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Postgraduate research in Health, Wellbeing and Education

Join the academic community at Staffordshire University and be a part of research that can change lives in the field of Health, Wellbeing and Education. Gain access to our expert facilities and develop your research through practice alongside senior researchers in nursing, midwifery, social work, the allied health professions, education, sport and exercise, biomechanics and biomedical science, and psychology.

Ready-to-go research projects

In addition to offering supervision for a project that you propose, we also have a list of ready to go PhD projects designed by our experts, which means that the research proposal is already written.

The role of nutrient uptake transport proteins in bacterial pathogenesis
Biology tutors’ and students’ learning in higher education a sociocultural perspective using a communities of practice framework
Charting identity development in health care and biomedical scientists within a community of practice

View all projects

Professional doctoral courses

You may choose to undertake a professional doctoral course, designed to develop research and professional skills related to professional practice.

Make an enquiry

Speak to the Graduate School about postgraduate research.

Our researchers

World renowned in their fields, our researchers are here to support you through every step of your research career.

Professor Nachiappan Chockalingam

Professor Of Clinical Biomechanics

As Professor of Clinical Biomechanics, I direct the Movement Analysis Laboratory and lead the biomechanics team and research at Staffordshire University. I am also an Affiliate Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta and…

Nachiappan's profile

Dr Jim Pugh

Head Of Department - Education (Tef)

Jim Pugh is Head of Education here at Staffordshire University. He's worked in education for his entire career, from inspiring young learners as a primary school teacher to leading the development of education students and academics at Staffords…

Jim's profile

Robert Needham

Lecturer

Robert's research background is in the areas of sport and clinical biomechanics. The focus of his research is on the application of non-linear data analysis techniques to quantify movement coordination and coordination variability. Robert's rese…

Robert's profile

Dr Panagiotis Chatzistergos

Associate Professor

My current role is focused on applied research in the fields of musculoskeletal biomechanics and medical devices and among others involves identifying funding opportunities, preparing grant applications and participating in industry-led research…

Panagiotis's profile

Dr Aoife Healy

Associate Professor

I joined Staffordshire University as a KTP research associate on project examining diabetic footwear in October 2009. In 2006 I graduated from the University of Limerick with a BSc in Sports and Exercise Science. Following this I completed an MS…

Aoife's profile

Professor Roozbeh Naemi

Professor In Biomechanics

Roozbeh leads the Professional Doctorate in Healthcare Sciences, an award within the School of Life Sciences and Education. As a Professor in Biomechanics, he has made seminal contributions to generating knowledge in the area of biomechanics sin…

Roozbeh's profile

Dr Gillian Forrester

Associate Professor

Gill leads the Professional Doctorate in Education

Gillian's profile

Dr Gavin Mcstay

Associate Professor

Gavin's research interests focus on the roles mitochondria play in aspects of eukaryotic life, ranging from their origin, metabolism, biogenesis and role they play in cell death pathways. These are interrogated using biochemical, molecular bi…

Gavin's profile

Paul Orsmond

Senior Lecturer (Tef)

Paul is a lecturer who co-ordinates a number of different modules within the department of biology and in order to encourage student learning I develop different types of curriculum.

Paul's profile

Dr Arthur Hosie

Course Director

Arthur's profile

Dr Samina Naseeb

Senior Lecturer

Senior Lecturer in Molecular Genetics and Genomics with interests in genetics, biotechnology, synthetic biology, yeast evolution and fungal biodiversity. Public engagement in science educates and involves the community increasing support in research.

Samina's profile

Dr Sarah Williams

Course Director

I joined the team here at Staffordshire University in May 2013 as a Lecturer in Biomedical Science. I'm a member of the British Society for Immunology and the Association for Clinical Biochemistry.

Sarah's profile

Professor Christopher Gidlow

Professor Of Applied Health Research

Following an undergraduate in Applied Biology (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), I completed an MSc at in Physical Activity, Nutrition and Public Health (University of Bristol).

