Paul Wilson joins the Centre

Paul Wilson has recently taken up an interim role as Senior Manager, Partnerships and Operations in the Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL), while Sarah Armstrong-Hallam is on secondment. He started his role in November 2022 working with Directors to prioritise and plan Centre activities and to operationalise the wider strategy for policing at the OU.

After early career roles as a language teacher, Paul led on University of Warwick Foundation Programmes and worked on a range of teacher training programmes in the UK and Spain. He later worked with professional football clubs to support the language and intercultural needs of overseas players, identifying that there was a lack of awareness of these needs in the sport. At the same time, he played a leading role authoring publications for the British Council Football Culture project.

Since 2002, Paul has developed international and cross-sector partnerships in higher education, first at University of Warwick and latterly as an independent consultant. At Warwick, his focus was on developing partnerships through bespoke professional development programmes for overseas universities and governments, working across faculties to tailor an inter-disciplinary offer. Since 2016, he has worked as a consultant to the sector, helping universities to initiate and navigate new international partnerships in areas from creative arts to healthcare and sport.

My passion is in working collaboratively to build partnerships that are equitable, diverse and sustainable. I’m therefore excited at the opportunity to contribute to such an innovative partnership in CPRL and work across such a great variety of partnership activities. The current policing challenges are considerable but collaboration can unlock the distinctive competencies of partners and help create new ways of working, which CPRL has led the way with. I see the role of colleagues and partners as ‘boundary spanners’ as key to bridging interests and building trust so that we navigate challenges together.

Away from work, Paul has three adult children and plays a keen role in club cricket, as a player, coach and administrator, and enjoys walks all year round. On the cat v dog question, “it has to be Team Cat”.