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 FBCS PFHEA is the Dean of School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University. Sally 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 and a fellow of the British Computer Society. She has previously worked in the telecommunications and aerospace industries in the UK and Europe.

She is the Director of the Centre for Computing Education Research at Edinburgh Napier University and Project Director of e-Placement Scotland, a Scottish Funding Council project creating paid placements for computing students across Scotland. She also leads on Graduate Apprenticeships at Edinburgh Napier University and is part of the management team of the Digital Skills Partnership, a project designed to improve graduate skills through industry partnership.

Sally leads the universities' Data Driven Innovation Skills activity of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland Region City Deal.

Sally’s research and teaching interests combine mobile and pervasive computing with research into the impact of work placements, student/ professional identity and apprenticeships. 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.

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

 

Media Activity

  • Graduate Apprenticeships - doubling of places
  • Edinburgh Napier University – Bridging the digital skills gap
  • Scottish Business News Network
  • 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


80 results

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

Conference Proceeding
Taylor-Smith, E., Shankland, C., Smith, S., & Barr, M. (in press)
Mobilising more women into computing. In SRHE International Conference 2022
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...

An exploration of academic identity through the COVID-19 pandemic

Journal Article
Smith, S., Plum, K., Taylor-Smith, E., & Fabian, K. (2022)
An exploration of academic identity through the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(9), 1290-1303. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2022.2072194
The COVID-19 global pandemic precipitated migration to online learning and teaching for students and universities. This study explored the change in self-identification in an ...

Identifying factors influencing study skills engagement and participation for online learners in higher education during Covid-19

Journal Article
Fabian, K., Smith, S., Taylor-Smith, E., & Meharg, D. (2022)
Identifying factors influencing study skills engagement and participation for online learners in higher education during Covid-19. British Journal of Educational Technology, 53(6), 1915-1936. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13221
The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted education across the world as campuses closed to restrict the spread of the virus. UK universities swiftly migrated to online delivery. The exp...

How are we positioning degree apprenticeships? Analysis of adverts

Conference Proceeding
Fabian, K., Taylor-Smith, E., & Smith, S. (2021)
How are we positioning degree apprenticeships? Analysis of adverts. In SRHE International Conference on Research into Higher Education
Degree apprentices are recruited by employers, rather than universities, reflecting their status as paid employees, first and foremost. This study analysed job adverts for IT ...

Computing students' attitudes to environmental sustainability education

Presentation / Conference
Smith, S., Egan, C., & Plum, K. (2021, June)
Computing students' attitudes to environmental sustainability education. Paper presented at Horizons in STEM Higher Education, Online
Students have voiced concerns that their university courses do not equip them with sufficient information to understand the challenges of environmental sustainability. Althoug...

A multi-institutional exploration of the social mobility potential of degree apprenticeships

Journal Article
Smith, S., Taylor-Smith, E., Fabian, K., Zarb, M., Paterson, J., Barr, M., & Berg, T. (2021)
A multi-institutional exploration of the social mobility potential of degree apprenticeships. Journal of Education and Work, 34(4), 488-503. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2021.1946494
This mixed-method study at six universities asked degree apprentices about their trajectories into the apprenticeship, to better understand the social mobility potential of ap...

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