Professor Paul Ashwin

Professor

Profile

I am a Professor of Higher Education. My research is focused on the educational role of higher education. I am interested in how curricula in higher education can be designed in ways that help to transform students' understanding of themselves and the world. I am also interested in the role of policies in shaping the education offered by higher education institutions. The kinds of questions that I explore in this research include: What counts as high quality teaching and learning in higher education? How is this positioned in policies and practices? How do we research and theorise these competing notions of quality? How do we enhance the quality of education in ways that also support greater societal equality?

Research Interests

My research interests are focused on understanding the education that is offered by higher education institutions. My work examines the international, national and local policies and practices that determine the quality of this education and how it shapes the lives of students and contributes to societies globally.

My latest book, ‘Transforming University Education: A manifesto’, is an impassioned argument that we need to focus on the educational, rather than economic, purposes of university degrees if they are to have a transformational impact on students and societies. You can watch the launch of this book here.

I am also the lead author on the recently published second edition of Reflective Teaching in Higher Education, which is written by an international team to support the development of research-informed university teaching. I discuss transforming university teaching in this keynote presentation

I was Deputy Director of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE) from 2020-2024. CGHE was a partnership between seven UK and nine international universities with its headquarters at the University of Oxford

As part of CGHE, I led a project that examined Understanding Knowledge Student Agency in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in England, South Africa and the United States. This project involved researchers from Lancaster, University of Cape Town, Rhodes University, and Virginia Tech. We studied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering students through their undergraduate degrees. In the follow-on Graduate Experiences of Employability and Knowledge (GEEK) Project, we are examined the same participants’ experiences after completing their degrees.

As part of CGHE, I led an ESRC/National Research Foundation funded International Centre Partnership with Jenni Case, University of Cape Town. This partnership brought together established and emerging researchers from South Africa, the UK and internationally to examine access to, students’ experiences of, and outcomes from South African undergraduate higher education. We edited an open access book based on the outcomes of the project called ‘Higher Education Pathways: South African Undergraduate Education and the Public Good’

The Understanding Knowledge and Student Agency project builds on a previous ESRC funded project looking at quality and inequality in undergraduate Sociology degrees, which I worked on with Monica McLean, University of Nottingham and Andrea Abbas, University of Bath. We published a book based on the outcomes of this project entitled ‘How Powerful Knowledge Disrupts Inequality’

I am joint editor-in-chief of Higher Education, the leading Higher Education research journal, and co-editor, with Manja Klemencic, of the Bloomsbury book series 'Understanding Student Experiences of Higher Education'.

Career Details

Before coming to Lancaster, I spent four years researching students' experiences of learning at the Institute for the Advancement of University Learning, University of Oxford and, before that, seven years implementing and researching peer learning at Newham College of Further Education.

Research Overview

I am interested in how curricula in higher education can be designed in ways that help to transform students' understanding of themselves and the world. I am also interested in the role of policies in shaping the education offered by higher education institutions. The kinds of questions that I explore in this research include: What counts as high quality teaching and learning in higher education? How is this positioned in policies and practices? How do we research and theorise these competing notions of quality? How do we enhance the quality of education in ways that also support greater societal equality?

PhD Supervision Interests

I am interested in receiving PhD proposals in most areas related to knowledge, curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment in higher education, particularly those relating to students' and academics' experiences of higher education.

Selected Publications

Students’ changing accounts of chemical engineering: a longitudinal study in three countries
Ashwin, P., Agrawal, A., Blackie, M., McArthur, J., Pitterson, N., Smit, R. 27/05/2025 In: European Journal of Engineering Education.
Journal article

Why knowledge is central to ‘graduateness’: Implications for research and policy
Ashwin, P. 2/01/2025 In: Policy Reviews in Higher Education. 9, 1, p. 32-46. 15 p.
Journal article

Transformational accounts of students’ undergraduate education are evoked by their engagement with knowledge
Ashwin, P. 18/10/2024 In: Higher Education.
Journal article

Beyond the dichotomy of students-as-consumers and personal transformation: What students want from their degrees and their engagement with knowledge
Ashwin, P., Goldschneider, B., Agrawal, A., Smit, R. 31/08/2024 In: Studies in Higher Education. 49, 8, p. 1439-1450. 12 p.
Journal article

