Dr Becky Lees

About

After completing my undergraduate degree at Kingston Business School, I returned as a member of staff in 2000. In my time here I have lectured in quantitative methods, management science and information management as well as held a variety of course management and quality focused roles.  I am currently Head of Department for Accounting, Finance and Informatics and School Lead for Assurance of Learning. 

I hold a PhD in Educational Research from Lancaster University and my interests lie within pedagogic research in higher education, focusing on the student journey from transition to HE, through their learning and assessment experience, to skills development to support employability and students' next steps.  I am particularly interested in supporting students to achieve programme learning outcomes, and the development of continuity, collaboration and co-construction in assessment across a student's degree programme. 

I am a Senior Fellow of the HEA and hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. I am a University Teaching Fellow and have achieved Certified Management and Business Educator status from the Chartered Association of Business Schools.

Academic responsibilities

Head, Department of Accounting, Finance and Informatics

Qualifications

  • 2018: PhD Educational Research, Lancaster University
  • 2013: HEA Senior Fellow, HEA Academy
  • 2003: MSc Computer Science, Birkbeck, University of London
  • 2002: Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Kingston University
  • 1999: BA (Hons) Business Studies, Kingston University

Teaching and learning

Undergraduate courses taught

Research

Wherever possible, my teaching is research-informed.  My research interests lie within pedagogy in higher education and I have published articles and presented at international conferences on the following areas of teaching and learning:

  • interventions to support student employability
  • teaching, learning and assessment strategies to promote student empowerment and engagement
  • social media policy research: comparative systems and implementation issues

In 2015, I was part of a small research group that were awarded runners-up for the Kingston University Rose Award, for a project on 'Growing a Research Community amongst Teaching Practitioners'.

Publications

Number of items: 29.

Article

Anderson, Deborah and Lees, Rebecca (2017) Marketing education and the employability challenge. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 25(2), pp. 128-137. ISSN (print) 0965-254X

Lees, Rebecca and Anderson, Deborah (2015) Reflections on academics' assessment literacy. London Review of Education, 13(3), pp. 42-48. ISSN (print) 1474-8460

Book Section

Avery, Barry, Lees, Rebecca and Russell, Daniel (2020) Empowering students through co-creation, continuity and continuous assessment. In: Mawani, Sharmina and Mukadam, Anjoom A., (eds.) Student empowerment in higher education : reflecting on teaching practice and learner engagement. Berlin, Germany : Logos Verlag. pp. 439-452. 1 ISBN 9783832550899

Fitkov-Norris, Elena and Lees, Becky (2015) Online formative assessment: does it add up to better performance in quantitative modules? In: Mendy, John and Geringer, Susan D., (eds.) Leading issues in business research methods. Reading, U.K. : Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. pp. 101-114. 2 ISBN 9781910810378

Fitkov-Norris, Elena and Lees, Bekcy (2012) Online formative assessment: does it add up to better performance in quantitative modules? In: McClean, Rachel, (ed.) Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Research Methods. Reading, U.K. : Academic Publishing International Limited. pp. 115-121. ISBN 9781908272461

Conference or Workshop Item

Gad, Samar and Lees, Becky (2023) From spark to fire : fostering student citizenship for underrepresented groups. In: Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Conference 2023; 22-23 May 2023, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Avery, Barry, Lees, Becky and Roberts, Ian (2021) Business not as usual : adapting a business school to hybrid learning in response to the pandemic. In: Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Conference 2021; 29 - 30 Jun 2021, Held online.

Avery, Barry, Lees, Rebecca and Russell, Daniel (2019) Commuter students : are you local? In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2019 : Creativity, Criticality and Conformity in Higher Education; 11 - 13 Dec 2019, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Lees, Rebecca, Avery, Barry and Russell, Daniel (2019) Engaging and empowering students through inter- and intra-module continuity. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2019 : Creativity, Criticality and Conformity in Higher Education; 11 - 13 Dec 2019, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Avery, Barry, Lees, Rebecca and Russell, Daniel (2019) Using co-construction and continuous assessment to empower and engage first year students. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2019 : Creativity, Criticality and Conformity in Higher Education; 11 - 13 Dec 2019, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Avery, Barry, Lees, Rebecca and Russell, Daniel (2019) Empowering students through co-creation, continuity and continuous assessment. In: Kingston University's Annual Festival of Learning 2019; 25 Jun 2019, Kingston, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Lees, Rebecca (2018) Social media policies in UK higher education institutions : an overview. In: 10th International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media, (SCSM 2018), held as part of HCI International 2018 : 20th Conference on Human Computer Interaction; 15 - 20 Jul 2018, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.. ISSN (print) 0302-9743 ISBN 9783319915203

Jones, Clare, Anderson, Deborah, Horton-Walsh, Sarah, Lees, Rebecca and Montano, Sarah (2017) The impact of management education on students' perceptions of employability. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2017 : Higher Education rising to the challenge: Balancing expectations of students, society and stakeholders; 6-8 Dec 2017, Newport, U.K..

