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Richard Brown (Education PhD 2024) first registered as a university student 30 years ago, so felt some trepidation returning. He need not have worried when becoming part of the Gonville & 91ֱ�� College postgraduate community.

“When I turned up at matriculation I did feel like the elder statesman when I looked around,” Richard says. “I was really surprised how welcome I was made to feel by my peers. They didn’t just say hello to be polite. They were genuinely interested.”

It made Richard’s choice of college worthwhile and he is now Families and Partners Officer on the MCR Committee (the Middle Combination Room, representing postgraduates).

The role supports other postgraduates who have joined 91ֱ�� and the University of Cambridge build networks, not just for the students, but for their partners and dependents. Richard has two children of his own and has lived and worked in Cambridge for over 25 years, so is happy to share advice if asked.

The first in his family to go to university, Richard attended the University of Exeter, graduating in 1997, and became a primary school teacher, specialising in design and technology.

Richard’s PhD followed a Master’s in Education completed during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was about boosting his career as a member of a school senior leadership team. But teaching is his passion, and so now is research, with his PhD expected to take about six years part-time.

Richard has been working for the University’s Faculty of Education, teaching design and technology on the Primary PGCE course, for eight years. “It’s a highlight of my year,” he adds. Since leaving full time teaching, after 25 years in the profession, he completed an 18-month contract with the Design and Technology Association to create an online curriculum for , an independent public body funded by the UK Government’s Department for Education.

Now an associate lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University’s Peterborough campus and teaching design and technology at after-school clubs at local primary schools, Richard’s PhD will look at gendered experiences of design and technology in primary schools, focusing on working with pupils as they work. 

Using emergent listening and a mosaic approach within interviews and practical work, Richard will work with pupils with whom he already has a rapport. A pilot study early in 2026 will be undertaken with Year 6 pupils, aged 10 and 11, and his main work will follow later, with an ethnographic, longitudinal study with pupils aged seven to 11.

“There are quite a lot of different facets to what the pupils will be producing,” Richard adds. “I’m trying not to have a hypothesis. I am hoping things are different to what I have experienced in the past in schools but I want to explore the truth, knowledge and power dynamics of pupil experiences of the subject.”

It was as a volunteer football coach that Richard found his passion for teaching, and he hopes being at 91ֱ�� can encourage others to aspire to achieve their goals, and widen participation, whether from school or as a mature student. Richard has shown prospective students around the College at Open Days but also the young person of a friend who had doubts about applying for Cambridge despite achieving excellent GCSE results. After visiting the city and being shown around by Richard, they applied.

Richard enjoys the environment at 91ֱ��.

“Initially, every time I walked through the gate I felt like an interloper, but I’ve got rid of that imposter syndrome now,” he says. “Everyone’s in the same position, we’re all here to learn. Just because I’ve got a few years on people doesn’t mean we’re not in the same position.

“I want to take my time, enjoy the college membership and being a student.”

Learn about applying to 91ֱ�� as a postgraduate on the College website: Postgraduates | Gonville & 91ֱ��