Aabida Patel, Senior Business Analyst, Registry

“I am always looking to continue developing my professional skills and knowledge so that I can ensure the projects and processes I work on are as inclusive as possible to all students and staff in the College.” 

After graduating with an undergraduate degree in Law in 2016 and a Masters in 2017 I joined the NHS through a graduate scheme in Leicester, moving on to my first full operational management role in January 2020. In September 2020 I moved to London and continued to build on my operational management experience in the NHS.  

In late 2022 I came across the position of Senior Business Analyst with the Transformation Team in Registry at Imperial College London. I see my biggest responsibility as supporting people through change. My role focusses on digital improvement of the student and staff digital journey through the Student Lifecycle Administration Board (SLAB) with the College strategy and values in mind. SLAB focusses on ensuring continuous improvement to the student experience at Imperial. 

I am always looking to continue developing my professional skills and knowledge so that I can ensure the projects and processes I work on are as inclusive as possible to all students and staff in the College. I value the perspective and input of as many people as possible on each of the digital change projects I am working on. 

Whilst I was completing the Calibre Leadership Development Programme, I successfully applied for an EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) bursary with the Association of University Administrators (AUA) to attend the 2023 annual AUA conference. The AUA published an article related to my journey and achievement of the bursary: NHS to HE: a new career pathway as a business analyst | AUA. I have built so many connections from the conference across many UK universities and have since been able to share good practice and learnings from similar process and systems implementations!  

It’s difficult to narrow down which of the Imperial Values resonates with me most – they all relate to my personal values and job role really well. The two that speak to me the most in my role are collaboration and innovation. I meet and work with so many different staff members in different departments and different professions, working to challenge the status quo to create more inclusive and streamlined processes.  

Having worked at the College for just over eight months now, I have noticed fragmented working between departments, faculties, and professional services. Within these silos there are such amazing pockets of good practice and excellence within administrative processes that would be beneficial for others across the college. Meeting such a wide variety of people, I am in a unique position to share best practice across departments and faculties. My desire for the College is that we can all break down the walls of our silos and integrate ourselves with each other and collaborate with each other more.  

I’m looking forward to seeing how the hard work and input from professional staff transforms the student experience at Imperial, and building on my learnings from the Calibre programme and working with the ABLE Network to improve the experience and inclusivity of disabled staff cross the College. And as a musical theatre fanatic, I am looking forward to ticking off many more productions off my bucket list this year! 

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