MrTim Birkett

Tim is a Teaching Fellow of Academic Communication and Lifelong Learning.  He joined Learning Experience Futures in Imperial's new Lifelong Learning Department (LLL) in October 2026. He is a coordinator on LLL's 6-week summer pre-sessional programme and has taught on both the 3-Week and 6-Week pre-sessional courses.  He is now becoming engaged in teaching, assessment, and strengthening academic architecture across LLL's wide range of learner-focussed products. Until September 2026 he was a teacher of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Imperial’s Centre for Academic English (CfAE), engaged in teaching, coordination, and development across CfAE’s wide range of student-focussed academic STEMM communication services.

Tim has a particularly strong background in examination and assessment, and as a result helped to run several CfAE assessment projects in collaboration with departments around Imperial. These projects involved developing and conducting bespoke assessments to promote the learning and development of undergraduate skills in particular areas of written academic STEMM communication. These projects have also prompted the development of innovative ‘feedforward’ techniques to encourage alignment with assessment for learning principles and greater student engagement with feedback. 

Tim's work in assessment has led to his current focus on English Language entry tests used at Imperial and nation-wide, and he sits on Imperial's Admissions Committee as a departmental representitive and advisor on this subject.  He freelances as a test item setter at a Secure English Language Test company, providing him with further experience and knowledge in this field.  He is also a regular panel member on Imperial's Academic Appeals and Academic Misconduct panels.

Whilst working in CfAE he was extensively involved as a coach in the Academic Writing 1 and Academic Writing 2 courses, providing oral feedback and guidance on written academic STEMM communication to doctoral candidates, as well as providing targeted advice and feedback for postgraduate and undergraduate students across Imperial in the centre’s Online 1:1 sessions. He delivered regular live speaking sessions, at which students of all levels of study have the opportunity to practise and sharpen their academic spoken skills. Tim helped develop a number of CfAE’s tailored commissioned workshops, and delivered them to undergraduate and masters’ students in departments across the university. 

Before joining Imperial in 2023, Tim had worked in Hong Kong since 2006. He spent 14 years there teaching and managing in Higher Education, working at the Language Centre of the City University of Hong Kong as an EAP teacher, manager, and assessment coordinator. For over a decade he worked concurrently with the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA), first as an examination setter and then as a Chief Examiner. Resulting from his experience in assessment and examination, he sat on a number of college and territory-wide assessment and learning focussed committees.

Tim is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).  He holds Distinctions in the Cambridge Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (DELTA), in the International Diploma in Language Teaching Management (IDLTM), and in the Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics from the University of Hong Kong. His scholarship/research interests are in assessment, assessment security, feedback, and academic management, and he is a reviewer for the Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics (AJAL).

Publications

Birkett, T. M. (2020), Fairness, Justice, and Language Assessment: McNamara, Tim, Knoch, Ute, and Fan, Jason. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. vii +215. TESOL Quarterly. 54(4): 1153-1154. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.606

Birkett, T. M. (2014), An investigation into EAP teacher and student perceptions and interpretations of an academic marking rubric. Master’s Thesis. The University of Hong Kong http://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/208031   (Published by The HKU Scholars Hub)