Anna Zimdars
Lecturer in Higher Education
Contact
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7848 3066
Email: anna.zimdars@kcl.ac.uk
Web: http://www.annazimdars.co.uk/
Room 5.19, Waterloo Bridge Wing,
Franklin-Wilkins Building,
Waterloo Road,London, SE1 9NN
Biography
Dr Anna Zimdars joined King's Learning Institute as a Lecturer in Higher Education in February 2011. She teaches on the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher Education (PGCAPHE). Anna holds a first degree in Politics and Sociology from the University of Kent, a Masters degree in Sociology from the University of Oxford (New College), and a DPhil from the University of Oxford. Before taking up her post at King’s College, Anna was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Change at the University of Manchester.
Anna’s research interests concern admission to higher education, social stratification and education, and legal education. Anna helped co-organised a conference on higher education admission in July 2011, copies of the conference presentations can be found and downloaded through the Fair Admissions Conference 2011 website.
School Liaison
Teaching Approach
“To learn, read. To Know, write. To master, teach.” (Proverb)
Good teaching is fun, intellectuallty stimulating, and a journey to new ways of understanding. My own teaching philosophy is still very much a work in progress as I am learning about different ideas and developing my own response to them.
For inspiration on how to explain things, I find TED
http://www.ted.com/ a useful resource. Michael Sandel’s Harvard law lectures on justice are stimulating -
http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/jmr/. I promise to add more references for my PGCAP students in the medical sciences in due course.
Research - King's Research Profile
Who should go to university? How are educational opportunities distributed? What does it mean to select students based on merit?
These are just some of the questions that I am seeking to answer through my work. My research interests concern access to higher education, access to professions (law), and equal opportunities issues more generally.
I use the research method most suited to answering particular research questions. I have used quantitative methods to look at patterns of university admission, and I have used qualitative methods to see how selectors make sense of the experience of selecting students. I am always curious to find innovative ways to help me shed a new light on my research questions.
Publications -Full publications (pdf, 87KB)
-
Zimdars, A., Gjonça, E. and Nazroo, J. (2012) The circumstances of older people in England with self reported visual impairment, British Journal of Visual Impairment 30 (1) 22-30.
-
Zimdars, A (2010). Fairness and undergraduate admission: a qualitative exploration of admissions choices at the University of Oxford. Oxford Review of Education. 36 (3), 207-323.
-
Ogg, T, Zimdars A, and Heath, A (2009). Schooling Effects on Degree Performance: a comparison of the predictive validity of aptitude testing and secondary school grades at Oxford University. British Educational Research Journal.
Presentations - Full presentations (pdf, 74KB)
-
Nov 2010 Transactional data and applied social research (University of Manchester)
-
Oct 2010 Invited keynote: Diversity in the Legal Profession workshop (University of Westminster)
-
July 2010 Diversity Working Group (Bar Council, London, UK)