Anderson, Deborah, Avery, Barry, Lees, Rebecca, Russell, Dan, Southall, Jane and Wason, Hilary (2016) Meeting the challenge of Business School accreditation with pedagogic research. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2016: Exploring Freedom and Control in Global Higher Education; 07-09 Dec 2016, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Anderson, Deborah, Lees, Rebecca, Avery, Barry and Russell, Daniel (2016) Analysing a research group 'start-up' through the communities of practice lens. In: British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference 2016; 13-15 Sep 2016, Leeds, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Anderson, Deborah, Avery, Barry and Lees, Rebecca (2016) Social capital : a framework for innovative marketing pedagogy? In: 45th European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Annual Conference: Marketing in the Age of Data; 24-27 May 2016, Oslo, Norway.

Anderson, Deborah, Avery, Barry and Lees, Rebecca (2016) Developing social capital : a close-up look at pedagogic practices. In: Higher Education Close Up 8 (HECU8): Locating Social Justice in Close-Up Reserach in Higher Education; 18-20 Jul 2016, Lancaster, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Southall, Jane and Lees, Rebecca (2015) Is group work a useful bridging tool for students crossing the boundary to employment? In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2015; 9-11 Dec 2015, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Anderson, Deborah, Lees, Rebecca and Wason, Hilary (2015) "Tagging" the literature with the Thematic Analysis Grid: a tool to facilitate collaborative research. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2015; 9-11 Dec 2015, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Lees, Rebecca (2015) The integrative curriculum – using synoptic assessment to support the achievement of programme learning outcomes. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2015; 9-11 Dec 2015, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Lees, Rebecca and Southall, Jane (2015) Crossing the divide from education to employment - do business students see group work as a useful bridge? In: Kingston Education Research Network (KERN) FORUM 2015: Engagement and Collaboration; 19 Jun 2015, Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary, Lees, Rebecca and Anderson, Deborah (2015) Mind the gap : developing self-efficacy amongst 1st year students during transition to higher education (work in progress). In: 3rd International Conference on Contemporary Marketing Issues (ICCMI) 2015; 30 Jun - 02 Jul 2015, Kingston upon Thames, U.K..

Wason, Hilary, Charlton, Nathalie and Lees, Rebecca (2015) Mind the gap: developing student confidence during transition. In: 14th European Conference on Research Methodology (ECRM) for Business and Management Studies; 11-12 Jun 2015, Valletta, Malta. ISSN (print) 2049-0968 ISBN 9781910810118

Lees, Rebecca, Anderson, Deborah and Avery, Barry (2015) Student conceptions of employability : a phenomenographic study. In: 14th European Conference on Research Methodology (ECRM) for Business and Management Studies; 11-12 Jun 2015, Valletta, Malta. ISSN (print) 2049-0968 ISBN 9781910810118

Lees, Rebecca, Anderson, Deborah and Avery, Barry (2015) Student conceptions of employability: a phenomenographic study. In: Festival of Learning 2015; 12-16 Jan 2015, Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Anderson, Deborah and Lees, Rebecca (2015) The power of the one-pager : a simple idea for effective, informal formative assessment. In: 5th Assessment in Higher Education Conference (AHEC); 24-25 Jun 2015, Birmingham, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Lees, Rebecca (2014) Feedback use in formative assessment – are academics practising what they preach? In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2014: Inspiring future generations: embracing plurality and difference in higher education; 10-12 Dec 2014, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Lees, Rebecca (2012) Investigating staff opinion of the module evaluation process. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2012: What is higher education for? Shared and contested ambitions; 12-14 Dec 2012, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Fitkov-Norris, Elena and Lees, Rebecca (2011) Online formative assessment and study habits: does it add up to better performance in quantitative modules? In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2011: Positive Futures for higher education; connections, communities and criticality; 7-9 Dec 2011, Newport, U.K..

This list was generated on Wed Sep 13 07:12:38 2023 BST.

Professional practice, knowledge exchange and impact

I am a member of the CABS Certified Management and Business Educator (CMBE) CPD review board

Professional and scholarly affiliations

  • Chartered Association of Business Schools CMBE CPD review board

Leadership and management

University responsibilities

  • Head, Department of Accounting, Finance and Informatics
  • School Lead on Assurance of Learning

Social media

LinkedIn