 

He has previously worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Higher Education Research, Practice, Policy and Scholarship (CHERPPS). He contributes to and leads research projects on widening access and participation in HE in the UK. These research projects inform the University’s inclusive practice and widening access and participation for underrepresented and/or disadvantaged groups.

He has contributed to projects using randomised control trials to test the impact of wellbeing interventions in higher education, commissioned by the Office for Students and TASO (Transforming Student Access and Outcomes in Higher Education).

He has worked on a widening participation project that investigates the impact of Technology Enhanced Learning on the experiences of students with Specific Learning Differences, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and ADHD.

His PhD research explored how issues of inclusion and equity are represented in policy and enacted in Nigerian higher education institutions, using institutional ethnography to examine the social organisation of disability inclusion and its intersections with other markers of difference.

He holds a Master’s degree in Education, Public Policy, and Equity from the University of Glasgow, where he developed a strong interest in social justice, international and comparative education, and policy research.

Abass has also worked with the UEA UNESCO Chair as a Research Associate, contributing to a project on how UNESCO member states, including the UK, are responding to the 2019 Global Convention on Higher Education and the recognition of refugee qualifications. His role involved policy analysis, qualitative research design, data collection with policy stakeholders, and public engagement, including co-delivering the University of Sanctuary Public Lecture at the University of East Anglia.

As an Associate Tutor at UEA, he has taught undergraduate and postgraduate students in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, with responsibilities including assessment, feedback, and teaching in areas such as learning theories, inclusive education, school leadership, and global education reforms.

He has presented his work at numerous academic conferences and workshops, including the European Sociological Association, the Society for Research in Higher Education, the Development Studies Association, the International Sociological Association, and the Centre for International Higher Education. His research interests include the sociology of higher education policy, internationalisation strategies, institutional ethnography, decoloniality, disability inclusion, and students’ experience.