Our People
Mrs Elsa Bell
Emerita/Emeritus Fellow, Fellow
Dean of Degrees
Elsa Bell, recently retired from her post as Director of Student Welfare and Support Services where she had a cross-University role to develop policy and practice that would aid the delivery of coherent support for students so that they can make the best of their time at Oxford. In addition, she had specific oversight of two of the specialist central services that support students – the Disability Advisory Service and the Student Counselling Service. She came to Oxford as Head of the Student Counselling Service in 1990 and has been a Fellow of the College since 1993. She has been actively involved in a number of national and international organisations that include:
- Chairing the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), the umbrella and standard setting organization for counsellors in a variety of settings in the UK.
- Co-founding the European Association for Counselling (EAC) which now has an agreed set of standards for counsellors in the EU.
- Co-founding the Psychological Counselling in Higher Education (PSYCHE) group of FEDORA an organisation for those involved in guidance and counselling in universities in Europe.
Her publications include: Counselling in Further and Higher Education (Open University Press) and co-writing Psychological Counselling in Higher Education In Europe: An Overview (La Citte de Solle). She is frequent key note speaker at conferences where the quality of students’ experience of teaching and learning is the focus. As an antidote to all this activity she has taken delight in creating a garden at home and keeping in touch with all-important friends and family. Elected 1993; Women’s Officer 1999-2001