Dr Helen Driscoll

As Academic Director for Educational Partnerships, I report to the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) and work with the Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) to provide strategic leadership across the University in learning and teaching, student outcomes, and enhancement for our extensive portfolio of collaborative provision delivered by our transnational partners across the globe, our UK partners and for our Sunderland Online provision.

My academic background is in Psychology. I graduated from Newcastle University in 2001 with First Class Honours in Psychology and the Mary McKinnon Prize. I completed my PhD in evolutionary psychology at Durham University (thesis title: Sex differences in aggression: the role of inhibitory control). I previously held academic positions at Durham University and Northumbria University. I was appointed as Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sunderland, and went on to be Principal Lecturer (Team Leader) in Psychology (leading the undergraduate psychology and counselling provision), and Acting Head of the School of Psychology (which includes Psychology, Counselling, and Public Health). I have significant experience of innovative and transformational programme design, development and leadership, and of higher education quality assurance and enhancement. I also have a track record of leadership in external engagement (particularly media engagement), leadership in equality, diversity and inclusion (I led the School of Psychology's successful Athena Swan award, the first departmental award in the University), and leadership of pedagogic projects at School and institutional level. I was recently awarded a prestigious international leadership scholarship by Santander to take their Emerging Women Leaders programme at London School of Economics and Political Science. 

My research interests include international and transnational education and their impact, higher education pedagogy, evolutionary psychology, male psychology, dark personality, attraction and sexuality, and aggression and violence. I am currently Director of Studies for one PhD student (topic: motivations for BDSM) and co-supervisor for two PhD students (topics: academic costly signaling and police interviewing of sex workers who are victims of sexual assault).

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Chartered Psychologist. I currently hold external examiner positions at London Metropolitan University and Bishop Grosseteste University and was previously Chief External Examiner for Psychology at Birmingham City University. I also sit on the British Psychological Society's Psychology of Sexualities Section committee.