Danica Sims

Senior Departmental Lecturer in Medical Education; Course Director (MSc Medical Education) | Kellogg College

About me

Danica studied at the University of Cape Town (2011-2019) in South Africa (BSc, BMedScHons, MScMed, PhD) before joining the University of the Western Cape as an educationalist (2020-2023). She joined Oxford as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education in 2023 and is the Course Director for the MSc in Medical Education programme.

The #RhodesMustFall student-led protests in South Africa (2015), calling for free, decolonised Higher Education, sparked her jump from biomedical research to educational research. Her PhD in Health Sciences Education explored clinician-educators’ conceptions of assessment, and factors influencing their assessment practices, in medical programmes in diverse Southern settings.

Her research interests include assessment and feedback, curriculum transformation, technology-enhanced education, professional identity, faculty development, critical and alternative qualitative research methodologies, and issues of social and epistemic justice in medical and health professions education.

Research

Publications

Conferences

Media (Podcasts, Articles & Interviews)

Subjects Taught

  • MSc Medical Education
  • DPhil (Research Training)

Funded Research Projects

MEDiC (Medical Education Disciplines in Comparison)
with Dr Liam Guilfoyle and Dr Jenny Wynn (with research assistant Gia-Yen Luong, a DPhil student in the department).
Papers with Purpose: Writing Workshops for Research Impact with early career Health Professions Education Scholars in Southern Africa
with collaborators in South Africa (Prof Francois Cilliers, Dr Natashia Muna and Ms Taahira Goolam-Hoosen, all from the University of Cape Town, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Education).