Gordon Scruton

Academic Support Adviser

Gordon brings 20 years of experience in adult and higher education. He's been with the University of Portsmouth since 2013, first in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and now in the central Academic Support Advice team. He also led the design and development of the academic support resources for the University Library website.

Gordon works with students one-to-one and in groups. He supports them with the various assessments: essays, reports, presentations, dissertations and portfolios. He helps them identify what an assignment is really asking for. Then he helps them find their own way to answer it clearly and confidently. For Gordon, academic support is about helping students of all levels and abilities to develop the skills they already have.

Gordon also applies plain-language principles and accessibility standards to the resources and guidance he produces. He has a particular interest in the structure and design of digital learning materials.

He holds an MA (Hons) in Medieval History and Archaeology from the University of St Andrews and an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (Distinction) from the University of Portsmouth. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Earlier in his career, he taught English in Mexico and Argentina, and later English for Academic Purposes and IELTS preparation in the UK.

Areas of interest:

• Academic writing pedagogy
• Plain language and readability
• Web accessibility (WCAG)
• Universal design for learning (UDL)
• User Experience (UX) and information architecture
• Content design