Christopher's profile

Dr Naomi Ellis

Senior Lecturer

I've been involved with a number of research projects relating to physical activity and mental health, green space and health; health in mid-life; sport and mental health in prisons.

Naomi's profile

Fiona Mccormack

Research Officer

Victoria Riley

Research Associate

I completed my undergraduate degree at Staffordshire University in 2012 and then went on to complete the MSc in Health Psychology also at Staffordshire University in 2013.

Victoria's profile

Konstantinos Spyropoulos

Research Associate

Professor Jon Fairburn

Professor

Professor Jon Fairburn is active in teaching, research, bid writing and public engagement. He has incorporated credited work experience into geography and tourism degrees as well as the MSc Digital Marketing Management.

Jon's profile

Professor Wilfred Mcsherry

Professor

I graduate from the University of Hull in 1992 with a Bachelor Science (Hons) Nursing Sciences.

Wilfred's profile

Professor Elizabeth Boath

Professor Of Health And Wellbeing (Tef)

Liz is a Coach and Mentor, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Practitioner and teaches Counselling, Public Health and Communication Skills. Liz's research is focused on perinatal mental health and health and social care.

Elizabeth's profile

Dr Edward Tolhurst

Senior Lecturer

My research focuses on the experience of dementia and how this is shaped by relationships, social location and sociocultural factors. I teach on modules including Leadership, Dementia Awareness, and Healthy Individuals through the Lifespan.

Edward's profile

Dr Adam Boughey

Lecturer

I have a professional background in nursing and currently registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as a Registered Adult Nurse (RN(A)).

Adam's profile

Dr Sarahjane Jones

Associate Professor

Ruth Hudson

Course Director

Ruth's research interests explore parental bereavement in childhood, professionalisation of the Early Years workforce and technology to enhance teaching and learning. She is a member of Staffordshire Early Years Professional Network.

Ruth's profile

Matthew Slater

Associate Professor

Matthew is a senior lecturer (FHEA), researcher, published author, and chartered psychologist (CPsychol). He specialises in the psychology of leadership and team functioning.

Matthew's profile

Karla Drew

Lecturer

Jamie Gillman

Lecturer

Jamie's research is broadly focussed on the areas of social identity and stress. He is particularly interested in the psychophysiological reactions to a pressured situation (e.g. sporting performance, exams, presentations, interviews) and how we…

Jamie's profile

Dr Stephanie Romano-Smith

Lecturer

I am the course leader of Distance learning Sport and Exercise Psychology BSc (Hons) degree programme. I also have teaching responsibilities across undergraduate and postgraduate awards in the area of sport and exercise psychology.

Stephanie's profile

Anthony Miller

Lecturer

I am a course tutor across distance learning and face to face Sport and Exercise degree programmes. I have teaching and supervisory responsibilities across undergraduate and postgraduate awards.

Anthony's profile

Dr Gavin Mcstay

Associate Professor

Gavin's profile

Fiona Cust

Associate Professor

Fiona is a Registered General and Children’s Nurse and Health Visitor who has had a varied career in children’s nursing within acute and community settings. Fiona is actively engaged in research and regularly contributes to The Nursing Times Journal.

Fiona's profile

Trust Diya

Lecturer

Trust is a Lecturer in Molecular Biology. His research interests are on the effects of flavonoids on mammalian cells.

Dr Ahmad Haidery

Lecturer

Ahmad's profile

Dr Sarah Williams

Course Director

I joined the team here at Staffordshire University in May 2013 as a Lecturer in Biomedical Science. I'm a member of the British Society for Immunology and the Association for Clinical Biochemistry.

