New College of the Humanities

The academic strategy at York St John University promotes interdisciplinary research and aims to develop critical mass in areas of research strength in  each of its four disciplines. The key aims of the institution are to attract increasing numbers of PhD students, research-active staff and external research funding to develop a research culture which will secure a national and, ultimately, an international research reputation.

In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), thirty per cent of York St John University’s submission was classified as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. The University has made a major leap forwards in its research performance since the last time it was evaluated in 2008 with significantly higher ratings across all submitted subject areas. The number of Units of Assessment which York St John University submitted work in has grown from seven subject areas in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE, the predecessor to the REF) to nine in the 2014 REF, with the number of staff submitted increasing by 50 per cent. The University has supervised research degree students since 1994 and was awarded Research Degree Awarding Powers in 2015.

For more details on research visit the York St John University website

Writtle University College has been established since 1893 providing services to agriculture and the land based sectors. The University College has a tradition of successful Postgraduate Research Students that have graduated with studies focusing on land-based, environmental, animal science and art and design.

The University College can offer a number of exciting bespoke postgraduate research degrees tailored to individuals’ needs and interests. Some of the areas of broad study areas available include:

• Agriculture
• Animal Science
• Applied Biology
• Art and Design
• Conservation Management
• Horticulture
• Landscape Architecture

Writtle University College have also set up a number of centres as part of the drive to achieve excellence in its research and education activities. These include the Centre for Equine and Animal Science (CEQAS), the Centre for Exercise and Health and the Writtle School of Design (WSD).

The University of Worcester is committed to producing high quality research with impact across all its subject areas and expect and support our academic staff to engage in research and knowledge transfer. At the same time, the institution wishes to develop and enhance areas of national and international excellence through its  Research Centres and Groups.

The University has a strong focus on applied research, reflecting the professional and practice-based strengths of several of its academic Institutes and Research Centres; research which, through its application, will have significant impacts on the practice of teachers, health professionals, coaches, managers and artists.

Each of the University of Worcester’s six academic departments includes active researchers who are experts in their field:

• Institute of Education
• Institute of Health and Society
• Institute of Humanities and Creative Arts
• Institute of Science and the Environment
• Institute of Sport and Exercise Science
• Worcester Business School

Research addresses economic growth and social mobility through sector-specific agendas in education, health, physical activity, sport, tourism, communication and the creative arts.

The university’s approach is based upon the principles of smart specialisation, bringing together subject knowledge, specialist research and sector priorities to create greater social and economic impact.

Particular strengths of our research, and designed to support health and wealth generation, are the:

• provision and evaluation of evidence to inform sector-based policy, practice and innovation
• development of applications and products to support behaviour change

The university’s strong values base, developed since its origins in 1838, underpins everything it does and its spirit of innovation and exploration is an important driver for its research activity.

Research areas covered by the University include:

• Transformational education and STEM education
• Physical activity, health and rehabilitation
• Health-related technologies
• Sport sciences and human performance
• Sound and performance-related technologies
• Creative writing, linguistics and science communication
• Business and enterprise (small and micro business, social enterprise and third sector)
• Social cohesion and community development
• Speech & language therapy including dysphagia and Parkinson’s disease
• Modern journalism and social media
• Creative arts and its broader meaning to health and wealth generation

The University of St Mark & St John undertakes translational research across these areas as well as knowledge transfer, consultancies and private sector collaborations and partnerships.

Contact the Research and Innovation Office on research@marjon.ac.uk

As a specialist institution, UCA is committed to creative practice and understands research and enquiry to be at the heart of lifelong practice-led pedagogies in the creative arts. UCA researchers represent a broad range of practice as artists, designers, architects, filmmakers, photographers, historians, theorists and curators. Their research leads to the creation of buildings, artworks, installations, books, articles, ceramics, exhibitions, textiles, reports, films, photographs and moving image, and as such they offer a broad understanding of art and design that reaches into allied areas of the media, communication and the built environment.

UCA researchers and academic staff work alongside, supervise and mentor a range of postgraduate research students working toward MPhil and PhD research degrees.  Research students are central to the vitality of the research culture at UCA and their work pushes the bounds of creativity and innovation.

The university co-ordinates its research through a number of research centres:

• The Anglo-Japanese Textile Centre
• Crafts Study Centre
• The Centre for Sustainable Design
• Centre for Digital Scholarship

Research at Southampton Solent is applicable to the public and private sectors including the maritime industry, voluntary services, sport, health, education, the creative industries and society. It seeks to contribute to the many different debates and issues that we are facing within a knowledge-based economy and fast changing global environment. Our research and enterprise activities inform change and have visible impact, in local, national and international arenas.

