Dr Robin Humphrey

National Teaching Fellow 2011 Robin has been at Newcastle University almost all of his adult life, first as a student, then as a researcher and subsequently a Lecturer and Reader in social science research methods. For the past 15 years, he has been responsible for initiating, and then developing, a pioneering interdisciplinary research training programme for doctoral candidates in the social sciences and humanities. The programme aims to establish an inclusive, participatory and challenging postgraduate learning environment conducive to promoting an interdisciplinary awareness among large cohorts of doctoral students from a very wide range of disciplines and cultural backgrounds. A Chinese doctoral student commented: "Getting involved in the research training programme is one of the most important decisions I've ever made in my academic career." Unusually for a social scientist, Robin teaches both quantitative and qualitative research methods, again to student acclaim: "Robin is an absolutely brilliant lecturer. It is great to have someone explain in such an easy to follow and accessible way something as complex and alien as Statistics." "The impact [of a writing up qualitative research workshop] has been phenomenal. I was losing sleep before, but when I came back I got straight on to it and wrote reams and reams - it was like opening a floodgate. It gave me the opportunity to move on as a writer." Robin was a member of the core team which developed a successful collaborative bid with Durham University to the Economic and Social Sciences Research Council (ESRC) for a North East Doctoral Training Centre in the social sciences which will transform doctoral research training in the region. He has also played an active part in furthering the Bologna process at doctoral level through his involvement in a series of projects with the European Universities Association Council for Doctoral Education. Robin believes the main achievement of his career, however, is to have nurtured an inclusive, participatory learning environment where doctoral candidates from all over the world can foster interdisciplinary awareness and develop themselves into professional researchers. As one African doctoral student said: "When I come here [to the training programme], it feels like family."