about us
Our Mission...
“To promote international cooperation and friendship through the study of the English language.”
Student welfare & support
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our students and take our responsibilities very seriously.
- All Chaucer College staff have oversight of the safeguarding of our students
- On-duty porter, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. We also have 24 hour monitored security camera surveillance
- All staff & host families are enhanced police checked to ensure students safety & wellbeing at all times
- Resident house parents are on hand overnight to assist any students & group leaders staying in our residential accommodation
- Students are accompanied by college staff & group leaders on all excursions & during activities by a ratio of 1 to 15 students
- Emergency phone numbers are provided to all students, group leaders & parents prior to arrival & are available to be contacted on 24 hours a day
Important Information for students
For more information on travelling to and staying in England, please read the following articles:
Chaucer College Policies & Procedures:
OUR TEAM
Professor Mitsutoshi Horii
Principal
Louise Mead
HR Manager
Miles Shuttleworth
Operations manager
Tom Wozniak
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
James Archer
Finance manager
Cath Hanson
Programme Manager (DSL)
Cathy Clark
head Of Accommodation
Chris Madeley
head of ielts
Graham Simpson
head of Catering
Louise Howard
head of Housekeeping
Board of Directors
Professor John Craven
Chair
I joined the University of Kent as a lecturer in Economics in 1971 after studying at Cambridge and in the USA. By the early 1990s I had become Deputy Vice-Chancellor and was closely involved in the discussions that led to the establishment of Chaucer College. I left Kent in 1996 to become Vice-Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth, and I retired from that post in 2013.
Since my retirement I have enrolled for a PhD in the Philosophy department at King’s College London, and I am closely involved with a family support charity in Portsmouth. I try to look after half an acre of garden in West Sussex, and more recently have discovered the joys of looking after two grandchildren, who were both born last year.
Professor Mitsutoshi Horii
Principal
After studying at University of Kent for his BA and MA in Sociology, Mitsutoshi Horii obtained his PhD in Sociology also from the University of Kent in 2005. In the same year, he joined Shumei University, Japan as a lecturer, but continued living in the UK working at Chaucer College, which operates as Shumei University’s overseas campus in the UK. In 2011, he was appointed as Shumei Representative at Chaucer College. He received Professorship from Shumei University in 2018.
Mitsutoshi is also an active researcher. His recent research focuses on the function of modern Western categories, such as ‘religion’, and examines the ways in which these categories authorise and naturalise specific norms and imperatives in a variety of socio-cultural contexts, including Japan and Euro-American social theories. His forthcoming monograph is entitled as Social Theory and the Ideas of ‘Religion’ and ‘the Secular’: Postcolonial Reflections on Sociology (Paplgrave Macmillan).
Pat Todd
Born in Ramsgate and schooled in Maidstone, Pat excelled at all sports with particular success in rugby, swimming and athletics.
Joining Kent Police in 1964 he retired after a full, interesting and varied career, in 1998.
In 1999 he was elected a Canterbury City Councillor and has been successfully returned five times. Chairing several committees over this time, he has served two terms as Lord Mayor of Canterbury (2006-7 and 2010-11) and is entering his fifth year as deputy leader of the council.
Pat says of Chaucer College, ‘I am and always have been impressed with the friendliness and hard work of all the staff at the College from top to bottom, which enables it to deliver what it does in a capable and friendly manner. There is no doubt students and visitors leave having had the best experience possible’.
Dr Anthony Manning
Dr Anthony Manning is Dean for Global and Lifelong Learning at the University of Kent, in the UK. Through his role at Kent, Anthony is responsible for the development, implementation and review of International and Lifelong Learning activity which includes international student experience, pathways to higher education apprenticeships and online learning.
Anthony is a Principal Fellow of AdvanceHE and a National Teaching Fellow. Anthony has lived and worked in five countries and has led educational partnerships and development to more than 25 countries. As well as being a trustee for Chaucer, Anthony is also the current Chair of the British Accreditation Council’s (BAC’s) Accreditation Committee.
Masaaki Sekiguchi
Masaaki Sekiguchi received a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Linguistics at Dokkyo University and a Master’s degree in Education at International Christian University in Japan.
After a few years’ teaching at secondary school he earned a scholarship from the Rotary Foundation and studied English phonetics at Leeds University. In October 1992 he returned home from the UK and got a teaching position at Shumei Gakuen in Saitama.
Ten years later Masaaki transferred to Shumei University in Chiba, then in April 2006 he dispatched to Chaucer College with his family and his Labrador. He is now in charge of one of the five faculties of Shumei University.
Professor Koki Kawashima
Professor Koki Kawashima studied for his BA at the University of Tokyo, and graduated from the University’s Faculty of Letters in 1985. In 1991, he was appointed as the chairman of the Shumei Foundation. Since then, he has been the chairman of Shumei Foundation all the way to the present day. He has also been the President of Shumei University since 2012.
Chaucer College is a registered exam centre for the provision of the Graded Examination in Spoken English (GESE)
Chaucer College is the official test centre in the South East for the IELTS academic examination