Research clusters and groups

We are keen to encourage colleagues to work collaboratively, perhaps to accelerate development or to address emerging challenges. The diversity of our research clusters and groups underpins a rich array of research at Southampton Solent University. Our activities lead to important developments in key sectors, and our researchers are keen to build relationships with businesses and the community.

Postgraduate research studies

We value our postgraduate research students and enable them to develop the wide range of skills needed to succeed in their individual studies and enhance their career prospects. With research as the basis of the doctoral education, our students develop the technical and intellectual abilities needed to work at the forefront of knowledge. We offer discipline-focused training, collaboration on live projects with industry partners, and the fostering of student-led initiatives. We are fully committed to supporting our doctoral students in their personal and professional development.

Ravensbourne’s practice-based research also supports investigation into the industrial and cultural contexts, and impacts and value of emerging technologies. We are particularly interested in the aesthetics and uses of technologies which have relevance to the Creative Industries. We are committed to improving the affordances of emerging technologies, and particularly foreground knowledge exchange between industry and the Academy.

Researchers at Ravensbourne are likely to draw from ethnography, creative methods, action research, textual analysis, and production and audience studies. We are as likely to work with large organisations (Barclays, Marks and Spencer, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the BBC) as with Small to Medium-sized Enterprises who may be more associated with newer economic structures and production ecologies. We are also involved in policy-making and standard-setting.

Our researchers specialize in media production and technology (including stereoscopic 3-D and Broadcast Engineering), emerging design practices such as 3D printing, wearable futures, and learning and teaching (use of mobile platforms). We are particularly interested in exploring the blending of design with technology, and in inter-disciplinary working.

We are becoming known for our international conferences which draw researchers and industry together to explore emerging fields. We have hosted large events in Wearable Futures, Transmedia, and we host Mozilla’s annual ‘MozFest’. Our annual conference in 3-D film and television was the first large-scale event in the UK to foreground stereoscopy. The conference is now jointly hosted with the i3DS Society at the British Film Institute.

For further information:

https://www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/

Plymouth College of Art’s (PCA) philosophy for research is grounded in the institution’s distinctive mission and purpose as a specialist provider of education in art, craft, design and media. It reflects PCA’s beliefs in the value of creative practice and the centrality of the principle of thinking through making. It also reflects a commitment to promote innovation, intellectual curiosity, entrepreneurship and creativity, adding value to the cultural, social and economic life of Plymouth and the South West region, and contributing positively to broader national and international cultural and economic agendas.

PCA strongly encourage and support links between research and pedagogy and between research and professional practice, and thinking through making radiates through all communities of practice – fine artists, makers, designers  and creative media producers. It denotes the fundamental importance of the practitioner’s relationship to, and understanding of, materials, media, tools and processes, be it (for example) film-making, glass-blowing, curatorial research, or performance art. 

PCA maintain a strong focus on professional studio and workshop regimes of knowledge and action, underpinned with an entrepreneurial/critical-curatorial approach to contexts of practice that are increasingly structured around portfolio career/SME settings.

There are strong historical threads embedded in this stance that can be traced back to the institution’s roots as the Plymouth Drawing School, established in 1856 as part of the then nation-wide wave of art, design and industry teaching institutions set-up in the wake of the 1851 Great Exhibition. However, contemporary investment in thinking through making emphatically does not signify a simplistic concentration solely on embodied technical skill.

PCA views creative making as essentially a research site, or laboratory, for the deep exploration of determinate ideas and feelings – a project that is radically open to the future and which embraces an ‘expanded’ field of creative practices.  

Leeds Trinity is a teaching-led, research-informed university, committed to empowering individuals and engagement with communities. Our scholarships and research learning informs our teaching and likewise, our teaching influences the research we undertake.

Leeds Trinity has a rapidly growing research reputation in a number of specific areas of expertise with commitment to an actively forward-thinking programme that innovates the links between teaching and research across the full range of courses.

The postgraduate programmes are enriched by the latest and most advanced research to deliver an exceptional student experience with the support of our knowledgeable and professional industry-led academics who bring their own research to life.

The RAE (2008) results recognised this cutting-edge and established research reputation. Our History research area was judged world-leading and English, Theology and Religious Studies as internationally excellent.

The university is home to the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies. Established in 1994, the LCVS offers full-time and part-time funded PhD Studentships in a supportive environment.

Hartpury University is one of the UK’s leading land-based and sports educational establishments. Our stunning specialist campus covers more than 360 hectares and is located near to both Gloucester and Cheltenham.