Sarah's profile

Dr Samina Naseeb

Senior Lecturer

Samina's profile

Dr Arthur Hosie

Course Director

Arthur's profile

Dr Susan Bird

Senior Lecturer

I teach on the modules Molecular Aspects of Chronic Multifactorial Diseases, part of Principles of Molecular Biology, part of Human Molecular Genetics, part of Molecular Diagnostics and project supervision

Susan's profile

Dr Chloe Heys

Lecturer

Lecturer in Microbiology

Chloe's profile

Dr Claire Barlow

Senior Lecturer

Claire's research is primarily focused on children's drawings with further projects focussing on the development of expressive drawing, and more specifically how this compares to the development of representational drawing skill, longitudinal de…

Claire's profile

Dr Emily Buckley

Head Of Department - Psychology

Most of my research has been within the areas of health promotion and health inequalities.

Emily's profile

Dr Amy Burton

Senior Lecturer

My research interests focus on improving health care communication in areas including: gerontology, pain management, visual impairment and sensory disability.

Amy's profile

Lisa Cowap

Lecturer

My expertise is within Health Psychology and conducting research employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Lisa's profile

Dr Sarah Dean

Senior Lecturer

Sarah's research has focussed on children and adolescents. Her PhD explored the effects that writing about stressful experiences has for early adolescents and why written emotional disclosure may not be a suitable intervention for them.

Sarah's profile

Dr Justine Drakeford

Senior Lecturer

I joined Staffordshire University as a senior lecturer in January 2012. My research interests are in the areas of cognitive neuropsychiatry and cognitive neuropsychology.

Justine's profile

Dr Daniel Herron

Lecturer

Daniel's profile

Dr Jo Heyes

Clinical Director

Jo's areas of interest for research are early attachment relationships, parenting programmes and early childhood behaviour difficulties. She also has an interest in perinatal mental health and in the supervisory relationship.

Jo's profile

Sarah Higgins

Lecturer

I began work as a Technical Skills Specialist in January 2014 alongside my studies on the part-time MSc Health Psychology award, of which I completed with a distinction in 2015.

Sarah's profile

Dr Louise Humphreys

Senior Lecturer

My interests are broadly in the area of attention and memory. I'm particularly interested in how human emotion influences attention and memory performance.

Louise's profile

Dr Gemma Hurst

Course Director

I am the Course Leader for the MSc Health Psychology. My research focuses on measuring the impact of environment exposures on health and wellbeing and exploring the wider determinants of health in relation to health inequality. I am also experie…

Gemma's profile

Dr Richard Jolley

Associate Professor

My research interests mainly lie in children's use and understanding of representation, particularly in their making and understanding of pictures.

Richard's profile

Samuel Jones

Lecturer

I am a lecturer in Quantitative Research Methods and Statistics in the Psychology Department at Staffordshire University.

Samuel's profile

Dr Saskia Jones

Lecturer

I graduated with a first-class BSc (Hons) Psychology degree from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2014 and then went on to study for a PhD and work as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Leeds Beckett University until 2019.

Saskia's profile

Dr Sarah Krahenbuhl

Senior Lecturer

Sarah's area of expertise is in investigative interviewing strategies used with children and subsequent legal proceedings. She is module leader for Forensic Applications of Psychology.

Sarah's profile

Dr Erica Holland

Senior Lecturer

Erica's research interests lie in the area of human reasoning. Her PhD work was on relevance and rationalisation processes on the Wason selection task. She is particularly interested in the use of different methodologies that can be utilised t…

Erica's profile

Dr Yvonne Melia

Principal Clinical Lecturer

Yvonne's main research interests relate to attachment relationships, developmental trauma, applications of clinical psychology in social care contexts and psychological issues pertaining to Looked After Children and adopted children.

Yvonne's profile

Dr Alison Owen

Lecturer

After carrying out my undergraduate psychology degree here at Staffordshire University, I completed the MSc in Health Psychology at Staffordshire in 2010.

