About
Baljit brings over three decades of system-leadership expertise and experience across higher education, further education, schools, national agencies, and regulatory bodies. Her career reflects a consistent drive to influence change beyond organisational boundaries – shaping policy, building sector capability, strengthening governance, and convening multi-stakeholder partnerships.
She has a longstanding track record of leading complex, cross-institutional transformation programmes. As Project Lead for the DfE-funded Lancashire & West Yorkshire Equality and Diversity Hub, she delivered high-impact leadership programmes such as Diverse Leaders for Tomorrow, the Women’s Leadership Programme, and the Women Leading in Education Network for Yorkshire and Humber, initiatives that strengthened the leadership pipeline and mobilised a regional community of practice.
Her influence has also spanned national infrastructure roles. Working with the National College for Teaching & Leadership (NCTL) and the Teaching Schools Council, she led on evolution of school-led system leadership in Yorkshire and Humber, brokered school-to-school improvement, and helped build sustainable networks of teaching schools, system leaders (NLEs, LLEs, NLGs) and ITT providers. She led on the implementation of transformational DfE reforms, including Teaching School Hubs, and collaborated with local authorities, MATs, diocesan leaders, and universities to align strategic priorities across whole regions.
Baljit’s system leadership extended into the regulatory landscape through her senior role at Ofqual, where she shaped the organisation’s corporate EDI strategy, led equality programmes, provided sector-wide thought leadership, and influenced approaches to assessment fairness, accessibility and inclusive practice. Her work included policy development, equality impact frameworks, and national stakeholder engagement across awarding organisations, professional bodies and technical education networks.
At Advance HE, she continues to drive sector-wide change by designing and directing programmes that strengthen inclusive leadership capability across universities and colleges. Her portfolio spans executive development, culture change, inclusive student engagement, EDI-focused leadership interventions, and
institutional consultancy. She regularly writes, presents and contributes to national conversations on inclusive leadership and organisational culture through blogs, vlogs, conferences and sector panels.
A skilled executive coach and mentor, Baljit supports senior leaders across HE and FE to lead with clarity, authenticity and compassion. Her coaching practice centres on resilience, wellbeing, confidence, values-based leadership and inclusive culture-building.
Baljit is also a respected governance leader. She serves as Co-Chair of a Multi-Academy Trust and is a former Chair of a Primary school and Vice Chair of a secondary school. She has advised boards on governance effectiveness, inclusive leadership and EDI compliance, drawing on formal qualifications including the Level 6 Award in Governance Effectiveness and the NGA Chairs Development Programme.
Grounded in the Sikh principle of seva, selfless service, Baljit leads with humility, purpose and a commitment to collective empowerment. Across every role, she creates spaces where people feel seen, heard and able to thrive, and her work continues to shape the leadership culture of organisations and the wider education system.
