Dr Nienke Alberts
PhD, MSc, BSc
Expertise
Current positions
Senior Research Associate
Education Quality and Strategy
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
Nienke Alberts is an Anthropologist with interest in access to Higher Education and student support.
Nienke is currently working on the Personal Tutoring Project, a project funded by the Tuixen Foundation which was set up to review and evaluate personal tutoring models at the University of Bristol. As part of this project, Nienke is following 55 undergraduate students throughout their time at Bristol. The report ‘Someone who knows you’ was based on these students’ expectations and experiences of personal tutoring. Nienke is also working with staff and students in 6 schools to understand variations in personal tutoring models in the context of the school.
Funding for the project has recently been extended; in the coming years research will focus on the experience of postgraduate students, students from a BAME background, international students and students with a disability and how these students can be best supported by their personal tutor.
In previous research she has looked at the barriers particular disadvantaged groups face accessing Higher Education, and how universities can support those students. She has published reports on the difficulties BAME students can have accessing higher education in the creative arts and the barriers unaccompanied asylum seekers face getting to university.
Nienke has worked as a researcher in evolutionary anthropology, and has conducted fieldwork with chimpanzees, baboons, and zebra.
Nienke has experience in using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods, including focus groups, interviews, behavioural observations, participant observation, thematic analysis, statistical analysis, and social network analysis.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
The Personal Tutoring Project
Principal Investigator
Description
The Personal Tutoring Project is a research project funded by the Tuixen Foundation investigating personal tutoring at the University of Bristol.
There are two strands to the project. In the…Dates
01/05/2019 to 30/04/2025
Publications
Selected publications
01/06/2021Someone Who Knows You
Someone Who Knows You
Falling Through the Cracks
Falling Through the Cracks
The more colours you add, the nicer the picture
The more colours you add, the nicer the picture
Antelope Predation by Nigerian Forest Baboons
Folia Primatologica
The effect of filtering on animal networks
Social networking: Recent trends, emerging issues and future outlook
Recent publications
08/03/2024Broad Shoulders
Forced Fun: questioning the role of the personal tutor in community building
Proactivity as a route to care in personal tutoring
The Personal Tutoring Project: Using research to reimagine personal tutoring
Someone Who Knows You
Someone Who Knows You