Professor.Dr Mike Seal

Mike has been involved in the multiple disadvantaged, homeless and youth and community work fields as client, worker, manager, academic and researcher for over 30 years.  He previously worked at Newman University Birmingham, the University of Suffolk, the Open University and Oxford University. He is a National Teaching Fellow, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a qualified youth and community worker and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts for his work on homelessness in 2009.  

As well as working at BCU he is the Director of the Centre for Research into the Education of Marginalised Children and Young Adults (CREMCYA) and Professor of Youth and Community Education at St Mary's University Twickenham and the National Officer of the Professional Association of Lecturers of Youth and Community Work (PALYCW). He is a visiting professor at Newman and Leeds Beckett Universities. 

He was founder and inaugural chair of Romero Freire Institute: Dialogue, Pedagogy and Practice at Newman University and is Co-Convener of the Youth Studies and informal Education for the British Educational Research Association. He was Co-convener of Social Work and Social Policy REF unit of assessment (Newman 2015-2020) and was nominated for that REF panel in 2021. 

He has conducted over 40 funded pieces of research, 23 as Principal Investigator, for the British Council, Erasmus +, the European Commission, UKRI, the Commonwealth, Health Authorities, and local and national governments worth £4.5 million including co-productive research projects with clients on probation, the prison service, drugs services, youth violence, Muslim participation in public life, multiple exclusion, entrenched rough sleeping and the experiences of BME, LGBTQ+, disabled and students with mental health issues in University.  

He has provided over 70 pieces of consultancy for health authorities, national and local authorities, NGO’s, schools, and the European Commission. in Belgium, Norway, Lithuania, Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Australia.