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Professor Ishani Chandrasekara

Ishani

Professor of Accounting Education; Programme Director for BSc Accountancy (Flying Start)

Email: i.chandrasekara@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7882 2707
Room Number: Room 4.02a, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End Campus
Office Hours: Monday 10.00am - 12.00pm

Profile

Roles:

Biography:

Ishani is the first child (in fact first female) to go to university in her family and she received a full scholarship from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations to study BCom Management with Commerce degree at the University of Bangalore. She then worked as an audit trainee for PricewaterhouseCoopers (Sri Lanka) for a year before moving to the UK for postgraduate and doctoral studies. She joined University of Leicester School of Management as a teaching associate where she obtained her PhD. Ishani has taught on distance learning programmes in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Bangkok and Australia. She has acted as an adviser for several NGOs in Sri Lanka including Worldwide Women’s Organisation, Women’s Development Centre, and the Centre for Social Concerns.

Ishani now provides strategic direction and leadership to Queen Mary’s successful paid industry placements in accountancy and finance, overseeing the overall performance of the provision. She is a sought-after speaker at international and national conferences, events, and in the press.

Her approach to professional education involves close collaboration with industry employers to co-design and develop new programmes. This supports workforce diversification, workforce planning, addressing skills deficits, and widening participation.

Ishani works with UK-based Big 4 firms and other organisations, nurturing key partnerships, including with PricewaterhouseCoopers. She is Queen Mary’s Times Higher Education and QS Awards Finalist and serves as an External Examiner, providing Quality Assurance for accounting professional bodies and national organisations. She has also led projects for government bodies, including the UK Quality Assurance Agency.

Committed to expanding Queen Mary’s professional education, Ishani upholds the highest standards of quality and ensures an outstanding student experience. Her strategic initiatives aim to position Queen Mary’s fast-track four-year accountancy programme as a catalyst for academic and professional advancement, widening participation, driving innovation, and fostering meaningful partnerships with industry stakeholders.

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