Debbie Meharg
Debbie Meharg

Dr Debbie Meharg

Associate Professor

 0131 455 2927

  D.Meharg@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

Debbie Meharg is Head of Applied Informatics within the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. She has been involved in teaching, management and research for over 20 years. She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA, SICSA Education Champion and active member of the teaching fellows community. Meharg’s research interests sit within the Centre for Higher Education Research (CHER) and focus on access, inclusion and transitions. Graphical methods such as photovoice and participatory research methods are are areas of interest and she is always looking out for interesting partnerships and good PhD students.

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • SQA Qualification Support Team
  • Member Scottish Qualification Authority Sector Panel for Computing

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Conference Chair Articulation Centre of Excellence Conference

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External Examiner, Department of Computing, Degree Apprenticeship Programmes, Sheffield-Hallam University
  • External Academic - Software Development, University Centre Grimsby

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Best Poster, SRHE Research Conference
  • Senior Fellow of the HEA

 

Invited Speaker

  • RGU Teaching Seminar: Supporting Direct-Entrants
  • SICSA Education Panellist: The Education Session included a full panel discussion comprised of Professor Fincher, the SICSA Director of Education and the SICSA Education Champions.
  • NI FE Colleges Digital Skills IT Conference - Delivered talk exploring Transitions from FE to HE
  • Dundee College - Delivered presentation titled "Transitions from FE to HE"
  • SQA Computing Conference 2018: delivered talk providing overview of transition from FE to HE in Computing

 

Media Activity

  • Blog Post: Exploring the SQA NextGen project and the impact on student transitions

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Member of British Educational Research Association (BERA)
  • Member of Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE)
  • Member of British Computer Society

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • SICSA Education Champion - dissemination to colleagues, event organisation, reviewing documentation

 

Reviewing

  • International Journal of Educational Research
  • Frontiers in Education 2024
  • International Journal of Educational Research
  • Reviewer, IAFOR Journal of Education, Technology in Education
  • Reviewer, IAFOR Journal of Education, Inclusive Education
  • Enroute Reviewer - assessing applicants for Fellowship of the HEA
  • Reviewer - 48th Annual Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference
  • Reviewer - 45th Annual Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference

 

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28 results

An Enhanced Route from FE to HE Graduation?

Journal Article
Meharg, D., Taylor-Smith, E., Varey, A., Mooney, C., & Dallas, S. (2017)
An Enhanced Route from FE to HE Graduation?. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 5(2), 85-92. https://doi.org/10.14297/jpaap.v5i2.269
This study explores student transitions from further (FE) to higher (HE) education through the Associate Student Project (ASP) and examines the effectiveness of this enhanced ...

'I hope we can handle it': A study examining student ability beliefs and motivations before transition

Journal Article
Meharg, D., Craighill, S., Varey, A., & Tizard, J. (2016)
'I hope we can handle it': A study examining student ability beliefs and motivations before transition. Education in the North, 23(2), 128-140
This paper employs the ‘Expectancy-Value Model of Achievement Motivation’ (Wigfield and Eccles, 2000) to identify performance barriers and facilitators for further education s...

Partnership and preparation: a new model of transition from college to university

Conference Proceeding
Meharg, D., & Fotheringham, J. (2016)
Partnership and preparation: a new model of transition from college to university. In Equality and diversity in learning and teaching in higher education : Papers from Equality Challenge Unit and Higher Education Academy joint conferences. , (102-112
Widening participation in higher education continues to be a key focus for Scottish government and the 2013 Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act places obligations upon Universiti...

Building confidence during transition from college to university

Presentation / Conference
Meharg, D., Tizard, J., Varey, A., & Cairncross, S. (2015, September)
Building confidence during transition from college to university. Paper presented at British Educational Research Association, Belfast

Student voice and peer support during transition

Presentation / Conference
Meharg, D., Tizard, J., & Varey, A. (2015, June)
Student voice and peer support during transition. Paper presented at QAA Enhancement Themes, Glasgow
Despite increased investment in transition between further education and higher education during the last 10 years, direct entrants remain less likely to take an active part i...

Widening access through transition from college to university

Conference Proceeding
Meharg, D., & Tizard, J. (2015)
Widening access through transition from college to university. In Social Dimension in European Higher Education
Widening access through transition from College to University In Scotland, one strategy for increasing participation at university for people from deprived socio-economic area...

Student beliefs as barriers to articulation

Conference Proceeding
Meharg, D., & Craighill, S. (2015)
Student beliefs as barriers to articulation. In 2014 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2014.7044416
Eccles et al.’s ‘Expectancy-Value Model of Achievement Motivation’ (2000) states that ‘an individual’s choice, persistence, and performance can be explained by their beliefs a...

Belonging: Blurring the Boundaries

Conference Proceeding
Meharg, D., & Craighill, S. (2014)
Belonging: Blurring the Boundaries. In The European Conference on Education 2014: Official Conference Proceedings. , (79-90
This paper explores Whitchurch’s (2008) notion of the ‘third space’ in the context of articulating students from Further Education to Higher Education. This research appropria...

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