Leeds Economics: Advances in Pedagogy (LEAP)

Projects in this area are exploring how to effectively welcome into higher education and engender a sense of belonging in students of all backgrounds.  

• Dr Peter Hughes, Dr Bianca Orsi and Dr Juliane Scheffel’s research project Women into Studying Economics (WiSE), explores the lack of gender diversity in the economics discipline and ways to counter it. 

• Dr Tad Gwiazdowski, Dr Peter Hughes, Dr Andrew Mearman, Dr Mike Reynolds and Juliane Scheffel’s Transition Into and Through Higher Education (TITHE)  project investigates transitions of students through the first two years of their degrees. In this project, they have worked with a Laidlaw Scholar, and two undergraduate and two A level students funded by the University’s Q Step programme. 

• Andrew Mearman and Dr Ruth Payne (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures) have explored welcome via exploring students’ expectations of university, using interview data. They have also developed a welcome tutor scheme to support new Masters students. Previously their work was pivotal in the redesign of University provision of welcome. 

• Mike Reynolds and Stacey Mottershaw (Management and Organisations Department) are exploring the role of authenticity in teaching and tutoring  

• Dr Barnali Basak is currently working in two projects. The first project explores whether students’ engagement in seminars improves students’ performance in Mathematics and Statistics using LUBS1275 students’ data. The second project focuses on identification of students with math-anxiety and a comparative study on performance of students with math-anxiety versus without using 2025-26 LUBS1275 students’ survey data. Both these projects are work in progress. The first project will be sent for publication through an open outlet as a case study. The second project will be submitted for publication in an education research journal.  

• Dr Stefan Kesting discusses how universities can foster a sense of belonging among all students via social media and food. 

• Dr Juliane Scheffel and Dr Andrew Mearman discuss how they welcomed economics students, 2020-style 

• Andrew Mearman, working with Sam Taylor from the Business School’s Enhancement team, released a brief 360 degree tour of LUBS, including tips for new students on what to do in lectures and seminars.