We have 36 member Colleges and Universities in England and 3 Members in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. To qualify for membership the provider must deliver significant volumes of education and training in land based occupational areas. Landex was formed in 2006 from its predecessor organisation, Napaeo, which was founded in 1950, and represented the interests of land based Colleges and the industries they served during a period of continuous change and development.
Alex has been Chief Executive of Landex ‘Land Based Colleges & Universities Aspiring to Excellence‘ since January 2021. Prior to that, Alex was the Director Of Quality Enhancement at Landex. She has an extensive background in the Land Based sector which has included managing and developing a full range of curriculum including Higher Education, as well as driving and monitoring quality improvement. She has managed a number of specialist land-based centres and associated staff and resources. Her current industry involvement in Agriculture and Equine ensures she is in touch with current developments and challenges within the sector.
Alex brings to the role a significant understanding of land based industries, in addition to her experience as a manager in further education colleges, and more recently with Landex. In her spare time she farms with her husband in Yorkshire.
Alex will also assume responsibility for Landexs activity with Land Based Assessment Ltd. (LBAL), Land Based Learning Ltd. (LBL), and the National Land Based College (NLBC).
‘Lord Boswell is an Oxford classics graduate and has a diploma in agricultural economics: he is a partner in the family farming business near Banbury, and was MP for Daventry from 1987 until 2010.
Tim Boswell MP entered John Major’s government in 1990 as an Assistant Government Whip, and following the 1992 General Election was promoted within the Whip’s Office and became a Lord Commissioner to the Treasury. Later in 1992, Tim Boswell was appointed Parliamentary under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and then moved to a similar role at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food until the 1997 General Election. In opposition he was variously a spokesman at the Treasury, Trade and Industry, and then Education and Employment. He also spent periods as the spokesman for Work and Pensions and Constitutional Affairs before announcing his retirement from the Commons. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Boswell of Aynho in the County of Northamptonshire in 2010′.
‘Baroness Byford of Rothley attended Moulton College as a student and is an honorary graduate of Harper Adams University College: she is an arable farmer in Suffolk and a member of the House of Lords. Lady Byford DBE was the Conservative spokesman for Food, Farming and Rural Affairs from 1997 until 2008, having been made a life peer in 1996.
Lady Byford is a Canon of Leicester Cathedral; President of LEAF; a member of the court and Under Warden of the Worshipful Company of Farmers: a patron of the Women’s Food and Farming Union, and a former patron of the National Farm Attractions Network and the Institute of the Agricultural Secretaries & Administrators. In 2007, she was elected President of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers; and in 2008, she received an Honorary DSc from Nottingham Trent University in recognition of her outstanding contribution and commitment to agriculture and rural life
Donald Curry is married has two sons, a daughter, five grandchildren and lives in Northumberland. Since January 2010 he has been Chair of the Better Regulations Executive (BRE) based in BIS.
In 2009 he was appointed Chair of the Leckford Estate Management Committee – the Waitrose Farm and in August 2012 was appointed Chair of the Royal Veterinary College.
Lord Curry was appointed as a board member of the NFU Mutual Insurance Company in 1997 and was Chairman from June 2003 to December 2011.
He Chaired the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food reporting to Government in January 2002 and was responsible for overseeing the Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food until March 2009: he served as a Crown Estate Commissioner from January 2000 until December 2007.
He was a founder, of ‘At Home in the Community’ in 1990, a charity providing care and support for people with learning disabilities, and has continued to Chair the company since then. A trustee of Clinton Devon Estates and also Anglican International Developments (AID).
Lord Curry was awarded a CBE for his services to Agriculture in the 1997 New Year’s Honours list, a Knighthood in the Birthday Honours in 2001 and was appointed as a cross bench peer in The House of Lords in October 2011.
In 2004 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (DSc) by Cranfield University, an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Gloucestershire in 2005 and a Doctorate of Civil Law by Newcastle University in 2008.
Originally from a rural background in West Sussex, Jeremy went on to study Animal Science at Reading University, and it was after a short period of employment within both the animal and agricultural industries, that he decided to forge a career which would combine his passion for the natural environment with education.
