As a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Policy Research in the School of Education Communication and Society, Duna supervises research students and participates in the School’s vibrant research life.

Her interests are in the sociology of higher education, critical pedagogy, interdisciplinary education, and institutional and national HE policy practices and their geopolitical context.  Her published work critiques HE policy in England relating to students, academics and institutional practices, most recently analysing approaches to addressing inequality in students’ outcomes.

Her doctoral research on the assumptive worlds of policymakers and academics arose from her experience as Educational Development Advisor at the University of Oxford. Subsequent research focused on the conceptualisation of students, academics, HE managers and the interplay between them. Over the past 10 years, her research has focused on the causes of inequality in students’ outcomes in UK higher education. As well as contributing to a national review on this subject, she has completed a five-year longitudinal study at one institution, which explores the causal mechanisms that underlie statistical differences in students’ degree outcomes. This has led to her most recent article on the conceptualisation of causality in HE policy and a forthcoming article on the impact of students’ engagement with industry through placements and live projects.

Duna has held professional positions at King’s College London, University of the Arts London, University of Oxford and Royal Holloway University of London. She is a member of the British Sociological Association, the Society for Research into Higher Education and is Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA).

Further information

See Duna's research profile.