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National recognition for Sunderland psychologist

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Published on 19 April 2018

Senior Psychologist Dr Helen Driscoll
Senior Psychologist Dr Helen Driscoll

Dr Helen Driscoll has become a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in recognition of her continued impact in learning and teaching.

Achieving a Senior Fellowship demonstrates meeting all dimensions of the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and learning support in Higher Education. This is a nationally recognised framework for benchmarking success within Higher Education teaching and learning support. Achieving this requires demonstration of thorough understanding of effective approaches to teaching and learning support. Crucially, a Senior Fellowship also demonstrates influence on the professional practice of colleagues in Higher Education.

Dr Driscoll, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, teaches on the undergraduate psychology programmes and on the MSc Psychology programme. Her specialisms are evolutionary psychology, individual differences and quantitative research methods. Her Research interests include supervising projects with an evolutionary psychology approach. In particular, she is interested in mate preferences, mating strategies, attractiveness, sexual behaviour, dark personalities, aggression and violence and evolutionary approaches to culture.

Commenting on her achievement, Dr Driscoll said: “Being awarded a Senior Fellowship means a great deal to me.

“Going to university changed my life and I strive to do the same for our students, both in my own teaching practice, and through positively influencing the practice of others.

“In my application for Senior Fellowship, the examples I used to illustrate my practice included the development of innovative and integrated psychology programmes, leading projects to enhance assessment and feedback practice, and leadership in quality assurance and enhancement.”