A photo of Singleton Campus including Singleton park and a view of the sea
Professor Tom Crick

Professor Tom Crick

Professor of Digital Education and Policy, Education and Childhood Studies

Welsh language proficiency

Basic Welsh Speaker
Academic Office - 433
Fourth Floor
Keir Hardie Building
Singleton Campus
Available For Postgraduate Supervision
Media Commentator

About

Tom Crick is Professor of Digital & Policy and Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (Civic Mission) at Swansea University. He holds a joint research and innovation appointment split between the Department of Education & Childhood Studies (Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences), and the £32m Computational Foundry (Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science & Engineering). Whilst his disciplinary background is in computer science, his academic interests sit at the research/public policy interface with a focus on broad societal/policy impact: STEM/digital education, curriculum reform, science and innovation policy, data science, intelligent systems, smart cities, national infrastructure, software sustainability, digital transformation, and skills/infrastructure for the digital/data economy. As underpinning themes, his broader research interests also include levers for government innovation, digital public services, new economic models for the digital economy, digital democracy, and citizen/civic/public engagement.

Tom also has extensive independent expert advisory, non-executive governance and assurance experience, across the public and private sectors, including Welsh and UK Government roles (see below).

He is Editor-in-Chief of The Computer Journal (2021-present), one of the longest-established journals (since 1958) serving all branches of the academic computer science community, published by Oxford University Press. Tom is also an Editor of the Wales Journal of Education/Cylchgrawn Addysg Cymru (2020-present), a bilingual platinum open access journal published by the University of Wales Press.

Tom was appointed MBE in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours for “services to computer science and the promotion of computer science education”. In 2020, he was made a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, the national academy for science and the arts. He is also a Chartered Fellow of the BCS and the IET, and a Distinguished Speaker and Senior Member of the ACM.

Areas Of Expertise

  • Computer science and STEM education
  • Digital skills
  • Curriculum reform
  • Secondary/administrative/linked data analysis
  • Computational social science
  • Intelligent systems
  • Digital/data infrastructure
  • Digital economy

Career Highlights

Award Highlights

BERA Public Engagement and Impact Award (2020) for “Leading the Future of Science and Technology Education in Wales”.

Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (2020)

MBE for “services to computer science and the promotion of computer science education” (2017)

Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow (2015)

HEA National Teaching Fellow (2014)

Fellow of the Software Sustainability Institute (2014)

RSA Centenary Young Fellow (2014)

BSA Science Media Fellow (2011)