Fran Beaton

Fran Beaton was Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Kent’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education until retiring in September 2020 and continues to contribute to the Centre’s work as a part-time teacher and honorary academic.  She has designed, led and taught on professional development programmes for early career academics since 2004, which has also been the focus of her research.   She has a particular interest in how academic identity is developed: the role of institutional and disciplinary cultures, the impact of mentors, colleagues and professional development programmes intended as part of academic socialisation and increasing expectations of graduate preparation for the workplace.  Fran’s most recent research explores the perceptions and experiences of the dual and blended professionals who enter academia following, or in parallel with, a first career in practice and how they begin to make sense of often very different worlds.