Mrs Aniqa Khaliq

Aniqa Khaliq is a Senior Lecturer at the University of East London, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Aniqa is currently the Deputy Director of Impact and Innovation and Course Lead for the Academic Professional Apprenticeship. She is also the Deputy Chair of the EDI Committee.

Aniqa started her career as a mathematics teacher, and has gained a wealth of experience teaching and learning across all sectors in education (primary, secondary, FE and HE) as a teacher, Head of Department and lecturer. She has spent the last 13 years in the field of Teacher Education, having started at the Institute of Education (UCL) as a Lecturer in Secondary Mathematics Education, and subsequently working at St. Mary's University and London Metropolitan University too, before joining UEL in 2015. Aniqa's interest in teaching mathematics through open-ended project-based activities became the foundation of training future teachers, and she used her position to actively support her trainees in becoming facilitators of learning and future leaders.

Aniqa completed a BSc in Mathematics at Queen Mary University of London in 2004, after which she trained as a mathematics teacher at the Institute of Education, completing her PGCE in the summer of 2005. In the first two years as a teacher, she also completed a Masters in Teaching and the success of her dissertation on the impact of project-based learning for teaching mathematics, paved the way for change to a more student lead teaching and learning approach in the department. In September 2011 Aniqa returned to full-time study at Queen Mary University and completed a CertHE in Medical Engineering and an MSc in Biomedical Engineering, receiving a distinction in both, whilst also working as a Visiting Lecturer at London Metropolitan University.

Since starting at UEL, Aniqa has taught across both the ITE and Masters programmes, and has led on a variety of modules too. She has taught on and led the programme for PGCE, SDS and SDT trainees in Secondary Mathematics ITE alongside teaching and programme leading for the Mathematics Subject Knowledge Enhancement Course. Aniqa has also led the Secondary ITE programme and was the Academic Lead for Teaching and Learning in the School of Education.

In 2018, Aniqa successfully completed the Advance HE Aurora leadership and development programme, and is currently working towards the Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy award.

Alongside her current role in developing current and future leaders, Aniqa's key interests are in trauma informed practice, educational improvement, and raising awareness of the importance of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. Aniqa is the BERA Special Interest Group Convenor for Educational Effectiveness and Improvement, a member and reviewer for the Chartered College of Teaching, and a speaker for BAMEed. In 2021, Aniqa founded Trauma Informed HE, an initiative raising awareness of the need for trauma informed practice within Higher Education and a platform of training, development and consultancy to support departments, institutions and the sector in refining current policy and practice to embed within it a trauma informed approach.

As a keen writer, and a Muslim woman of colour in STEM, Aniqa also uses her social media platforms and blog to challenge the stigma surrounding life trauma, mental health and seeking therapy in the South Asian community, alongside contributing to other platforms and sharing her journey into academia, a career in STEM, motherhood after infertility, and raising a daughter with congenital heart disease.