Bangor Wins Prestigious Higher Education Academy Award

Dr Nichola CallowThree academics from Bangor University have been awarded a prestigious Higher Education Academy (HEA) award to support the development of learning and teaching across UK higher education.

Dr Nichola Callow, Dr James Hardy and Dr Calum Arthur of Bangor University’s School of Sport, Health & Exercise Sciences are to lead a programme researching “The effect of transformational supervision on student engagement, retention and success.”

The funding will enable the research team to share and further develop their expertise on transformational leadership, along with an examination of how transformational leadership relates to important factors such as student motivation and success. The research and implications drawn from the findings will enable Universities to provide further improved supervision and support for their students.

Prof Colin Baker, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning)  said: “We have always placed great emphasis on the quality of our teaching and student support at Bangor, and it is great to be able to adopt knowledge from sports psychology, an area in which we excel, for the benefit of not Dr Calum Arthuronly our own students but students across the higher education sector.”

Professor Craig Mahoney, Chief Executive of the HEA, said: “I am delighted to be making the announcement of these prestigious awards. The award winners will work closely with the HEA over the coming months and years to help us to make a real difference to the learning experience of potentially thousands of students.

“The landscape of UK higher education continues to change at a rapid pace and it’s vital that we can share learning, not just from the UK but from around the world, if we are all to continue to meet the diverse needs of our students and those who teach them. I’m confident that the research outputs from our new Doctoral programme, whether from discipline-specific or generic pedagogic research, will have a significant impact on both policy and practice. I look forward to working with our award winners as they develop and carry out their projects.”

The Doctoral Programme awards form part of the HEA’s strategy to undertake research to develop pedagogical knowledge and evidence-based practice in higher education. The 15 awards have been made to academics to support Doctoral studentships in fields including the impact of Dr James Hardyretention strategies on part-time mature students in HE, and unpacking the dynamics of group interaction in problem-based learning.

The research outcomes from the Doctoral studentships will be shared throughout UK higher education.

Publication date: 30 May 2012