Pronouns: she/her

Introducing Claire

My name is Claire Morris and I will be your new Vice-President for Student Development for the 2021/2022 academic year. I am a Scottish lassie born in Glasgow but raised in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) before returning to my roots in 2007.

I obtained my Honours Degree in Childhood Studies in 2020 and progressed to complete a master’s Conversion Course in Psychology at the UWS Paisley Campus.

I am a mother of four children and grandmother of one grandchild, and successfully completed my master’s degree while having son in QECH the past 10 months who had a bone marrow transplant and after various complications suffers with neuro difficulties.

After a background working for over 20 years in finance, I decided to do a career change (after redundancy) in 2017 and retrain as an Early Years Nursery Practitioner.

Because of my personal circumstances with my son this has given me the confidence to further pursue my studies next year and apply for my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, in order to help children cope with a variety of emotional, developmental and psychological issues caused by trauma.

Priorities for my time in office

This year, my focus will be helping students to return to University encouraging a more blended hybrid style of learning and supporting students during this transition to help overcome anxieties.

After COVID-19 returning to University will be very stressful for a lot of students my aims include making sure support is in place, including helping students overcome barriers to learning preventing them from developing and progressing during their journey in higher education.

Within my role I will be involved more with societies and encourage students to get involved in societies and attend events not only for improving social skills in students but also encouraging continuous personal development.