Dr Rebecca Upsher PhD, AfHEA

Dr Rebecca Upsher began her academic journey at King’s College London as an MSc student in Health Psychology, later pursuing a PhD in the Diabetes, Psychiatry & Psychology research group. Throughout her PhD, Rebecca engaged in co-supervising BSc and MSc students across King’s and contributed to the BSc Psychology programme where she developed a passion for teaching in higher education. As a post-doctoral research associate, she worked with Dr Nicola Byrom and Professor Juliet Foster on the Education for Mental Health project, leading research into evaluating curriculum-based interventions to improve wellbeing and learning in university students. Currently, she is a Lecturer in Psychology (Education) on the BSc Psychology programme at King's, where she continues to support research and teaching practices to enhance university student wellbeing and learning. Rebecca is passionate about using her health psychology background to bridge health and education research and uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods to advance this field of study. More recently, Rebecca has received funding to explore the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education and to develop innovative assessments integrating AI for undergraduate students.

Research Interests

• Conducting and encouraging high-quality mixed-methods research to improve student wellbeing and learning through curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment.
• Bridging health and education research.
• Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into curriculum and assessment to support student learning.
• Using AI to enhance systematic review processes and identify research gaps.

Teaching

• BSc Psychology (Psychology & the Individual; Inspirational Research; Qualitative Skills; Systematic Review Skills; Final year projects; Graduate Attributes).
• BSc Psychology Deputy Personal Tutor: Curriculum Lead.
• MSc Health Psychology (Systematic Reviews).
• Supervision: BSc Psychology; MSc Mental Health Studies; MSc Organisational Psychology; PhD students in Psychology.

Expertise and Public Engagement

• Member of King’s 100 panel.
• King’s Inclusive Education Network.
• AI and Assessment Task-and-Finish Group.
• Leading an International Education for Mental Health special interest group (email for more information).
• Co-authoring the Education for Mental Health toolkit: Advance HE.