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About

Our vision

Our vision is to conduct research on digital education which will facilitate the education of the next generation of global citizens to reach their potential and to foster a culture of lifelong learning in order to prepare individuals to work towards meeting global challenges and to bring about a more inclusive and just society. Through this research, we hope that more people globally will be able to benefit from effective digital education approaches which support their educational aspirations. Over the next 5 years, through delivery of activities in this strategy, we strive to:

  • Create, advance and disseminate knowledge about the theory and practice of digital education to a global audience of researchers, practitioners and policy makers;
  • Develop a distinctive portfolio of research, focused on the higher education and workplace learning sectors;
  • Create a portfolio of distinctive inter-disciplinary research, aligned with the university’s grand challenges, reflecting our expertise;
  • Collaborate with leading national and international researchers in digital education;
  • Develop outstanding graduates and scholars at the forefront of research and innovation in digital education;
  • Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of digital education practice, taking into account the perspectives of all stakeholders;
  • Demonstrate impact by influencing national and international public education polices in the area of digital education.

Our mission statement

We conduct world-class, impactful research into the role of digital technologies to support learning in the higher education and workplace learning sectors, exploring multiple contexts (formal education, informal learning, lifelong learning), and involving various modes (blended, hybrid and fully online).

Our strategic priorities

Our strategic priorities for the next three years are as follows:

  • Development of large, collaborative and interdisciplinary grant applications that engage with the University themes and global challenges;
  • Development of high quality, rigorous and significant outputs in international journals;
  • Support for all members of the Centre to develop and grow through mentoring;
  • Inclusive and collegial environment for all researchers and doctoral students associated with the Centre;
  • Maintain and grow our collaborations with high-profile external researchers in digital education, based in the UK and internationally;
  • Organisation of high profile internal and external events to disseminate our research, build networks and develop collaborations, including seminars, workshops and research symposia;
  • Attract high quality researchers, visiting scholars and doctoral students to work with the Centre.

Our research focus

The Centre will serve as an institutional focus for interdisciplinary research in the field of digital education, critically investigating innovation processes in higher education and workplace learning settings. Our primary drivers are research excellence and impact. Through discussion within the Centre, we have agreed to focus on the following three areas of activity:

  • Efficacy and experience of blended learning and online education approaches;
  • Changing nature of global higher education as a result of digitisation;
  • Digital skills and digital literacy for learning and work-force development.