Josh Hepple Josh: The Real London

I had quite a difficult time at school and college. That's because lots of students were nervous about interacting with me. It’s very nice that London Met is very aware of this and all of the staff are very reflective. They were very open to my ideas around teaching and I enjoyed working with them on that.

London Met is a very fun, happy place where everyone feels supported and encouraged. As a disabled academic, I feel the staff give everything they can to help me. I do not feel this at other universities. It’s a very inclusive group of staff members. Because staff get on so well with one another, that energy rolls into working with students. I hope that my students feel supported within their diversity or if they are disabled.

I was very happy to deliver some training to an entire school. My training was about how to work with disabled students. It was very nice to have so many other staff interested in my ideas.

I really enjoyed being part of the group that represented London Met at Pride. I still have the banner in my room at home.

I felt happy that my activism and my profession were tied up together. That made me feel very proud.

I love London because it’s very diverse. Everyone is different, and I don’t feel self-conscious. I come from a much smaller city where there is not a lot of diversity, and I have always felt self-conscious where I come from. But because of the amount of diversity in London, I never feel self-conscious or embarrassed. It is really fun to interact with different cultures and different identities.

London Met is a very supportive and inclusive environment. As a disabled academic, I feel that I am very supported and I think that it’s very progressive of London Met to have an academic with cerebral palsy. Not many other universities are as diverse. A few friends have been at London Met. I know that London Met prides itself on individual circumstances and that’s something that’s most important to me.

I always feel proud when I teach at London Met. I have lots of admiration for some of the senior academics in my school. I felt very proud when I was able to offer training to all of the academic staff members.

I’m an activist outside of my teaching but in the last couple of years, I began to realise that education and social justice are very similar. So it’s very nice to use my academic teaching as a form of inclusion and social justice.