Debbie Aitken (she/her) is Associate Professor of Medical Education and Co-Chair of the Equity, Diversity and Belonging (EDB) Committee in the Department of Education. She is a Fellow of Harris Manchester College and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA). She also serves on the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) EDI Committee, Oxford Medical School’s EDI Working Group, and is the External Examiner for the University of Leeds PG Cert Clinical Education.
Debbie’s research focuses on transforming EDB in medical education. Her work explores how to create more inclusive learning environments for current and future doctors, drawing on history, sociology and anthropology to enrich medical training. Her programme of research addresses a range of EDB dimensions, from language and representation to historical context and generational difference, together forming a unified agenda focused on understanding current perspectives and practices in EDB, in order to reimagine how we prepare future doctors to be inclusive practitioners. Recent projects have included studies of gender-inclusive language in medicine, intersectional LGBTQ+ role models and medical students’ sense of belonging, widening access, participation and success in medicine, and the experiences of autistic and ADHD medical students. She has also published on active bystander intervention training for medical students, offering practical guidance for addressing racism and harassment in clinical environments and for identifying and responding to microaggressions. In addition, her research encompasses surgical education and simulation, faculty development, and the wellbeing and professional identities of doctors and students.
Debbie has extensive experience of teaching in medical schools and a strong track record of leading medical and clinical education programmes. She was the Course Director of the MSc Medical Education at Oxford from 2022-2024. Before joining Oxford, she was the Director of the Clinical Educator Programme (CEP) at Edinburgh Medical School (2010-2022), where she also held several roles within the undergraduate medical programme (MBChB) with a particular focus on EDB, student wellbeing, and undergraduate and postgraduate medical education research. She previously worked as a Medical Educationalist at the Royal College of Physicians of London and as a classroom teacher in a number of schools.
Debbie’s work in EDB and teaching has been recognised through a number of awards. Most recently she was shortlisted for the Support for Students Award in the University of Oxford Vice Chancellor’s Awards 2025. She won the NHS Education Scotland Medical Education Award for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and she was a finalist for the University of Edinburgh Student-Led Teaching Awards for Outstanding Commitment to Social Justice and Sustainability. Other awards include the NHS Education for Scotland Medical Education Award for Process and Development Implementation (for the CEP), and an ASME Travelling Fellowship which led to collaboration and teaching with Yale Teaching and Learning Center and Yale Medical School Department of General Internal Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Weill Cornell Medicine. Debbie has also worked extensively within the wider international medical education community, including the University of Health Sciences, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Hong Kong Academy of Medicine; and as part of the IDEAL+ Erasmus project at Université de Paris.
Debbie completed a BA in History and English at the University of Stirling, an MA in Language, Literature and Civilisation at Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III, a Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) with Qualified Teacher Status in Primary Education at the University of Durham, an MSc in Digital Learning at the University of Edinburgh, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) at the University of Edinburgh. She completed her PhD in Medical Education at the University of Cambridge on ‘Generational differences in perceptions of medical student experiences of clinical attachments in surgery’.
