Kevin Heffernan

Kevin completed his first honours degree in marketing at Dublin City University. He was awarded a scholarship by the US Philanthropist Chuck Feeney to study French and International Business at  The Trade Management Institute, Dublin & the Ecole Superieur de Commerce, Marseilles. Subsequently,  he was recruited  for the International Trainee management program by Carrefour during which time he spent several years in Paris. He was seconded to London to front Carrefour's discount food wing under the Ed Discount Food Brand. During this time he oversaw the setting up of 4 stores aimed at testing the UK market before deciding to take time out to embark on a solo around the world trip which would last 2 and a half years. With a passion for travel and interest in different cultures, he got involved in numerous development projects in various locations around the word and completed his journey studying Spanish and Latin American culture in Quito, Ecuador.

Returning to Dublin after his extended travels, he took a Masters in Business Studies(Management) at the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business followed by the AMSEC Masters through Spanish (Alliance in Management Schools in European Capitals) at the Universidad Complutense, Madrid. It was during this time studying and teaching English as a foreign language that he discovered his interest and passion for teaching. Kevin took up a senior lecturers role at the University of the Arts, London where he had a number of course directorship roles for foundation and for undergraduate courses. A strong advocate of professional development, since moving to Westminster University, Kevin has completed the Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education[with Distinction], and has been awarded Senior Fellow in The Higher Education Academy , UK. He has completed the professional Masters In  Higher Education  with distinction in 2018. In 2021, he completed the Certified Digital Marketing Professional  course to be come a member of the Digital Marketing Institute. 

In 2022, he was awarded the learning and Teaching Excellence Award for his contribution to 'authentic learning'  by the Centre for Education & Teaching Innovation. 

Additionally, he takes up the role of Course leader for the BA[Hons] International Marketing Degree Course from September 2022. 

The following research projects were presented to the University of Westminster Teaching and Leaning Symposia:

1:   Exploring ways of increasing students engagement and satisfaction using e-textbooks’ (2016),   

2: ‘Exploration of the use of online academic textbooks by students’ (2015)

3:  ‘Feedback or feed-forward’: student’s use of online-feedback (2013)