Dr Phebe Mann

OU Doctorate graduate, and W111, W112, W202 and W302 Associate Lecturer, Dr Phebe Mann, is the first woman engineer of minority ethnic origin appointed by the Lord Chancellor to the Agricultural Land Tribunal for Wales, Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber (Transport Jurisdiction), and General Regulatory Chambers (Transport, Information Rights & Estate Agent Jurisdictions). Phebe is also the first and only woman to hold eight professional qualifications concurrently in the UK. Phebe has assisted Paul Reed KC in the 2nd Edition of “Construction Professional Indemnity Insurance” covering The Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Building Safety Act 2022 which were introduced following Grenfell.

Phebe has been recognised with a Top 50 Women in Engineering Award (WE50) for her outstanding achievements in engineering. It is only one of the recent achievements and awards for Phebe, who is an outstanding engineer, innovative law teacher, and great role model for young women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM). She has previously been named a WISE Woman of Outstanding Achievement, won a Tomorrow’s Leader Award, and received an Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award for her PhD in collaborative design.

With seven undergraduate and post-graduate degrees to her name, ranging from law, computer science and engineering, she is an excellent role model and is dedicated to encouraging young women who strive to succeed.

Phebe feels that her most rewarding achievement is to support OU students who have to overcome great difficulties in order to be successful. She tirelessly supported OU students who were going through a difficult time over the Covid-19 period. Some of them are NHS workers, essential or key workers or carers. She had supported a heavily dyslexic student to gain his OU Computing degree, a single mother to pass her final year computing module, an inmate to attain First Class in his Open University Design course, and some others. 

Phebe said, “I feel that it is really rewarding, after all my effort, seeing my students do come to the end of their tunnel and excel in their studies.”

In recognition of her excellence in Practice-Based Professional Learning (PBPL), Phebe was awarded a PBPL Teaching and Learning Excellence Award from the Open University.

Phebe is an Accredited Civil and Commercial Mediator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCiArb). She has involved in the Dispute Resolution aspects of W360 and also Virtual Mooting and W800.

The methods for online tutoring Phebe has tried, on their own or combination are: AdobeConnect, MSTeams, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, Google Meet.

The Future: Dr Phebe Mann’s research on Real-time Online Tutorials and Virtual Mooting on AdobeConnect, MSTeams, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, Google Meet

Phebe has worked as an Associate Lecturer at the OU from 1995 until now, from teaching STEM, MBA to Law modules.