The educational purposes of higher education: Changing discussions of the societal outcomes of educating students
Ashwin, P. 31/12/2022 In: Higher Education. 84, 6, p. 1227-1244. 18 p.
Journal article

Undergraduate students’ knowledge outcomes and how these relate to their educational experiences: a longitudinal study of chemistry in two countries
Ashwin, P., Blackie, M., Pitterson, N., Smit, R. 5/11/2023 In: Higher Education. 86, 5, p. 1065-1080. 16 p.
Journal article

Understanding educational development in terms of the collective creation of socially-just curricula
Ashwin, P. 30/11/2022 In: Teaching in Higher Education. 27, 8, p. 979-991. 13 p.
Journal article

Transforming University Education: A manifesto
Ashwin, P. 17/09/2020 London : Bloomsbury. 176 p. ISBN: 9781350157231.
Book

Reflective Teaching in Higher Education
Ashwin, P., Boud, D., Calkins, S., Coate, K., Hallett, F., Light, G., Luckett, K., MacLaren, I., Martensson, K., McArthur, J., McCune, V., McLean, M., Tooher, M. 20/02/2020 Second Edition ed. London : Bloomsbury. ISBN: 9781350084667, 9781350084674.
Book

Locating Social Justice in Higher Education Research
McArthur, J., Ashwin, P. 19/03/2020 London : Bloomsbury. 232 p. ISBN: 9781350086753.
Book

Quality in Undergraduate Education: How Powerful Knowledge Disrupts Inequality
McLean, M., Abbas, A., Ashwin, P.W.H. 28/12/2017 London : Bloomsbury. 272 p. ISBN: 9781474214490. Electronic ISBN: 9781474214506.
Book

Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences: a phenomenographic exploration of students’ personal projects
Ashwin, P.W.H., Abbas, A., McLean, M. 12/2016 In: British Educational Research Journal. 42, 6, p. 962-977. 16 p.
Journal article

How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge?
Ashwin, P.W.H., Abbas, A., McLean, M. 2017 In: Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. 42, 4, p. 517-530. 14 p.
Journal article

Researcher creations?: the positioning of policy texts in higher education research
Ashwin, P., Smith, K. 06/2015 In: Higher Education. 69, 6, p. 1007-1018. 12 p.
Journal article

How do students’ accounts of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees?
Ashwin, P., Abbas, A., McLean, M. 02/2014 In: Higher Education. 67, 2, p. 219-234. 16 p.
Journal article

How often are theories developed through empirical research into higher education?
Ashwin, P. 12/2012 In: Studies in Higher Education. 37, 8, p. 941-955. 15 p.
Journal article

The meanings of student engagement: implications for policies and practices
Ashwin, P., Mcvitty, D. 2015 In: The European higher education area. Cham : Springer p. 343-359. 17 p.
Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Analysing teaching-learning interactions in higher education : accounting for structure and agency.
Ashwin, P. 02/2009 London : Continuum. 174 p. ISBN: 9780826494184.
Book

Centre for Global Higher Education 2020-2023
12/11/2020 → 31/05/2024
Research

Social Justice and Quality in Higher Education
01/05/2019 → …
Research

Understanding Knowledge, Curriculum and Student Agency
01/10/2016 → 30/09/2020
Research

Centre for Engaged Global Higher Education (CGHE)
25/07/2016 → 30/04/2021
Research

Pathways to personal & public good; understanding access to student experiences of, & outcomes from South African undergraduate higher education
13/11/2015 → 31/01/2019
Research

HEA Enhancement Policy Review
06/05/2013 → 28/02/2014
Research

HEFCE Enhancement Review Project: Future directions for Learning and Teaching Enhancement in England: institutional roles and interventions
06/05/2013 → 01/11/2013
Research

Engaging non traditional students for retention and success
01/01/2013 → 30/04/2016
Research

Pedagogic quality and inequality in university first degrees
01/11/2008 → 30/10/2011
Research

What are we educating students for?
Invited talk

Higher Education (Journal)
Editorial activity