Imperial College London Hiring for Research Assistant / Research Associate in Higher Education Job at South Kensington, England Full Time

The Department of Life Sciences (DoLS), the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship (CHERS) together with the Faculty of Natural Sciences EdTech lab (FoNS Ed Tech) have an exciting new opportunity for a Research Assistant / Research Associate in Higher Education to join a team working on a pedagogic transformation project. Our aim is to influence feedback culture and behaviour of personal tutors and undergraduate life sciences students using an electronic portfolio (e-portfolio).

This exciting post is an ideal next step if you are an excellent researcher in Higher Education, particularly in research-intensive STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine) disciplinary contexts. It will enable you to contribute to the work being undertaken on assessment and feedback at Imperial College London. The e-portfolio has already been used by tutors and students and you will help support its management, evaluation, and further development within the department and across the College. You will contribute significantly to the qualitative data collection and analysis and may have the opportunity to develop quantitative research skills. You will help to gain knowledge of insights, successes, and challenges of using the e-portfolio to change the culture of giving, receiving, and using feedback from tutors and students from diverse backgrounds. You will also help investigate the impact on students of discussing the e-portfolio in personal tutorials and how this affects academic development and a sense of belonging.

The project is a collaboration between the DoLS, CHERS and FoNS EdTech and you will work with staff across these departments. Given the project is also focused on specific pedagogical outputs, you will liaise with students and staff to develop a range of web-based resources, informed by the results of the project, to support the development of feedback and self-reflection practice for staff and different groups of STEMM students at the College.

Duties and responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

• To liaise with DoLS and FoNS EdTech lab staff to help manage and develop the e-portfolio using the Microsoft suite of software and College VLE system
• To contribute to the review and summaries of relevant educational literature for the project
• To undertake participant recruitment, liaison, data collection, data cleaning and data management
• To ensure the validity and reliability of data at all times
• To assist with analysis and interpretation of results of qualitative data, making use of appropriate qualitative research methods, techniques, and tools (e.g., NVivo 12)
• To use or develop quantitative education research skills to assist with the analysis of quantitative data making use of appropriate techniques and software (e.g., Excel, R)
• To produce and document the development and analysis of the work
• To maintain accurate, complete, and up-to-date records of activities and findings relating to the project
• To liaise with wider College departments, such as the Educational Development Unit and the Digital Learning Hub, and tutors and students for the creation and development of web-based materials (e.g., videos, written resources) on feedback for tutors and students at Imperial College London and the e-portfolio.
• To present findings to the project team and other colleagues in the form of presentations and reports
• To provide advice relating to the project to other staff and students
• To assist with supervising student partners on the project
• To assist with the dissemination, presentation (oral and poster) and publication of findings within College and externally
• To attend relevant workshops and conferences as necessary
• To develop contacts within the College and the wider community
• To promote the reputation of the project team, the Department, and the College

Other Duties

• To undertake appropriate administrative tasks
• To undertake any necessary training and/or development
• To attend relevant meetings

Essential requirements

• Research Associate: Hold a PhD (or near completion of) in a relevant social sciences field (e.g., education, educational psychology, educational sociology) or appropriate equivalent experience
• 
  Research Assistant: Near completion of a PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant social sciences field (e.g., education, educational psychology, educational sociology)
• Have a strong interest in higher education research, especially assessment and feedback
• Have good qualitative research skills
• Have good quantitative research skills or a willingness to develop them
• Be highly motivated and well organised
• Be able to work independently and as part of a team
• Have excellent communication skills

Further information

This position is full-time and fixed term for 12 months and will be based at South Kensington Campus. The post will commence in March 2022 or soon thereafter.

The appointment will normally be made at the bottom of the relevant salary range.

For the Research Associate position, the PhD would need to be in a subject relevant to the role to be appointed to, as listed under Essential Requirements.

• Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded a PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range of £36,694 – £39,888 per annum.

Informal enquiries may be made to: Dr Magda Charalambous, Principal Teaching Fellow, Department of Life Sciences ([email protected])

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research/

Documents

• Job Description.pdf