Neil Deane BA / MSc

Neil Deane has now notched up 40 years in Germany. He left his hometown of Liverpool in 1979 when a certain Margaret Thatcher had just come to power with the clear remit to change Britain forever. The calamitous Brexit referendum result seems poised to produce more woe, a worrying fact that induced him to take up German citizenship a couple of years ago. Germany has become, once again, a place of refuge.

His previous positions before coming to Essen were involved in the language training of students in higher education in Brandenburg an der Havel (FH) and Wernigerode (Hochschule Harz). Before that, he worked for Germany’s largest education publisher, Cornelsen, in Bielefeld and Berlin.

He is interested in all aspects of interaction in the classroom, intercultural awareness, learner autonomy and educational management. He is responsible for Erasmus Outgoings in the department and is constantly uplifted by how this exchange programme changes the lives of students in all sorts of positive ways.

In his spare time, he listens to “Old Men’s Rock”, avidly follows Liverpool Football Club and organises an annual student excursion to Liverpool every summer. This popular pilgrimage is now in its 11th year and he hopes to do a few more before he takes up retirement in 2023. Before that dreaded day, he also intends to write one more book about something on his mind. His previous three books were about music, Germany and Liverpool. Watch this space.

Best first sentence of a novel : “Once you have given up the ghost, everything else follows with dead certainty, even in the midst of chaos”. From: “Tropic of Capricorn” by Henry Miller.

Best footballing moment: Liverpool’s second goal in the European Cup Final on May 25th, 1977 in Rome. Experienced live, sitting next to his dad.

Best German saying: “Jetzt haben wir den Salat”.

Best university moments: Seeing students doing well after graduation.