Professor Sophie Foley (PhD, SFHEA) is a microbiologist and Associate Dean – International in the School of Applied Science.
As Associate Dean – International, Sophie leads on the School’s international agenda, including TNE and international student recruitment to Edinburgh campus. Sophie has 20 plus years’ experience as an academic leader with success in leading teams within and out with her discipline, in programme development and approaches to teaching and assessment design to support learning and enhancement of both student experience and attainment. This is driven by her interest and scholarship focussed on the transition points experienced by a diverse student body, be that advanced entry to undergraduate, transition from undergraduate to postgraduate and/or transition between culturally different forms of education, and a belief that enhancements to support student transitions lead to better attainment for all students.
Sophie is an internationally recognised leader in education development with a track record of influencing educational practice both at home and overseas, including a number of impactful British Council funded programmes of work in Sri Lanka, Egypt and Ghana. Sophie is currently leading on a British Council Egypt funded project in collaboration with Ahram Canadian University (Egypt) on the co-development of a professional diploma in pharmaceutical sciences, through academia and Egyptian industry participation, based on skills gap analysis and development of a competency framework. This builds on Sophie’s focus in her own teaching practice in microbiology and the life sciences of developing industry-informed curriculum and learning materials, reflecting also Sophie’s industry experience, prior to joining the university, and her current discipline-based research at Edinburgh Napier.
Sophie has combined her international work with engaging with initiatives to support girls in STEM. Sophie is currently co-leading a British Council Ghana funded project in collaboration with University for Health and Allied Sciences (Ghana) including research and design of activities for schools under the Gender Equality in STEM funding call. Sophie was an invited panellist in the British Council (Malaysia) Celebrate the Difference: Women in STEM 2022 webinar on International Women’s Day, has hosted as part of the British Council Pakistan Scottish PhD Research Travel Grants for Women scheme (2018-2019), and is currently an academic adviser for the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.
Sophie continues to engage in research with her microbiology discipline securing funding from a number of sources (e.g. Scottish Funding Council, Scottish Whisky Research Institute, British Council, Society for General Microbiology, Nuffield Foundation, French Ministry of Education, HBLB) and is currently an independent Scientific Adviser on the UK Foods Standards Agency Advisory Committee for Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP).
Career History:
Sophie graduated from University College Cork (UCC, Ireland) with a BSc (Hons) Microbiology. Following this, she undertook a PhD investigating plasmid DNA replication in lactic acid bacteria spending time at both UCC and the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), funded by an EMBO Fellowship. On completion of her PhD, she worked at the National Food Biotechnology Centre, Cork (Ireland) supporting R&D projects for local dairy companies, followed by three years as a research scientist at Nestle, Switzerland. Since joining Edinburgh Napier University as a lecturer in microbiology, she has held numerous senior leadership roles including Head of Subject, School Director Postgraduate Provision and is now Associate Dean International, leading on the School’s strategy for international student recruitment and for the development and support of sustainable TNE partnerships.
Life sciences skills, supporting students at key transition points (in particular advanced entry and international students).
Teaching and Learning
I teach on the following BSc (Hons) programmes - Applied Microbiology (Edinburgh and Sri Lanka), and Biological Science (Edinburgh and Hong Kong) and the following MSc programmes - Medical Biotechnology, Biomedical Science, Drug Design & Biomedical Science, and Pharmaceutical & Analytical Science programmes.
I have extensive experience in programme leadership, undergraduate and masters level, for programmes delivered in Edinburgh and in Hong Kong and Sri Lanka. I have led on the development of a number of Masters programmes and on the expansion of the School of Applied Sciences TNE portfolio across the School’s disciplines of life sciences, psychology, sociology and exercise science.
As Associate Dean - International I play an active role in developing policy and practice within my school and across the university in relation to enhancement of the postgraduate/international student attainment and student experience, and quality enhancement in our TNE provision.
PhD Supervision Availability
Yes
PhD Topics
Bacteriophage biology and applications
Food Microbiology
Lactic acid bacteria
Antimicrobials
