Geography duo receive prestigious award for work on internationalising UK students
Michael Hoyler
Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é academics Michael Hoyler and Dr Heike Jöns have been chosen for a prestigious award to develop their work on internationalising UK students through migrant academic staff.
The two senior lecturers from the Department of Geography, School of Social, Political and Geographical Sciences, have received one of only five Mike Baker Doctoral Programme awards made by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) this year.
The awards form part of the HEA's strategy to undertake research to develop pedagogical knowledge and evidence-based practice in higher education.
The doctoral project funded by the award addresses the question of how international academic staff transfer ideas and perspectives acquired in non-UK educational environments to students at UK universities.
The research will examine the opportunities and challenges migrant academics face in engaging in such knowledge transfer, its impact on student learning, and the support structures available. This will create new insights into transnational knowledge transfer in higher education and generate policy-relevant findings on internationalisation strategies ‘at home’.
In response to receiving the award Michael Hoyler said:
“We are extremely pleased to have received this award. The project will examine an important but little researched aspect of the globalisation of higher education: the contribution of migrant academic staff to internationalising the student experience.
“The award will help us better understand the opportunities and challenges of transnational knowledge transfer in learning and teaching, which is critical for developing institutional policy and practice in this area.”
Professor Craig Mahoney, Chief Executive of the HEA, said: “I am delighted to be announcing these awards. 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.”
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