About the Team

Owen is the Director of the UK Council for Graduate Education, leading its strategy to support an inclusive and world-leading postgraduate sector. He has served on a number of UK national bodies, including: the UKRI Talent and Skills Advisory Group; Student Space which supports student mental health; Generation Delta – a project to increase the number of Black female professors; and the Equity in Doctoral Education through Innovation and Partnership project. He is passionate about postgraduate education, and has given talks on a range of topics, including: the value of doctoral education; leadership and doctoral supervision; and the development of autonomy through doctoral education.

Owen has a background in engaging academic research in public policy. He previously worked as Programme Director for an educational charity, where he sought to build interdisciplinary collaborations on a range of social policy issues, involving national organisations such as the Association of Chief Police Officers, the office of the Chief Medical Officer for England, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust.

A keen advocate of partnerships between academia and the voluntary sector, he has managed a series of fixed term post-doctoral positions in the voluntary sector, developed a doctoral placement scheme, and served as a collaborative supervisor for a PhD studentship. Owen has a PhD in Philosophy, and has taught at Birkbeck, KCL, and Royal Holloway. He is a member of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Publications include:

Creaton, Jane, and Gower, Owen. 2024. Prioritising the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Doctoral Researchers: Promoting Healthy Research Cultures. 1st ed. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003403210.

Clegg, Karen, Houston, Gillian, and Gower, Owen. 2024. Doctoral Supervision and Research Culture: What We Know, What Works and Why. 1st ed. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003248118.

Gower, Owen. 2023. ​‘The Hidden Meanings of ​“Independent Research(er)”’. In Developing Researcher Independence Through the Hidden Curriculum, edited by Dely L. Elliot, Søren S. E. Bengtsen, and Kay Guccione, 235–40. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978–3‑031–42875‑3.

Gower, Owen, and Karen Clegg. 2021. ​‘UK Research Supervision Survey Report’. UK Council for Graduate Education.

Gower, Owen, Karen Clegg, Doug Cleaver. 2024. ​‘UK Research Supervision Survey 2024’. UK Council for Graduate Education. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.13843553.

Email: owen.gower@ukcge.ac.uk

Angus has been with the Council since October 2006. In his time as Events Officer he has managed more than 150 Workshops and Conferences, on a wide range of different subjects and topics. He has played a key role in the development of some of the Council’s biggest projects including the Postgraduate Researcher Symposium, the UKCGE-Ireland Colloquium and the International Conference on Professional Doctorates.

Prior to joining UKCGE Angus worked at the University of Warwick in the Centre for Student Development & Enterprise and also the Mercia Institute of Enterprise. During this time he was involved in the running of the Bizcom and EnterpriseFest student enterprise events. He has also worked as an Examinations Officer at Aston University.

Angus has an MSc in IT in Business from the University of Lincoln (2005) and a BA (Hons) in Film and Television Studies from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (2001).

Email: a.n.burns@ukcge.ac.uk

Prior to joining UKCGE, Kate worked as a Project Coordinator for the Government Property Group in Sydney. She has also worked for the Birmingham Playing for Success Education Centres at Aston Villa FC, Birmingham City FC & Moseley RC as an Administrator and Volunteer Coordinator. Kate enjoys sailing, camping and hiking. 

Email: katie.payne@ukcge.ac.uk

Annette is Communications Officer at the UK Council for Graduate Education, where she manages and develops newsletters, press releases, blog posts and social media content. She has previously worked in marketing and communications roles at Aston University and the University of Warwick, and, before that, as an arts editor on Metro newspaper.

She has a PhD in English and Comparative Literary Studies from the University of Warwick and has worked for many years as an independent scholar in the field of theatre history. She has published occasional papers for Routledge and others, along with a trade book on Lichfield’s history.

In her spare time Annette volunteers on the editorial board of the Samuel Johnson Society of Lichfield’s annual publication, Transactions. She is also a member of the Women’s Studies Group 1558–1837 and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Email: annette.rubery@ukcge.ac.uk

Sara is the Policy and Research Officer at the UK Council for Graduate Education. Prior to joining UKCGE in 2024, she worked in fundraising at the National Theatre as a prospect researcher and at the Social Science Research Council in communications and editorial.

Sara holds an MPhil in Social Anthropological Research from the University of Cambridge and a BA in Social Anthropology and Political Science from Barnard College — Columbia University.

In her spare time, Sara enjoys modern dancing, drawing, and writing about food and art. 

Email: sara.bellan@ukcge.ac.uk