Vesna Holubek

I am a higher education researcher currently working on my PhD research related to internationalisation in higher education. As a Doctoral researcher in the Doctoral Programme of Education and Society (Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University), I research cultures and discourses in transnational higher education. My PhD research focuses on discursively constructed teaching and learning cultures in the context of pedagogical development programmes in Palestinian, Brazilian, and Thai universities; the programmes were organised through transnational collaboration with a Finnish university. My research interests include a variety of higher education topics such as internationalisation, organisational cultures, teaching and learning, pedagogical development, digitalisation and online education. 

My work tasks also include teaching. In spring 2023 I was co-teaching the university pedagogy course on 'Academic supervision and guidance' (KAS.PEY.030). Previously I was an academic tutor in the Master’s Programme in Teaching, Learning and Media Education and taught 'Study Skills and Personal Study Planning' course (KAS.TELM.030). In the past I taught ‘Internationalisation in Education’ course, 'Kasvatustieteiden syventävä tutkimusprosessi/Advanced Research Process in Education' course and gave several guest lectures on higher education and internationalisation.     

In my research and teaching activities, I closely work with my research group Higher Education in Transition (HET) as well as the Research Centre on Transnationalism and Transformation TRANSIT. Between February and June 2022, I was a visiting researcher at the Educational Research department at Lancaster University, UK. Previously I worked as a researcher on two international projects: eTraining FinPal project (2017–2020) and NetMIB project (2016). 

I graduated from the Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Research and Innovation in Higher Education (MARIHE) programme and obtained a joint degree M.Sc. (Admin) from University of Tampere in Finland and Danube University Krems in Austria. I have been involved with multiple student and professional associations and worked with non-governmental organisations.

Publications and research activities (link to TUNICRIS research portal)  

• Communication coordinator in the Higher Education in Transition (HET) research group (2020– )
• Member of the Faculty Council in the Faculty of Education and Culture (1.8.2021–31.12.2022)
• Board member of the Tampere University Association of Researchers and Teachers TATTE (1.1.2021–31.12.2022)  
• Member of the Education Steering Group in the Faculty of Education and Culture; representing PhD researchers (20.2.2019–31.7.2020)

Higher education research related topics:

• Internationalisation
• Pedagogical development & Teaching and learning in higher education  
• Teaching and learning cultures & Organisational cultures
• Digitalisation and online education
• Poststructuralist discourse analysis
• Qualitative and mixed-methods approaches