Anya Higgins academic profile

Biography

Anya is the course leader for the BSc (Hons) Sport Management/BSc (Hons) Sport and Leisure Business Management programmes at Southampton Solent University. She came to Solent as a senior lecturer in 2018 (after a 12 year career in teaching and management with the University of Hertfordshire), and has taught across a variety of degrees from fitness management, football business management, physical education, sport studies, sport management and sport development degree programmes, from foundation level through to postgraduate study.

Anya is an advocate of equality, diversity and inclusion in sport educational settings within both further and higher education and her current research focus looks at gender inclusion with sport and business management education. She is also actively exploring the experiences of females in leadership positions within sport management higher educational settings as part of her professional doctorate research.

As a member of the European Association of Sport Management (EASM), Anya has presented small-scale research internationally at conferences, focusing on international female experiences and motivations in sport management. She has been an external examiner for sport management programmes around the UK and Ireland for over 10 years, and also supports the delivery of a MA in Sport Management with Metropolitan College Athens.

Anya led on student exchange visits to the Netherlands on multiple occasions in partnership with the University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht from 2014 for students from both the University of Hertfordshire and Southampton Solent, and remains passionately keen to support students with international study experiences.

Pure profile

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Further information

Prior to her career in teaching which began in further education, and also continued during this period, Anya has coached basketball to U16 and U13 girls in Northern Ireland, and been a fitness instructor for leisure centres in both London and Belfast. She has been an aerobics and circuit instructor, and a trampolining coach! She has also been involved with road cycling race organisation in Hampshire, been a volunteer marshal for the London Olympics road cycling events, as well as marshalling for many, many road running events and Parkrun more latterly.

She has also acted as a ladies team coach, and has been a club chair for a basketball club in Milton Keynes.

In more recent years, Anya has been a trustee for Valley Leisure Limited, an active leisure charity based in Andover, Hampshire.