Biography

A human biology and disease enthusiast, Darshi started her higher education as a medical student in India. During the fourth year of her medical course, she made a pivotal career change. Driven by a strong desire to delve deeper into human biology and pathology, Darshi returned to her home country, Sri Lanka. Concurrently, as a First-class grade holder at medical school, Darshi received the Chancellor’s scholarship to study Biomedical science at Keele University. She arrived at Keele in 2003 as a direct second-year entrance student and graduated in 2005 in Biomedical science with a 2:1. Since then, Darshi has completed a postgraduate diploma in medicinal chemistry, a master’s degree in science, a post-graduate certificate in higher education and is currently completing an MA in Education. Darshi is a fellow of the higher education academy.

Before joining the foundation year team at Keele in 2020 as a lecturer in biological sciences, Darshi served as an Associate Lecturer in Biomedical Science at Derby University. Darshi also held the position of a lecturer in Biology for Health Access to HE students at a local college and as a senior demonstrator at Keele Medical School.

Research and scholarship

Darshi has an MSc in science, and her research area included antibiotic resistance, including her dissertation on” Novel pharmacological interventions to combat multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacilli”.

Scholarship interests include improving feedback literacy, the impact of formative assessments, and the use of social annotations using online collaborative tools.

Darshi has been a panel member of The Teach Learn Collaborate Repeat (TLCR) Pedagogy Panel in promoting and sharing experiences.

Teaching

Foundations in Human Biology for Health

Advancing Human Biology for Health