Having previously worked at land-based colleges across the Southeast, Jeremy was appointed as the head of what was Cannington College in 2008, which had become part of the hugely successful Bridgwater College. He was known amongst his peers as the driving force behind the growth and success at Cannington at that time.
Having worked across the FE and HE sector in England for 18 years; Jeremy then became Principal of Plumpton College in October 2015.
Jeremy has been on the Board of Landex for over seven years, and chaired FE Sussex, a collaborative body comprising all colleges across the county for the past three and a half. He also leads WineGB’s national training and education group.
After 28 years in the sector, Jeremy is proud to be leading Plumpton on the next stage of its journey as it enters its centenary year, and also to have the privilege of becoming the Chair of Landex where he is excited to work with education providers across the UK at a more important time than ever before for the sectors they support.
Landex operates through an elected Board of Directors, which determines the strategic direction of the organisation, approves the annual budget and operating statement, and monitors performance.
The Directors are elected for a term of 3 years and one third are elected annually at the AGM, which is held in November. The directors are elected to represent Regional or National constituencies as follows: a) National (7 Directors) b) Regional: 1 per Region representing Yorkshire and the North East, Eastern and East Midlands, North West, West Midlands, South West, London and South East. (6 Directors) c) Representative of members in N.Ireland, Scotland & Wales.
Landex ‘Land Based Colleges & Universities Aspiring to Excellence’ Ltd. Members of the Board are elected annually by the AGM to serve as Chair (c), Vice-Chair (vc). These posts are honorary and are usually held by directors for at least 2 years.
Director | Post | Constituency | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Alan Pease | Principal and Chief Executive, Suffolk New College | National | To Retire 2027 |
Andy Collop | Vice Chancellor/Principal, Hartpury University & Hartpury College | South West | To Retire 2026 |
Danny Metters | Principal and CEO, Bishop Burton College | Yorkshire and the North East | To Retire 2028 |
Gillian May | CEO and Group Principal, Windsor Forest Colleges Group | South East | To Retire: 2027 |
Iain Hatt | Principal and Chief Executive, Wiltshire College and University Centre | National | To Retire: 2028 |
Jeremy Kerswell (Chair) | Principal and CEO, Plumpton College | National | To Retire 2027 |
Julie Milburn | Principal and CEO, Sparsholt College Group | London and the South East | To Retire 2028 |
Marcus Clinton | Principal and CEO, Reaseheath College | National | To Retire: 2025 |
Oliver Symons | Principal and Chief Executive, Moulton College | East and East Midlands | To Retire 2028 |
Tim Whittaker | Principal and CEO, Askham Bryan College & University Centre | National | To Retire: 2025 |
Wes Johnson | Principal and CEO, Myerscough College | National | To Retire 2028 |
Landex ‘Land Based Colleges & Universities Aspiring to Excellence’ Ltd. Members of the Board are elected annually by the AGM to serve as Chair (c), Vice-Chair (vc). These posts are honorary and are usually held by directors for at least 2 years.
Director | Post | Constituency | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Andy Collop | Higher Education Committee Chair | ||
Gerald Davies | Health and Safety Forum Chair | ||
Graeme Lavery | Finance and Resources Committee Chair | ||
Julie Milburn | Further Education Quality and Curriculum Committee Chair | ||
Marcus Clinton | Learning Materials & Technology Committee Chair |
Landex ‘Land Based Colleges & Universities Aspiring to Excellence’ Ltd. Members of the Board are elected annually by the AGM to serve as Chair (c), Vice-Chair (vc). These posts are honorary and are usually held by directors for at least 2 years.
Director | Post | Constituency | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Alex Payne | Chief Executive, Landex | Appointed: January 2021 | |
Andrew Bailey | Assistant Director of Student Services, Moulton College | Appointed: December 2017 | |
Claire Whitworth | Vice Principal, Hartpury University and Hartpury College | Appointed: March 2019 | |
Marcus Clinton (C) | Principal, Reaseheath College | Appointed July 2014 |
Landex ‘Land Based Colleges & Universities Aspiring to Excellence’ Ltd. Members of the Board are elected annually by the AGM to serve as Chair (c), Vice-Chair (vc). These posts are honorary and are usually held by directors for at least 2 years.