Hartpury is an Associate Faculty of the University of the West of England (UWE) and has been working in partnership with UWE since 1997. It is currently working towards ‘Taught Degree Awarding Powers’ with the aim of awarding its own degrees, potentially from September 2018.

Today it has more than 1500 students working towards foundation degrees, honours degrees and postgraduate qualifications in equine, sport and animal and land studies.

Hartpury also offers A Levels and BTEC Diplomas to more than 1600 full time students, as well as professional courses in leadership and management, teaching and training, animal care, dog grooming, equine studies, land-based studies, first aid and health and safety.

Hartpury is the world’s largest equine education establishment, hosting three international equine events, and regularly wins national titles in rugby and football as well as rowing, golf, modern pentathlon and netball.

https://www.hartpury.ac.uk

Glyndŵr also has high quality facilities for land-based learning at its campus in Northop, Flintshire, while elsewhere in the county the Advanced Composite Training and Development Centre at Airbus is the result of a groundbreaking partnership between Glyndŵr University, Airbus, Deeside College and the Welsh Government. At St Asaph the university has OpTIC Glyndŵr, a leading centre for research and development in cutting-edge opto-electronics and ultra-high-precision optics technology.

From creating high precision timing systems for sub-atomic particle accelerators to tackling cyber-bullying and from developing the potential of biorefineries to improving lifestyle for health, the university’s research continues to demonstrate impact and significance both nationally and internationally.

The University’s expertise and research spans a wide range of disciplines organised within two University Institutes:

• Arts, Science and Technology

Subject areas include: Biology and Environment, Business and Management, Chemistry, Computing, Creative Industries and Engineering and Applied Physics

• Health, Medical Sciences and Society

Subject areas include: Applied Social Sciences, Education, Early Childhood and Family Studies, Health Sciences and Psychology.

Glyndŵr University Research Centres

• Creative and Applied Research for the Digital Society
• University Research Centre for Management
• University Research Centre for Materials, Engineering and Manufacturing
• Centre for Solar Energy Research
• Centre for Water Soluble Polymers
• Glyn O. Phillips Hydrocolloids Research Centre
• National Facility for Ultra Precision Surfaces
• Advanced Composite Training and Development Centre
• University Research Centre for Health, Wellbeing and Society
• University Research Centre for Psychology

Bucks strongly encourage a collaborative approach and have a number of non-profit research centres and institutes which foster close links with industry, the public sector and charitable organisations.

Bucks has a flourishing research degree programme, with opportunities for both full-time and part-time study leading towards MPhil and PhD degrees in a wide range of subject areas.

Research is profiled in the Bucks Knowledge Archive, the online repository for Bucks’ academics’ research output.

Many of our courses, particularly at Higher Education level, have a research component, and we place importance on the teaching of good research practice. A number of Bradford College staff are engaged in research projects, and have had research published in books and journals on a range of topics.

• Epicurious: This is our college e-journal produced by our academic staff, and which reflects our various areas of scholarship.
• Research bulletin: Read about some of our research and scholarly activity in the Bradford College Research Bulletin
• Internal staff research grants: We run an annual small grants programme to enable staff to explore areas of interest that also help the College develop its teaching and learning practice.
• Conferences and other events: We hold events that profile research and scholarly activity carried out by Bradford College staff and others. See details 
• Research ethics: The College has a research ethics policy, procedure and committee, and aims to ensure that students who do research gain a sound understanding of the importance of ethics.
• Library resources and support: our library staff provide support to College staff and students engaged in research. They can assist with digital search skills, advise on copyright and plagiarism, and provide guidance on writing for publication.
• Our Textile Archive is an excellent resource for research by our students, staff and external academic and industry researchers. See details 

For further information, contact:

Research is important to us at BG for its intrinsic as well as extrinsic value and our Centre for Educational Development and Research (CEDaR) supports research among staff and students across the institution.

Doctoral Study at Bishop Grosseteste

Studying for a doctoral level qualification is one of the most exciting, stimulating and challenging things you can do. BG’s innovative doctoral programmes are designed to empower you as a professional educator to conduct robust research focused on the critical analysis of evidence, pushing back the boundaries of knowledge, developing policy and professional practice, and improving the quality of education as a whole.

By undertaking doctoral level study, you will both join and contribute towards BG’s growing community of scholars and intellectual community in the heart of the cathedral and historic city of Lincoln. With degrees awarded by the University of Leicester, BG offers the opportunity to study for a full or part-time PhD or a part-time EdD. Each postgraduate route is designed to help obtain a doctoral level qualification, but each is intended to accommodate different student circumstances and preferred modes of study.