Solent Learning and Teaching Institute

Solent Learning Teaching and Research Conference June 2023

• Solent Learning, Teaching & Research Conference 2023

  ‘Making Waves: Informed Practices in Learning, Teaching and Research

  at Solent University’

  14 June 2023  

  Registration is open until 12 June. Click here.  

  
  

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• CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
• Solent University invite all staff and students to join us for a day of practice-sharing, discussions and inspiration centred around informed practices in learning, teaching and research at Solent University. This includes staff and postgraduate student research, and good practices that expose our students at all levels to research content and activities and actively engage them in these. These may include:

  1. Collaborating with students and/or encouraging collaboration amongst students to allow for the successful co-creation of knowledge
  2. Collaborative learning projects across departments, subject areas and cohorts 
  3. Enhancing student experiences through meaningful activities that address real-world issues and therefore promote employability 
  4. Innovative ways of sharing knowledge amongst the wider research community at Solent University that includes students and staff
  5. Showcasing key stakeholder roles and their responsibilities as they contribute to the delivery of excellent student experiences e.g., Course Leaders and Level Leaders 
  6. Learning, teaching and research practices aimed at improving inclusivity, widening participation and closing attainment gaps
  7. Initiatives and activities that advance academic and industry-related skills such as digital literacy, confidence, and networking 
  8. Postgraduate or wider research at any stage and in any subject area.

  
  We are interested to hear how your practices or research have made or will make a difference to the students or wider research community at Solent University. In particular, we encourage contributions that are co-produced and presented with UG or PG students and those produced. The conference also marks an excellent opportunity for PGR students to showcase their progress and receive valuable feedback. We also welcome applications from individual staff and PGR students, from colleagues presenting with other staff, from PGR students presenting with other PGR students, and from staff presenting with their PGR, UG or PGT students.

  We offer two routes for presenting: a poster presentation as part of a larger poster exhibition, or a 15-minute full presentation. Either not only allow you to showcase your work and share it with others, but they are intended to enable you to receive feedback and build your profile and skills. You will also have the opportunity to attend development workshops on either mid-career research profile development or the transition from postgraduate research study to an academic career, as well as a keynote speech by Professor Kathleen Quinlan. 

  Submissions closed on 31 March and decisions were announced on 28 April. Registration is now open until 12 June. Click here to register. 

  For questions about the conference, please contact SLTI (slti@solent.ac.uk) or Professor Sabrina Vieth (sabrina.vieth@solent.ac.uk). 

  
  

• REGISTRATION (OPEN UNTIL 12 JUNE)
• Registration link URL
• CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
  

  
  

  Time	Event	Room (all in the Spark unless stated otherwise)
  9.15 – 9.30	Welcome speech by Professor James Knowles, Vice Chancellor	Atrium
  9.30 – 11.00	Poster presentations	Atrium
  11.00 – 12.00	Development workshops ‘Mid-career academics research profile development’ Speaker: Professor Jane Creaton (University of Portsmouth)  OR  ‘So you want to be an academic?’  (for PGR students) Speaker: Dr Vikki Burns, The PhD Life Coach	Jane Austin Lecture Hall      Palmerston Lecture Hall
  12.00 - 13.00	Break - Lunch	Atrium
  13.00 – 14.00	Keynote speech ‘Strengthening five key relationships in learning in higher education: what, why and how’  Speaker: Professor Kathleen Quinlan (University of Kent)	Jane Austin Theatre
  14.00 – 14.15	Break - Coffee	Atrium
  14.15 – 16.30	Full presentations  Tracks 1-4 (non-PGR) Tracks 5-6 (PGRs)	TS101, TS110, TS111 & TS113 TS001 & TS007
  16.30 – 17.00	Closing speech by Professor Syamantak Bhattacharya, Provost   incl. reflections from students Chinweoke Okpalaji and Zipporah Akello	Atrium
  17.15 - 19.00	Launch of the Research Hub  Drinks reception and display of posters designed by our students promoting our research groups, centres and themes	Research Hub (RM building)

  
  

• IMPORTANT DATES

  Submission form closes	2 March 2023, final extension to 31 March 2023
  Decisions announced	28 April 2023
  Registration opens	2 May 2023 (click here to register)
  Resubmissions	Poster presentations: 31 May 2023 Full presentations: 9 June 2023
  Registration closes	12 June 2023 (click here to register)
  Conference	14 June 2023

  
  
  

• SPEAKERS

• Professor Kathleen M. Quinlan

  Kathleen M. Quinlan, PhD PFHEA is Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Kent, UK. She has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, 10 book chapters, and two books, including How Higher Education Feels: Commentaries on Poems that Illuminate Emotion in Learning and Teaching (Sense, 2016). Her research is broadly in the areas of learning, teaching, assessment, and student engagement in higher education. She specialises in research on students’ holistic development, including the ways in which curriculum and instruction can support students’ interest.

