Coming Full Circle: From Hyacinth to Hyacinth
Closing the Classroom Door, Gently
September has always been a month of beginnings for me. For as long as I can remember, it has meant fresh timetables, new faces in lecture theatres, and the particular hum of a campus waking after summer. This year, September carries a different weight. Today marks the close of my full-time academic chapter, and I find myself sitting with that ending the way one sits with the last light of an evening: grateful, a little wistful, and quietly curious about what the dusk will reveal.
The path that brought me here
My working life began far from a university corridor. I started as a corporate trainer, standing before rooms of professionals and learning, often the hard way, what it means to hold space for people. A single workshop changed my direction. A participant was left on the margins because of his faith, and I watched something in the room close. That moment stayed with me. It turned my training toward equality, diversity and inclusion, and later carried me into a PhD at the University of Tasmania exploring spirituality as something distinct from religion: a way of understanding meaning, connection and what makes us human. From there, the path wound through South Asia, Australia and eventually the UK. I coordinated units at the University of Tasmania and the University of Nottingham, and most recently served as Senior Lecturer in Business and Management and Course Leader for the MBA HRM and MSc International HRM programmes at the University of Bedfordshire. Each place asked something different of me, and each gave something back.
What the classroom taught me
People imagine that teachers do the teaching. In truth, my students taught me far more than any syllabus could hold. They arrived from every corner of the world, carrying ambitions, doubts, families, jobs and hopes, sometimes all in the same breath. They taught me patience. They showed me that inclusion is a daily practice rather than a policy statement. They reminded me, again and again, that learning happens in the space between people, long before it settles on a page. Some of my most treasured moments came in quiet supervision meetings, watching a student's face change as an idea finally took shape. Those moments rarely appear in workload models, yet they are the heart of the work. To every student who trusted me with their questions: thank you. I carry you with me.
On endings
Endings in academic life are seldom tidy. Work continues, conversations remain unfinished, and there is always one more thing you wished you had done. I have made peace with that. An ending is simply a door, and doors are meant to be walked through. Leaving also invites honest reflection on the places where we work. Universities are extraordinary communities, and they are human systems too, with all the tenderness and friction that implies. I leave with deep respect for colleagues who give themselves fully to their students, and with a renewed conviction that how we treat one another at work is itself a form of teaching.
What comes next
Before academia claimed me, there was another beginning. From 2008 to 2013, I ran Hyacinth Training Consultants across Pakistan and other countries, designing learning for organisations and discovering how deeply I loved that work. I closed it when the university called me back, trusting that the seed would keep. It has. Hyacinth Conduit is that same seed, grown wiser. It carries the history of Hyacinth Training Consultants, now enriched by years of teaching across three continents, by doctoral research into meaning and human experience, and by a front-row seat to the ways AI is reshaping work and learning. Its purpose rests in one simple line: People and AI, Learning to Work Together. Through it, I will help organisations and individuals build thoughtful partnerships between people and technology, and design learning that honours the human in every system.The questions that shaped my doctorate still guide me.
How do we stay connected to meaning as technology reshapes our days?
How do we make room for every person in the room?
Still Rooted in Academia
Stepping away from full-time academia is different from stepping away from academia altogether. Hyacinth Conduit will be my main focus, and alongside it I am open to a part-time academic post or a leadership role within higher education. I still care deeply about students, about inclusive and ethical assessment, and about how universities prepare people for a world shaped by AI. I would welcome the chance to keep contributing to that conversation from within, whether through teaching, supervision, programme leadership or strategic work. For me, the two paths nourish one another. The academy keeps my thinking rigorous, and consultancy keeps it grounded in the realities of working life. If you know of a role where that blend could be of value, I would be glad to hear from you.
Walking with AI
I want to be open about how I work now. AI has become a genuine partner in my practice. ChatGPT helps me draft and gather ideas, Claude questions them and offers alternatives, and other AI programs support in other ways required and I remain the one who decides, shapes and signs my name. This very reflection grew from that collaboration. For me, it is a living example of the partnership I teach: technology extending our reach while human judgement, values and heart stay firmly at the centre. I will keep writing here too, reflecting on AI, education and the quiet ways technology touches our inner lives.
A closing thought
Hyacinths bloom after a season underground. They gather their strength in the dark, unseen, before they rise. I think of this transition in the same way: a pause beneath the surface, rich with possibility, before the next flowering.
Thank you for walking with me through this chapter. I hope you will stay for the next one.
Lubna
Hyacinth growing from its roots
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