Dr Myra Evans

• Qualifications:EdD, MA, BA (Hons), SFHEA
• Position:Director (Partnerships)
• Telephone:+441173284502
• Email:Myra.Evans@uwe.ac.uk

About me

I am an academic director working in the College of Health, Science and Society (CHSS). I am currently responsible for partnerships in the School of Social Sciences. This is a key leadership role translating the University's strategic partnership objectives into operational plans. I have recently led College and University-wide strategic projects embedding inclusivity in the curriculum and closing awarding gaps. I previously worked in the Faculty of Arts Creative Industries and Education (ACE) as Academic Director for Inclusive and Practice-Oriented Curriculum. I was responsible for embedding a professional experience in all programmes in the Faculty, creating an inclusive learning environment and widening participation.

I have a Professional Doctorate in Education. My thesis examines practice based learning in journalism education. I  am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a UWE Learning and Teaching Fellow. I have taught broadcast journalism, newsroom practice and journalism writing modules to undergraduate and postgraduate students. I am a qualified print and broadcast journalist with more than 20 years experience in journalism and media related professions. Before joining UWE I worked as a video journalist for ITV West. I have also worked on local newspapers and as a communications officer for the University of Bath.

Area of expertise

Employability, graduate outcomes, inclusivity in the curriculum; reducing awarding gaps; curriculum design and pedagogy; practice-based learning in journalism education.

I launched and led the Closing Awarding Gaps in CHSS project and co-led a key strand of the University's Bridging Awarding Gaps 2022 project. In ACE I launched and led the Faculty's Decolonising the Curriculum initiative and have presented on this at the UWE Festival of Learning 2020. I was part of the co-creation group to create an Inclusive Curriculum and Practice Toolkit and reduce the awarding gaps. I was also the Faculty lead for the Graduate Outcomes Survey and set up and chaired the ACE Employability Committee which facilitated the embedding of employability skills in the curriculum.

My teaching expertise is in broadcast journalism through practice but I have also taught on news writing modules and media theory modules. 

Using my expertise from industry, I was responsible for setting up and leading on the introduction of news days at UWE, where students work as real practising journalists in a simulated newsroom environment. I was key to attaining BJTC accreditation for my programme.

My research expertise is in journalism pedagogy, and teaching pratice through simulation and experiential learning. 

I have presented work into models of teaching journalism through practice at the prestigious The World Journalism Educaton Congress 2019, in Paris.

My initial work, looking at experiential learning in journalism education, was funded by a bursary from UWE's Centre for Moving Image Research. I was also awarded a bursary from the Association of Journalism Education for my work on practice-based learning in journalism education.

I have presented my work at Cardiff University's Future of Journalism Conference (2015)  and at the Association of Journalism Education Annual Conference (2016, 2020) as well as the UWE Learning and Teaching Conference (2016, 2017 and 2018). In June 2020, along with Dr Shawn Sobers, I presented and ran a workshop on Decolonising the Curricula as part of the UWE Festival of Learning.

I have a Doctorate in Education (EdD) from UWE, an MA (with distinction) in Journalism from UWE and a BA in Sociology and Theology from the University of Birmingham.

Publications

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