15 March 2013

Prestigious award for Professor Charlotte Rees

Professor Charlotte Rees from the University of Dundee is one of five recipients of this year's prestigious Higher Education Academy (HEA) Doctoral Programme awards.

The awards form part of the HEA's strategy to undertake research to develop pedagogical knowledge and evidence-based practice in higher education. Professor Rees, Director of the University's internationally renowned Centre for Medical Education, will receive £54,516 to fund the Doctoral programme of one candidate working under her supervision.

Co-supervised by Dr Lynn Monrouxe (University of Cardiff) and Dr Maria Tsouroufli (Dundee), this programme will explore healthcare students' lived experiences of gender-discordant and gender-concordant clinical environments using narrative methods to understand the influence of multiple intersecting identities on retention and success.

The five awards have been made to academics to support Doctoral studentships in fields including retention and success, employability, e-professionalism, internationalising UK students, and student-staff co-created curricula. The research outcomes from the Doctoral studentships will be disseminated throughout UK higher education.

Professor Craig Mahoney, Chief Executive of the HEA, said, "I am delighted to be announcing these awards today. Over the coming months and years we'll be working closely with the recipients and their PhD student to make a real difference to pedagogic knowledge which will ultimately have an impact on the student learning experience of thousands of students.

"I'm confident that the research outputs from our Doctoral Programme, whether from discipline-specific or generic pedagogic research, will have a significant impact on both policy and practice in higher education both in the UK and beyond. I look forward to working with our award winners as they develop and carry out their projects."

Professor Rees has a background in social science and education. Over the past 10 years she has developed a programme of research about patient-centred professionalism within the context of medical workplace learning and has become increasingly interested in gender issues in medical education.

She said, "We are thrilled to win this HEA award. The study will give us a real opportunity to better understand the relationships between gender, retention and success within healthcare education, an understanding which will be critical for the development of educational policy and practice around workforce planning. We look forward to welcoming another PhD student to our Centre and working with the HEA".

The PhD studentship is currently being advertised with a closing date of 12th July 2013. More information is available at www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=43997&LID=2380

For further information about the awards, please contact Karen O'Rourke, HEA Communications Manager, on 01904 717543.

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