Left to right: Dr. Ahmad Aizuddin Bin Md Rami, Professors Sarah Banks and Fred Robinson

Dr. Ahmad Aizuddin Bin Md Rami, Faculty of Educational Studies, University Putra Malaysia visited members of Policy&Practice to discuss the role of leaders in the voluntary and community sector in the UK. Aizuddin is a visiting scholar in the Department of Sociology at Durham University for the whole of 2024 to undertake this comparative study of principles, practices and systems surrounding community development in the UK and Malaysia.

In a wide-ranging debate, focused mainly on County Durham, Professors Fred Robinson, Sarah Banks and Tony Chapman shared their observations based on many years of research work in the North of England with Dr Bin Md Rami – with a more specific focus on the way that voluntary and community sector leaders support young people from less advantaged communities to make successful life transitions.

This is the first joint meeting among academics at St Chad’s and the Department of Sociology on this study, but plans have now been made to explore the local situation in comparative context in the coming months.