Overview

This session is part of Newer Researcher Work in Progress Webinar series. These sessions are open and free for all to attend. SRHE aims to provide a platform to present the most stimulating and innovative research taking place in higher education studies and practice. The Newer Researcher Network recognises the body of exciting research being undertaken by newer and early career researchers and seeks to create a supportive space in which such researchers can present their work-in-progress, receive feedback, and develop connections with national and international peers. Questions and feedback from attendees are warmly welcomed. We aim for this to be a constructive space for work in progress. 

Schedule  

Speaker Bios

Alaa Abdalla is a Postdoctoral Researcher at TU Delft (Netherlands), where she works for the Innovation in Delft Engineering Education (IDEE) initiative within the Teaching Academy. She holds a PhD in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech and has a background in Mechanical Engineering. Her research focuses on students transitioning to higher education and curriculum design that supports students’ study success and wellbeing. Using predominantly qualitative research methodologies, Alaa examines how educational structures, learning environments, and curricular practices shape students’ early experiences in higher education. She is especially interested in how research can inform educational policy and be translated into teaching and curriculum practices that support equity, student wellbeing, and institutional decision-making.

Emily Cleland is a Teaching Fellow and part-time PhD researcher at the University of Aberdeen whose work focuses on work-based learning, professional identity, and digital transformation in higher education. Her doctoral research explores how digital technologies shape professional identity among students, educators, and professional services staff in higher education. She coordinates postgraduate work-based learning courses and plays a key role in developing work-based learning within her own courses, across the institution, and beyond. Her research interests include staff and student use of GenAI in higher education, the development of innovative approaches to work-based learning assessment and feedback, and Q-methodology. Her work adopts an interdisciplinary, practice-oriented perspective and contributes to debates on digital pedagogy, employability, and inclusive practice-based education in higher education.