Over the past decade, there has been an increase in government initiatives to widen Higher Education (HE) participation in the UK. Consequently, various Further Education Colleges (FECs) provide HE in order to meet that drive. In 2021, 162 FECs provided HE undergraduate degrees, yet little research has been focused on HE lecturers and their…

Personal tutoring is renowned for the positive role it can play in supporting student satisfaction, engagement and attainment outcomes in higher education. Surprisingly though, few studies have specifically investigated the demands of this role from the perspective of the personal tutor. Through the theoretical lens of Role Theory, this study…

Supporting academics' initial development as university teachers is important for improving their ability to contribute to high-quality education and for reducing anxiety and stress around teaching. Focusing on tasks experienced as challenging is considered a key principle for organising effective teacher professional development. To apply this…

In March 2020 virtually all UK universities were suddenly thrown into an unprecedented and sudden closure of campus and facilities owing to the British Government's COVID-19 pandemic lockdown policies. Further evidence suggests that this exacerbated existing gendered differences. This paper reports on UK academic responses from an international…

The literature demonstrates that stress in the working life of academics has increased over recent years. However, qualitative research on how academics cope with this is very scarce. Using online interviewing with thematic analysis, this paper examines how 31 academics in a post-92 predominantly teaching-focused UK university cope with the…