Key details
Dr Stuart Sims
Head of Academic & Learning Enhancement (interim), Associate Professor in HE Learning & Teaching
Stuart Sims is an academic developer who joined the University of Greenwich in February 2022, where he has oversight for Continuous Professional Development relating to learning, teaching and educational leadership in the Academic & Learning Enhancement team.
Prior to this, he was a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Portsmouth, primarily responsible for developing approaches to staff-student co-creation, co-running the university’s apprenticeship End Point Assessment Organisation and lecturing on the Academic Professional Apprenticeship.
Stuart has also worked at the University of Winchester, in a number of roles, including as Senior Educational Developer and Head of Student Engagement. A key achievement was the management of the Student Fellows Scheme, a large-scale staff-student partnership initiative which has received national recognition from the NUS and at Guardian Higher Education Awards (2015). Stuart was also part of the successful bid and leadership team for the HEFCE-funded REACT project, which developed student engagement practice at 16 UK universities.
Stuart has published on a wide range of education topics, including public schooling, the use of mobile devices in classrooms, evaluation frameworks, and staff-student partnership. He is an editor of the Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal and convenes the Research & Evaluation Special Interest Group for RAISE.
Responsibilities within the university
Learning & Teaching CPD lead
Support for developing educational leadership
Teaching on the PgCert in Higher Education, AwardHE & Academic Professional Apprenticeship
Member of NSS taskforce
Chair of SHIFT Conference organising panel
Co-chair of the Programme Leaders Forum
Oversight of the Peer Supported Development (peer observation) scheme
Awards
AdvanceHE- CATE Award 2022 (team member at University of Portsmouth)
Student Led Teaching Awards 2016 (University of Winchester)
Guardian Higher Education Awards 2015- Student Experience Award (Nominated)
National Union of Students & Higher Education Academy- Students as Partners Institutional-Student Union Partnership Award (Highly commended 2014, University of Winchester)
Recognition
Convenor of RAISE Special Interest Group for Research & Evaluation
Editor- Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal
Senior Fellow of the HEA
Research / Scholarly interests
- Staff-student partnership
- Research informed teaching
- Degree apprenticeship student experience
Recent publications
Marie, J., & Sims, S. (2023). Control, freedom and structure in student–staff partnerships. Advancing Student Engagement in Higher Education: Reflection, Critique and Challenge. Abingdon: Routledge.
Poole, R., Cook, F., Sims, S., & Brindley, J. (2023). Challenges, barriers and strategies for engaging in level 7 apprenticeship studies. Journal of Education and Work, 36(2), 153-168.
Marley, S. A., Siani, A., & Sims, S. (2022). Real‐life research projects improve student engagement and provide reliable data for academics. Ecology and Evolution, 12(12), e9593.
Wilson, C., Sims, S., Dyer, J., & Handley, F. (2021). Identifying opportunities and gaps in current evaluation frameworks–the knowns and unknowns in determining effective student engagement activity. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1-14.
Brindley, J., & Sims, S. (2021). The role of professional networks in supporting and developing real world learning. Applied Pedagogies for Higher Education, 41.
Lowe, C., & Sims, S. (2020). On the origin of Student Fellows: Reflections on the evolution of partnership from theory to practice. In A Handbook for Student Engagement in Higher Education (pp. 177-186). Routledge.
Lowe, C., Sims, S., & Winter, J. (2019). Going beyond metric-driven responses to surveys: evaluating uses of UKES to support students’ critical reflection on their learning gain. Higher Education Pedagogies, 4(1), 448-461.
Presentations
Sims, Brindley & Langston (2022) Co-creating engagement with the Academic Professional Apprenticeship-
modelling good practice in partnership curriculum design with early career academic staff. RAISE
Conference, University of Lincoln
Wilson, C., Sims, S. & Luebsen, W. (2019) How can we plan student engagement strategies using evidence to evaluate student engagement initiatives & collaborate cross-institutionally? RAISE Conference, Newcastle University
Sims, S., Luesbsen, W., & Guggiari-Peel, C. (2017) Who is being reached and what do they get out of it? REACT
Conference, University of Winchester
Dunne, E., Lowe, T., Sims, S. & Shaw, C (2016) Empowering Students as Agents of Change through Partnership.
Beyond the Comfort Zone: Putting Civic Leadership at the Heart of the University Experience, Ravensbourne University
Sims, S. (2015) Pioneering New Student Engagement Models to Maximise the Student Experience. Inside
Government: Enhancing the Quality of the Student Experience 2015, London.
Sims, S. & Barlow, A. (2015) Scaling up and embedding staff-student partnerships at the University of
Winchester. Change Agent Network conference, Birmingham