Mrs Theresa Waight
Profiles

Mrs Theresa Waight

Lecturer in Social Science & Law

School of Society and Culture (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)

Biography

Biography

 Lecturer in Social Science and Law.

I am currently the School of Society and Culture Foundation stage Lead. The foundation stage incorporates programmes is Anthropology, Law, Criminology, International Relations, Politics, Sociology, History, English, English with creative writing, Creative writing with English, Drama, Acting and Musical Theatre.These programmes are divided into 3 subject clusters - Humanities, Social Science and Performing Arts. The philosophy of this provision is to provide a supportive, student centred environment in which students can develop the academic and social capital skills necessary for the successful completion of higher education study. I am module lead for 2 of the modules taught of the foundation stage - SSC301 Discovering Your Inner Academic and SSC304 Human Rights and Social Justice. The Discovering Your Inner Academic module seeks to provide students with the academic skills foundation necessary for engagement in years 1-3 of a traditional degree programme. This module is shared across the school bringing students from the various programmes together to develop an foundation stage learning environment. These skills are taught through the subject cluster knowledge prism. The Social Justice and Human Rights module seeks to consider these issues from a national and international perspective. 

In addition to my teaching role, I act as Academic Liaison Person for Public Services, social science Foundation Degrees delivered by University of Plymouth partner colleges .

I am also the Assistant Director of the University's Cold Case Unit. This unit works with the charity Locate International to review missing persons cold cases. Students working in this unit receive training form Locate International and via this organisation have been given the opportunity to work with University teams around the world on a cold case with the Lower Saxony Police. This is an amazing opportunity for students who in undertaking these investigations bring comfort to the families of missing persons via the reassurance that their loved ones have not been forgotten.  


Qualifications

MSc Social Research

BSc(Hons) Social Policy

PGCAP

UPSU STARR Awards nomination 2022: Personal Tutoring and Programme Leadership. 
UPSU STARR Awards nomination 2021: Personal Tutoring 
UPSU STARR Awards nomination 2018: Dissertation Supervision
UPSU STARR Awards nomination 2017: Personal Tutoring.

Professional membership

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Member of Social Policy Association. 

Teaching

Teaching

Teaching interests

I am module leader for the following foundation stage modules:

SSC301 Discovering your Inner Academic 

SSC304 Human Rights and Social Justice

Previous teaching experience:

Foundation Stage 

LCG005 Social Justice (2021/22) - Module Lead

LCG007 Human Rights (2021/22) - Module Lead

LCG001 Foundational Ideas & Concepts in Law, Government & Society (2019-2021) - Module Lead 

LCG004 Work and employment in the 21st century (2019/20) - Module Lead

LCG 003 Introduction to Government and Society. (2019-2021)

PSPM 304 Public Service Delivery and Evaluation - (2007-2016)

PSPM 301 Human Resources Management, Strategy and Planning in the Public Sector (2007 -2017; Module Lead 2014-16)

PSPM 302 Ethical Decision Making (207-2016; Module Lead 2014-16)

PSPM 303 Managing Change and Performance in Public Organisations (2007-2016)

Dissertation supervision 

BSc(Hons) International Business (2020/21)

BSc (Hons) Public Services (2010- 2017)

MBA 


I am also the subject lead for 15 public service, social science and criminology FdSc programmes delivered by UoP partner colleges.

Research

Research

Research interests

My research, and teaching, interests have built upon the themes of gender, education, social justice, system and policy design, implementation and evaluation. While my interest in gender seeks to add to the limited body of scholarly research relating to lone fatherhood, by seeking to evaluate the ‘justness’ of national governmental responses to the creation and sustainability of lone father households. This work has lead to the development of a keen interest in the normative conceptions of social justice and systems design and an understanding of the complexities of cross national research and intergovernmental policy transfer. This interest in system design is further developed with my engagement in the part HEFCE funded Strategic Leadership Project, an applied research project which sought to build HE leadership, governance and management capacity at the Board of Governors, Senior Management Team and HE Coordinator levels within Colleges of Further Education in the South West. While my project evaluation skills were utilised to evaluate the Aim Higher project, jointly funded by the European Social Fund, and Universities of Plymouth and Bournemouth, this project sought to enhance the capacity of the Colleges of Further Education (FECs) in the South West to design and deliver high quality Foundation Degrees in Public Services administration and management.

Publications

Publications

Journals

Dixon, J.,Tripathi, S. Waight, T. (2008) THE LEADERSHIP, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN FURTHER EDUCATION COLLEGES IN THE SOUTH WEST. Bristol: HEFCE