  
  

  In the past 10 years, she has been principal investigator on grants from the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes, NERUPI, the Royal Academy of Engineering HE STEM Programme, and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, as well as co-investigator on projects funded by Advance HE and the Higher Education Careers Services Unit.  
  

  Summary Keynote Speech 'Strengthening five key relationships in learning in higher education: what, why and how'

  Higher education research and practice tends to privilege thinking; only recently has there been greater attention to the role of emotions in learning.  I argue that attending to key relationships in higher education allows us to highlight the human dimensions of education and promote learning through productive emotions, particularly students’ interest. I outline and illustrate five key relationships I have explored through a series of studies and briefly suggest how educators might enhance each of these key relationships (Quinlan, 2011; Quinlan, 2016a; Quinlan, 2016b; Quinlan, 2019; Quinlan & Salmen, 2019; Thomas & Quinlan, 2022; Quinlan & Renninger, 2022).  

  
  

• Professor Jane Creaton

  Jane Creaton is a Professor of Higher Education in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her expertise is in doctoral education, particularly professional doctorates and mental health and wellbeing. She was Principal Investigator on a funded project Postgraduate Research Student Mental Health and Wellbeing (supported by £150,000 from the Office for Students Catalyst Fund) which was completed in January 2020. Jane became a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2016 and a National Teaching Fellow in 2019. She currently chairs the Vitae Working Group on Mental Health and Wellbeing and is a member of the Governing Council of The Society for Research into Higher Education.

  
  Jane's broad area of research interest is higher education and my current research projects focus on PGR mental health and wellbeing, the impact of professional doctorates in the workplace and leadership and management in higher education. She contributes to the Graduate School Development Programme and supervisor training programme. 
  
  Workshop title: 'Mid Career Academics: Profiles and Pathways'
  This workshop is designed to offer an overview of the academic career landscape for mid-career academics in the UK. Looking at the evidence about career trajectories within the UK, we will explore profiles of mid-career academics and pathways to promotion. Participants will gain insights into the diverse pathways available to mid-career academics in the UK and develop strategies for advancing their careers and achieving their professional goals.
  
  

• Dr Vikki Burns

  Vikki Burns is the PhD Life Coach.  She was awarded a full Professorship in 2020, is a national award-winning lecturer, regular keynote speaker, and she has completed several senior management roles. She later decided to train as a coach and launched the PhD Life Coach. Her PhD and early career focused on exploring how psychological stress and exercise affect immune function and health.  Vikki  loved learning about how our thoughts and feelings could influence our physiological function through neural and hormonal pathways. As she progressed though, she became more teaching focused, specialising in helping students develop transferable skills through authentic assessments and extracurricular activities. She also spent a lot of time supervising PhD students, designing and running skills-training programmes, and mentoring teaching-focused staff.

  
  Workshop title: 'So you want to be an academic?'
  This workshop is targeted at PGR students at Solent University. This is NOT your usual workshops teaching concrete methods (e.g. literature searching, project management.) Instead, it focuses on the things that people are really struggling with.
  

• Zipporah Akello

  Zipporah Akello is a 2nd year BSc Psychology. She is a mature female student and mother of 2, using pronouns she/her, who was born in Uganda and arrived in the UK aged 7, the youngest of three. While at Solent she has become a student representative and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Champion. Zipporah is employed as part of the student partnership team which strives to expand student knowledge on inclusion and what it means within an academic setting.  Having a passion for people and assisting others in recognising their capabilities and positions within their own realities and the realities constructed through social interactions, she has carved her pathway towards psychology originally starting her academic journey with a biochemistry interest. She soon realised it was not the explainable reactions she was truly interested in but the phenomena that occur when the explanation cannot be physically measured, e.g., the reasoning and functions that cause humans to be ‘’human’’ or behave simultaneously with each other, but under independent control.

  
  

  Zipporah will conduct a keynote listening activity and share her reflections of the conference during the closing speech of this year's conference.    

  
  

• Chinweoke Okpalaji

  Mrs Chinweoke Adanna Okpalaji is a seasoned Maritime Administration professional with over 20 years’ experience in the public and private sector of the maritime industry. She is a member of Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA), and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) UK. In 1997, Chinweoke graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Her fascination with the human mind and its impact on productivity was the driving force behind the study for a Master of Science Degree in Business Psychology from the University of South Wales, UK in 2016. To formalize her maritime industry knowledge, in 2022 Chinweoke went on to study for a Master of Science degree in International Maritime Business at the Warsash Maritime School, Solent University, United Kingdom. Chinweoke hopes to be part of a larger group, that changes the narrative regarding mental Health within the maritime sector, thus fostering safer seas and sailing, while breaking the stigma associated with mental unwellness, and overturning unfavorable mental health legislation. She has received a Certificate in Counselling and Diploma in Mental Health Management, to better equip her for achieving her set objectives and to pursue her passion.

  
  

  Chinweoke will conduct a keynote listening activity and share her reflections of the conference during the closing speech of this year's conference.    

  
  

• SUBMISSION

  
  

• Submissions are now closed!
• Submission form URL