Keele has appointed Professor Alexandra Lamont as the first Director of the new Keele Doctoral Academy.

The academy brings together expertise from across Keele’s academic and professional support services, to develop research opportunities, doctoral training and support for our postgraduate research students.

Professor Lamont completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge before teaching psychology at the University of Leicester and then moved to Keele as a music psychologist in 2001.

Professor Lamont has an interdisciplinary and internationally recognised research profile across the fields of psychology, education, music, and health and wellbeing and she comes to this position with a wealth of leadership experience in postgraduate education and in internationalisation.

Keele is among the UK’s Top 10 universities for the research opportunities it offers to postgraduate students (PRES 2019) and the doctoral academy aims to ensure that all students, postdoctoral researchers or new academics work in a collaborative, supportive cross-disciplinary research community.

97% of Keele research is classed as world leading, or of international importance (REF 2014), and the doctoral academy will help Keele achieve its mission to be a top quartile research University as we approach REF2021 and beyond.

Professor Lamont said: “I’m excited to take on leadership of doctoral research at Keele at a challenging time but one which presents many opportunities for development. I’m looking forward to building connections within and beyond Keele and supporting the next generation of researchers.”