ProfessorRobert Mears

 Emeritus Professor 

Personal statement

I left Bath Spa University in 2017 as Executive Dean with responsibility for a broad range of subjects and around 5000 students. Apart from my sociological interests, I have a long standing concern with improving teaching and assessment in HE.

I gained significant funding for teaching and learning projects from the Higher Education Funding Council, the Higher Education Academy and the National Subject Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics based at the University of Birmingham.

My sociology publications range from investigations into accountability of the medical profession, health and social care inequalities and, picking up themes from earlier research, the persistence of minority ethnic loyalties in the United Kingdom. Papers on the historical creation and possible breakup of the United Kingdom have been accepted at conferences in Brussels in 2020 and Amsterdam in 2022.

I continue to work with academic colleagues across the UK and retain an interest in 'quality' through my work with the OFS/QAA and as an undergraduate and postgraduate external examiner.

Academic qualifications

• BSc (Sociology)
• MSc (Economics)
• PhD
• PGCE.

Professional memberships

• British Sociological Association.

Other external roles

• QAA Monitoring 'new providers'
• QAA Institutional Assessor
• External Examiner: PhD and undergraduate Sociology.