Director | Post | Constituency | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Claire Whitworth (Chair) | Vice Principal, Hartpury College and Hartpury University | To Retire 2028 | |
Ed Parrish | Vice Principal and Head of Land Based – Cornwall College Group | To Retire 2028 | |
Mandie Stravino | Principal, Derby College Group | To Retire 2026 | |
Oliver Symons | Principal and Chief Executive, Moulton College | To Retire 2028 | |
Wes Johnson | Principal and CEO, Myerscough College | To Retire: 2027 |
Landex ‘Land Based Colleges & Universities Aspiring to Excellence’ Ltd. Members of the Board are elected annually by the AGM to serve as Chair (c), Vice-Chair (vc). These posts are honorary and are usually held by directors for at least 2 years.
Director | Post | Constituency | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Alex Payne | Chief Executive, Landex | College/University sector | Appointed: January 2021 |
Julie Milburn | Principal and CEO, Sparsholt College Group | College/University sector | Appointed: January 2021 |
Marcus Clinton | Principal, Reaseheath College | College/University sector | Appointed: September 2017 |
Simon Gadd | Farmer | Employer / Industry Sector | Appointed: August 2020 |
Tim Upson | Director of Horticulture, Education & Communities RHS | Employer / Industry Sector | Appointed: August 2022 |
Tim Whittaker (Chair) | Principal and CEO, Askham Bryan College & University Centre | College/University Sector | Appointed: April 2025 |
In line with the continuing growth in membership, Landex has recently increased its staff to allow closer working relationships with a wide range of other membership organisations, and provide a rapid response to the challenges faced by member colleges and universities. This allows us to help members achieve the highest standards of teaching, learning and student experience.
Each year members make significant progress towards our goal, of at least good quality teaching, learning and assessment being delivered in all Landex colleges and universities. Peer review, linked to structured improvement plans, continues to be our main method of effectively sharing good practice and forming shared views of the required standards.
Landex colleges have freely and willingly shared performance data and this has been used to more accurately identify high and less well performing areas in member colleges, and to support action planning for improvement. Landex delivers its quality improvement activity through visits to member institutions by a Landex quality officer accompanied by a senior member of staff from another Landex college. This activity is directed towards:
To further support members, significant volumes of data and case students are collected both nationally and from Landex colleges. Once analysed these provide a range of additional ideas for improvement. Although there were relatively few curriculum level inspections in the last round of inspections, the trend observed in previous inspection rounds, where land based provision was judged consistently higher quality in member colleges, than in the rest of the sector was repeated. This reinforced the pattern that emerged in the
previous Ofsted cycles (between 2001 & 2005 and between 2005 & 2009).
Confidence in college management was expressed in every one of the Landex colleges that received either an ‘Institutional Audit’ (higher education institutions) or an ‘Integrated Quality and Enhancement Review’ (Further Education Colleges with Higher Education provision) of the quality of learning and for the standards of awards that they offer on behalf of awarding bodies.
Under the HER/QAA process introduced in 2013, Landex member Colleges performed on-average much better than the rest of the sector, with the proportion of ‘commended’ judgements being very impressive. There is evidence that land based provision is best where the college places a clear strategic emphasis on offering a range of provision, supported by good and extensive practical resources, together with a commitment to continual quality improvement.
Regular discussions, consultations and considered debate takes place to adapt the Landex Quality Improvement Strategy and develop it in a way which will accelerate improvement towards a position where members entitled to use the Landex logo will be identified with high quality provision in all its manifestations. The ambition being to reflect the strap-line: Land Based Colleges & Universities Aspiring to Excellence.
If you have any questions around our membership or are interested in learning more about our services and events, please get in touch today using our contact form and a member of the Landex team will get back to you (Mon-Fri)
T: 01604 550109