Sally Smith
Sally Smith

Prof Sally Smith PFHEA FBCS

Head of Graduate Apprenticeships and Skills Development and Professor

Biography

Professor Sally Smith MA MSc DBA PFHEA

Sally is Head of Graduate Apprenticeships and Skills Development at Edinburgh Napier. She has an MA (Hons) in Mathematics from Aberdeen University, Scotland, an MSc in Computer Science from City University, London and a DBA from Edinburgh Napier University. Sally is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has previously worked in the telecommunications and aerospace industries in the UK and Europe.

She is the Director of the Centre for Higher Education Research at Edinburgh Napier University and Project Director of e-Placement Scotland, creating paid placements for computing students across Scotland.

Sally leads the Data Education in Universities workstream of the Data Skills Gateway of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland Region City Deal.

Sally’s research focus is on the impact of work placements and graduate apprenticeships, especially on under-represented groups.

Previously, Sally was Dean of Computing 2008-2020. Between 2011 and 2018 she was on the committee of the UK Council of Professors and Heads of Computing, serving as Chair between 2014 and 2016.

Research Areas

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • SQA Advisory Council
  • Sally Smith has been appointed to the Shadbolt Review Group

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference: Making Connections, Innovating and Sharing Pedagogy
  • Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference: Making Connections, Innovating and Sharing Pedagogy
  • Conference Chair Horizons in STEM Higher Education
  • UK STEM Conference June 2016: A new conference for teaching and learning research in STEM subjects.

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External at Birmingham City University

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Connect Tech 100
  • Fellow of the British Computer Society
  • Sally Smith and Bill Buchanan in Tech 100 for Scotland
  • Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

 

Media Activity

  • Graduate Apprenticeships - doubling of places
  • Scottish Business News Network
  • Edinburgh Napier University – Bridging the digital skills gap
  • Edinburgh Napier gets major funding to teach digital skills
  • Edinburgh Napier takes over as parent organisation to GGS
  • Times Higher Article
  • The code for future success is investing in our graduates

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Principal Fellowship of Higher Education Academy
  • Fellow of the British Computer Society

 

Date


85 results

Job-seeking narratives: in search of graduate capitals acquired during student placements

Journal Article
Smith, S., & Smith, C. (in press)
Job-seeking narratives: in search of graduate capitals acquired during student placements. British Journal of Sociology of Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2024.2328125
Being a graduate is no longer sufficient to secure a fulfilling and rewarding graduate role. This paper drew on Tomlinson’s Graduate Capital Model to analyse the job-seeking n...

Students’ gendered experiences of male-dominated Computing and Engineering courses

Conference Proceeding
Taylor-Smith, E., Smith, S., & Fabian, K. (2023)
Students’ gendered experiences of male-dominated Computing and Engineering courses.
How does it feel to be in a gender minority on a STEM programme? Does it have an impact on individual students? Via an online survey (n=255), undergraduate students on Computi...

Investing in degree apprenticeships: Analysing experiences through Conservation of Resources Theory

Conference Proceeding
Taylor-Smith, E., Smith, S., & Bratton, A. (2023)
Investing in degree apprenticeships: Analysing experiences through Conservation of Resources Theory.
Degree apprentices have reported finding work-life-study balance challenging. This study uses the Theory of Conservation of Resources (COR) to investigate the resources invest...

Disparities in work-integrated learning experiences for students who present as women: an international study of biases, barriers, and challenges

Journal Article
Bowen, T., Drysdale, M. T., Callaghan, S., Smith, S., Johansson, K., Smith, C., …Berg, T. (2024)
Disparities in work-integrated learning experiences for students who present as women: an international study of biases, barriers, and challenges. Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, 14(2), 313-328. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-05-2023-0115
Purpose This study identifies gendered disparities among women students participating in work-integrated learning and explores the effects of the disparities on their percepti...

Apprentices’ perspectives of the tripartite collaboration at the heart of degree apprenticeships: a longitudinal study

Journal Article
Taylor-Smith, E., Smith, S., Fabian, K., & Bratton, A. (2023)
Apprentices’ perspectives of the tripartite collaboration at the heart of degree apprenticeships: a longitudinal study. Journal of Workplace Learning, 35(8), 779-795. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-01-2023-0007
Purpose: The partnership which underpins degree apprenticeships is a tripartite collaboration between apprentices, employers, and universities. This study investigated the li...

Signalling new opportunities? An analysis of UK job adverts for degree apprenticeships

Journal Article
Fabian, K., Taylor-Smith, E., Smith, S., & Bratton, A. (in press)
Signalling new opportunities? An analysis of UK job adverts for degree apprenticeships. Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-02-2022-0037
Purpose The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the degree apprenticeship labour market and employers’ strategies for apprenticeship recruitment using job advertisem...

Mobilising more women into computing

Presentation / Conference
Taylor-Smith, E., Shankland, C., Smith, S., & Barr, M. (2022, December)
Mobilising more women into computing. Paper presented at Mobilities in Higher Education: SRHE International Conference 2022, Online
According to HESA data, UK universities' computing departments continue to suffer from a gender imbalance, where at present only 21% of students are female. This imbalance can...

Apprentices' longitudinal perspectives of the tripartite collaboration at the heart of degree apprenticeships

Presentation / Conference
Taylor-Smith, E., Smith, S., & Fabian, K. (2022, September)
Apprentices' longitudinal perspectives of the tripartite collaboration at the heart of degree apprenticeships. Paper presented at Organisational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities, OLKC 2022, Trollhättan, Sweden
Purpose: In degree apprenticeships, the tripartite collaboration between the apprentice, the employer, and the university is key to success. As the apprentices are at the cent...

Transactional distance in the context of online and blended learning

Presentation / Conference
Fabian, K., Smith, S., Taylor-Smith, E., & Meharg, D. (2022, September)
Transactional distance in the context of online and blended learning. Paper presented at Association for Learning Technology Annual Conference, Manchester
Moore’s (1993) transactional distance theory recognises that communications and psychological distance between learner and teacher are affected by course structure, dialogue b...

Participant-centred planning framework for effective gender balance activities in tech

Conference Proceeding
Taylor-Smith, E., Barnett, C., Smith, S., Barr, M., & Shankland, C. (2022)
Participant-centred planning framework for effective gender balance activities in tech. In UKICER '22: Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on United Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research. https://doi.org/10.1145/3555009.3555016
The gender imbalance in the tech industry [21], mirrored in computing education [13], is problematic in terms of providing appropriate products and services for the whole popu...

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