Barry Batson

Barry Batson is the current Course Director for MA Fashion Management and MA Luxury Brand Management at Birmingham City University.

Barry’s 46 years of experience encompassed most aspects of the textile, clothing and fashion business and manufacturing functions here in the UK, Australia, and China.

Barry has held several previous academic roles, including four years as a lecturer and Programme Director for the BSc in Textile and Fashion Management at the University of Leeds. Barry also introduced a new taught master's programme, MSc in Advanced Textile and Clothing, and was responsible for the entire academic management of the programme as Programme Director.

Barry spent eight years at the Manchester Metropolitan University as a Senior Lecturer lecturing to undergraduate Fashion Technology/Fashion Buying students within the Department of Clothing Design and Technology.

Before joining BCU, Barry was at Solent University as a Senior Lecturer in the Fashion Management with Marketing programme and Fashion Buying Programme.

Barry’s most memorable experiences was that he was fortunate to spend four years in Shanghai, China, with Raffles Design Institute located at Donghua University as a Senior Lecturer in Fashion Marketing and Management.

Whilst there, he was responsible for delivering Fashion Buying for Retail, Product Development for Fashion, Ethical and Sustainable Fashion, Fashion Brand Management, Fashion Advertising, Fashion Communications, and the Global Fashion Business. Barry thoroughly enjoyed his time in China and would recommend that everybody experience living and working in China at some point during their lifetime.

Barry’s starting point of his academic career was not in the UK but Australia. Barry’s industrial background was in knitwear and knitted fabrics. Barry was fortunate to hold the position of Head of the Department of Industrial Knitting at the Melbourne Institute of Textiles (now RMIT university) for 12 years.

Barry’s main area of expertise that underpins all his teachings is knowledge of the product and how a fashion retail business and the fashion buyer interact with all areas of the fashion supply chain.

Until recently, Barry taught Fashion Marketing and Management to students whose first language is not English but who speak English. These include predominantly Chinese students, Indonesian students, several Russian students, and a small number of other international students. As a result, it required Barry to be very analytical in presenting and communicating information to those students.

As additional support for students to enhance their knowledge of their chosen programme and subject area, Barry has organised several field trips to various local and overseas destinations. These have included taking Fashion Buying students to Shanghai and Istanbul, Fashion Marketing students to New York and London, and Fashion Design students to Florence and Paris.

In addition, Barry has attended conferences in New York, Washington, and Australia to build closer academic ties to foster international research, student placement, and overseas internships.