Susan James Relly

Professor of Vocational Education and Honorary Research Fellow

About me

Susan is an Honorary Research Fellow and former Deputy Director of the department.

Susan completed a B.Ed at  Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, and read for a MSc in Comparative and International Education and a DPhil in Education at the University of Oxford. Susan’s entire career has been in education in various forms: she taught in secondary schools in Australia and England before starting her academic career.

Susan’s research interests are in the following areas:

  • Technical and vocational education and training policy
  • Vocational excellence
  • Apprenticeship
  • Work based and professional learning
  • Quality and esteem in FE
  • Territory landscape
  • Skills economy

Research

Books

Book chapters

Conference papers

Journal articles

Reports

Subjects Taught

  • DPhil in Education
  • MSc in Medical Education

Doctoral Applications

Susan welcomes doctoral applications from students interested in the following research areas:

  • Vocational education and training policy
  • Apprenticeship and work based learning
  • Social mobility and non-graduate occupations
  • Further education, teaching, learning and assessment
  • Quality and esteem in further education

Funded Research Projects

Good people in a flawed system: the challenges of mainstreaming excellence in technical education
WorldSkills UK (£12,000)
Sept 2018- April 2019
The vocational formation of world skills competitions' Training Managers: how does it translate in FE and PTP delivery
WorldSkills UK
2018
Who pays and who trains? A comparative study of apprenticeship systems across different national contexts
The QATAR Foundation (£78,984) - Co-Principal Investigator
Oct 2016–Sept 2017
The Landscape of Private Training Providers
The Gatsby Charitable Foundation (£8,670.22) - Principal Investigator
Oct 2015- Oct 2016
Principal Investigator, ‘Developing and Understanding Vocational Excellence’ project
National Apprenticeship Service (Skills Funding Agency) (£1,074,931.70) - Principal Investigator
June 2008 – Jan 2016
Evaluation on the Skills Competition CPD Program
The Education & Training Foundation (£15,000) - Principal Investigator
April 2014 – Jan 2015
Apprenticeships, Employer engagement, and Vocational Formation in England’ project
British Council China (£26,475) - Principal Investigator
Nov 2012 – Aug 2013
‘Modelling Vocational Excellence (MoVE)’ project
WorldSkills Foundation (£10,250) - Research Fellow
Mar2011 – May 2012
‘Graduates on the property ladder: skills, work and employment in a ‘graduatising’ industry’ project
ESRC Small Grant Award (£100,000) - Principal Investigator
Jan 2011 – Apr 2012
‘Comparative study of vocational qualifications and their impact in raising skills in England and South Africa’ project
Leverhulme Early Career Development Fellowship (£49,279) - Research Fellow
Oct 2005 – Sept 2007