Dr Phebe Mann

OU Doctorate graduate, and W111, W112, W202, W240, W302 and W312 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 2^nd Edition of “Construction Professional Indemnity Insurance” covering The Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Building Safety Act 2022 which were introduced following Grenfell. Phebe is the First woman Chair of the Institution of Civil Engineers, London.

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, Women in Housing Professional of the year finalist, 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 has tirelessly supported OU students who were going through a difficult time, especially over the Covid-19 period. Some of them are NHS workers, essential or key workers or carers. She has supported a heavily dyslexic student to gain his OU Computing degree, a single mother to pass her final year computing module, a student in secure accommodation to attain First Class in his Open University Design course, and others.  Phebe said, “I feel that it is really rewarding, after all my effort, seeing my students do arrive at 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 in 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, teaching STEM, MBA to Law modules.