Role
Dr Lia Blaj-Ward (PFHEA) designs and facilitates academic literacy provision for international students in the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment and the School of Art and Design.
Lia supports NTU's in-house Advance HE professional recognition scheme through mentoring colleagues and assessing applications. She also mentors colleagues on the Advance HE Aurora programme (see a reflective piece on her experience as an Aurora mentor here).
Lia contributes to NTU's TILT through reviewing funding applications and co-chairing a TILT Practice and Scholarship Group. Lia recently benefited from TILT sabbatical funding for two projects focused on student-staff co-creation of life-relevant learning resources and experiences. A number of published outputs from the projects are forthcoming.
In 2021 Lia received a Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Award.
Research areas
Lia's research and publications focus on academic literacy and practice in higher education.
External activity
Lia is an assessor for the BALEAP Course Accreditation Scheme. She chaired the scheme between April 2022 and April 2025. Previously, she held various roles on the BALEAP Executive Committee (most recently, Treasurer, April 2017 - April 2020). Lia set up and coordinated a number of BALEAP funding schemes and awards (e.g., Narratives of Innovation and Resilience).
Lia peer reviews book proposals and journal article manuscripts and is Associate Editor for Higher Education Research and Development (https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/cher20).
Lia is currently external examiner for a suite of modules at the University of Sussex. Previously, she was external examiner for Coventry University's MA in Academic Writing Development and Research (2017-2021).
Since 2019 Lia has designed and facilitated bespoke week-long work experience programmes for pre-18 students from a local girls' school (see account by 2020 participant here).
Publications
Blaj-Ward, L., Ed., 2023. Mentoring Within and Beyond Academia: Achieving the SDGs. Emerald.
Blaj-Ward, L., 2022. Academic Literacies Provision for International Students: Evaluating Impact and Quality. Palgrave Macmillan.
Molthan-Hill, P. and Blaj-Ward, L., 2022. Assessing climate solutions and taking climate leadership: how can universities prepare their students for challenging times? Teaching in Higher Education. ISSN 1356-2517.
SDGs
The main UN Sustainable Development Goals which inform Lia's work are: 4 Quality education, 5 Gender equality, 13 Climate change, and 17 Partnership for the goals.
