Alicja Syska

Academic profile

Dr Alicja Syska

Lecturer in Education
Plymouth Institute of Education - School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)

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The Global Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Alicja's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Goal 04: SDG 4 - Quality EducationGoal 05: SDG 5 - Gender Equality

About Alicja

An interdisciplinary scholar and lecturer in Education, I have been part of the University of Plymouth community for nearly two decades, having also served as a Learning Development Advisor and an Associate Lecturer in History.

As a Principal Fellow of Advance HE (PFHEA), I am committed to exploring and supporting effective educational practices and academic scholarship. Beyond my teaching and research, I contribute to the academic community through my involvement as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Co-Lead Editor of the Plymouth Institute of Education Online Journal and as co-host of The Learning Development Project podcast. My research and publications reflect my diverse interests and focus on enhancing student learning experiences and connecting academic and pedagogic missions of the university.

I have published two co-edited books: How to Be a Learning Developer in Higher Education (2023) maps out the field of Learning Development in UK HE while critically engaging with this academic practice, while Transformative Practice in Higher Education: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning (2025) explores the transformations in teaching after the pandemic.

Supervised Research Degrees

Ed.D. in Education, Director of Studies: ‘Context Matters: Re-Imagining Creative Higher Education for the Anthropocene through Criticality, Complexity, and Oddkin Communities of Connection & Reflection’ (2025-)

Ed.D. in Education, second supervisor: ‘Conceptualising pupil voice – listening and hearing pupil experience(s)’ (2023-)

Ph.D. in Education, Director of Studies: ‘How can informal education and intercultural competence development become more accessible to forcibly displaced people through social innovation and social entrepreneurship in Plymouth’ (2022-)

Ed.D. in Learning Development, External examiner: 'The framing and value of Learning Development work in British Higher Education: An illuminative evaluation of professional practice', University of Portsmouth (2023)

M.A. in Art History (ResM), second supervisor: ‘Philip Guston’s Absurd and the Sisyphean Affirmation in the Battle for Existentialism’ (2021)

M.A. in Art History (ResM), third supervisor: ‘Norman Lewis on the Peripheral: The Relationship of an African American Artist and the Abstract Expressionist Movement through the Decades, 1930-1950’ (2021)

Teaching

I teach on undergraduate modules and International Ed.D., as well as supervising B.A., Ph.D., and Ed.D. students.

Contact Alicja

Room 102, 3 Endsleigh Place, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
+44 1752 585149