Alison's profile

Dr Zachary Parker

Lecturer

Zachary joined Staffordshire University in 2019 as the course leader for the MSc of Foundations in Clinical Psychology. In 2016 Zachary completed his PhD and graduated in 2017. Since 2014 he has taught research methods and since 2016 he has work…

Zachary's profile

Dr Rachel Povey

Associate Professor

I'm one of the directors of this course. My areas of expertise are healthy eating, dietary change and psychological aspects of diabetes.

Rachel's profile

Sarah Rose

Senior Lecturer

Sarah is a developmental psychologist with a particular interest in the influence of education on the development of children's creative abilities. Her other areas of research expertise are the effect of television on children's behaviour and un…

Sarah's profile

Dr Helen Scott

Research Director

I completed a BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology with German, and in 2004 completed my doctoral training in Clinical Psychology at Birmingham University.

Helen's profile

Nichola Street

Senior Lecturer

Nikki's research interests are mainly within the realm of environmental psychology, individual differences and impact of visual beauty, such as art or the physical spaces in which we spend time. She is particularly interested in interdisciplinar…

Nichola's profile

Dr Jennifer Taylor

Senior Lecturer

My research interests are in exploring health risk behaviours, particularly those which have potentially negative, identity implications, such as sunbed tanning.

Jennifer's profile

Dr Romina Vivaldi

Lecturer

Romina's research interests are focussed on symbolic development as it relates to pictures and occupational gender stereotypes.

Romina's profile

Facilities

As a postgraduate research student, you'll have access to all of our specialist facilities, and the expertise of our technicians, to help your research succeed.

Biomechanics Facility

Purpose built facility which enables collection of data using specialised equipment to understand and diagnose Musclo-skeletal conditions within individuals or groups.

Psychology Observation Suite

The Psychology Observation Suite is used to observe various forms of human behaviour in psychological research.

Human Physiology Suite

This facility gives us the ability to measure the effects of different procedures on human physiological parameters

Body Composition Lab

The Body Composition Lab enables accurate assessment of body composition analysis in support of the Sport & Exercise awards programme

Clinical Skills Labs

The Skills Labs enable delivery of all practical led simulation and clinical skills in support of Nursing (Adult, Child, MH), Paramedic Science, ODP, Midwifery and Allied Health.

Stoke House (House 33)

Enables delivery of Simulation-Based Education and practical Clinical Skills in support of the Nursing, Paramedic and Social Work & Social Welfare awards programme.

Analytical Methods Laboratory

Our Analytical Methods Laboratory has a comprehensive range of instrumentation for chemical analysis including chromatography, electrochemistry,molecular and atomic spectroscopy.

Human Physiology Suite

This facility gives us the ability to measure the effects of different procedures on human physiological parameters

Sequencing Hub

Specialist hub for performing molecular biology laboratory techniques.

Cell Culture Facility

A specialist environment for the culture and study of both cancerous and non-cancerous human and mammalian cell lines.

Support and funding

Study options

Our postgraduate research students work on their research in a range of different modes to fit around their work and life commitments – you might be on campus as a full-time or part-time researcher, or you may be studying as a Distance Learner. Your preferred option will be discussed as you go through your research proposal with your potential supervisory team.

Browse study options

Fees and funding

Before you start your application, it's important to consider how you will fund your studies and cover living costs. There are lots of options available to postgraduate students to help support your work, which is why we have put together a detailed guide explaining the costs involved in postgraduate study, and the help that's available to pay for it.

Explore the funding options

How you will be supported

The Graduate School works centrally to support you as a postgraduate researcher by listening, providing development opportunities, managing your journey, and acting as a gateway to pastoral support as you require.

Visit the Graduate School

How to apply

Interested in researching in the field of Health, Wellbeing and Education? You will need to go through our application process. This is to ensure we can meet your specific needs and support your research topic.

For a professional doctorate, please apply directly through our professional doctorate course pages.

Make an enquiry

Start your postgraduate career by completing our MPhil/PhD enquiry form. We’ll put you in touch with a member of staff to have an informal conversation about your proposed research and qualifications.