Educational Career
Throughout his professorial career spanning over 20 years, Professor Ahmed has built high-calibre research groups, undertaken pioneering research and facilitated Early Career Researchers to achieve their best potential. His research spans over three decades and the translational impact of his work is evident by the patented therapeutics being pursued by MirZyme.
Professor Ahmed has over a decade long executive board-level experience and believes that Higher Education is the engine for modern diplomacy, social sustainability, discovery science and a resilient economy. For these reasons, he is driven to create an environment to achieve genuine excellence by promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and internationalisation.
Educational Career Timeline
Aston Medical School
Professor Ahmed conceived the concept of Aston Medical School and is the founder of the school. The opening of Aston Medical School has enabled students from hard-to-reach backgrounds to embark on a medical career, thus narrowing the divide in numbers between doctors/medical professionals from state schools and doctors from independent schools. Professor Ahmed has developed a new model of medical education in the UK, with a focus on social mobility, international connectivity and business acumen, delivered at a lower cost to the public purse.
The ethos of widening participation is supported through the Sir Doug Ellis Pathway to Healthcare programme. The programme is named after former Aston Villa FC Chairman, The late Sir Doug Ellis, who financially supported the entire programme. This programme gives 16–18 years old students the opportunity to see if they are interested in studying medicine or other health-related professions and teaches them social skills as well as academic skills. In July 2018, over 95% of the ‘Pathway students’ graduated from the programme went to University, a third of them to study medicine.
This model was recognised and endorsed by the Minister for Universities at the time, The RT Hon David Willetts (link it). Aston Medical School started as a research and postgraduate school in June 2014 and was awarded approval to admit undergraduate medical students by the General Medical Council in 2017. Subsequently, it secured 100 highly competitive government-funded medical places. The first cohort of undergraduate medical students started in September 2018 and it currently has over 300 medical students and many postgraduate research students.