Professor Radka Newton

Personal Chair

Profile

Professor Radka Newton is an expert in human-centred design, professional learning and educational innovation. Her work focuses on transforming the student experience through design-led, inquiry-driven approaches that connect learning with real-world challenges.

Radka’s scholarship has shaped international practice in design-led education. She is the editor of Transforming Higher Education with Human-Centred Design (Routledge, 2024), a widely used text that supports universities in adopting inclusive, student-centred approaches to curriculum design.

The Inclusive Programme Review (IPR) is the most significant and impactful output of her scholarship. Developed through action research with 135+ students, IPR offers a human-centred, participatory approach to curriculum enhancement that positions students and staff as co-investigators. Adopted across multiple universities and used to support school-wide transformation involving 100+ staff and benefitting over 2,000 students, IPR has become a recognised model of evidence-informed, design-led curriculum change. Its influence was acknowledged through a Lancaster University Education Award and continues to shape curriculum practice nationally.

Her human-centred design expertise also extends into policymaking, where she has led design capability development for policy professionals, and her work has been selected as a case study in the Civic University Network’s Civic Leadership Module for its contribution to place-based civic innovation.

She is the founder and director of the Centre for Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education (SIME), a 70-member community that has strengthened institutional capability in teaching and learning through peer development, mentoring and evidence-informed practice. SIME has become a catalyst for staff development and a driver of educational quality across the School.

Radka’s place-based regenerative curriculum represents a distinctive contribution to partner-enabled learning. By working with local communities, civic organisations and businesses, she creates learning experiences in which students co-design solutions to real sustainability and regeneration challenges—enhancing student agency while generating tangible impact for regional partners.

Her leadership extends to national and international networks, including work with EFMD and the Chartered Association of Business Schools, where she contributes to quality enhancement and innovation in management education.

Radka is committed to creating learning environments where students and educators can thrive. Her work demonstrates how human-centred design can elevate educational practice, strengthen staff capability and deliver meaningful impact for learners, institutions and communities.

Lancaster Evaluation Group
13/02/2024 → 31/07/2024
Research

Design thinking for Higher Education - Advance HE Workforce of the future
01/12/2023 → 01/07/2024
Research

Dissertation in Place
01/09/2023 → 30/06/2025
Research

IAA: IN-PLACE: Connecting Design and Policy for meeting Net-ZERO targets
01/09/2023 → 31/03/2025
Research

Co-creating sustainable communities: Dissertation In Place
01/08/2023 → 31/07/2024
Research

Regenerative place stewardship in local entrepreneurial ecosystems
01/08/2023 → 31/03/2024
Research

I-Connect: Co-designing Sustainable Communities
01/11/2022 → 31/07/2023
Research

IAA - AHRC Impact Acceleration Account
01/04/2022 → 31/03/2027
Research

Innovation Across Boundaries: Implementing Design Thinking Practices in Innovation Ecosystems and Policy Making in Germany and the United Kingdom
01/09/2021 → 30/09/2024
Research

Transforming Communities: Placed-based new venture planning through the inter-connectivity of enterprise and design
01/08/2021 → 31/07/2023
Research

Corpus Analysis of Sellafield Employee Forum and Interviews
18/01/2021 → 31/03/2021
Research

Improving student experience with service design
01/09/2019 → 30/07/2022
Research

Organizational change at Magnox Reprocessing Plant
01/05/2018 → 31/03/2021
Research

Integrating design thinking into management education
01/01/2018 → 31/08/2020
Research

Civic Leadership module - case study Uni 5 Place
Influence on Policy, Practice, Patients & the Public

The Connected College Podcast
Oral presentation

Powered by Place: Regional Innovation & Ecosystem Resilience
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

BEST Connections: Building community and fostering scholarship
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Sustaining SoTL in a Challenging Higher Education Climate
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Future Scenario Planning for local policymaking: lessons from Lancashire
Influence on Policy, Practice, Patients & the Public

Student-Centred Curriculum: Transition from Knowledge Application
Invited talk

Advance HE (Publisher)
Publication peer-review

People’s Jury on Climate Change Way of the Roses and Start of the Greenway Revitalisation Project
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Business Education Scholarship & Teaching (BEST) network (External organisation)
Membership of board

Winter SIMELAND
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Smart Learning: AI and Digital Technologies
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Transforming HE with Human-Centred Design
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Book launch
Oral presentation

European Foundation of management development EFMD (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Journal of Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education (Journal)
Editorial activity

Buckle up folk… 2050 has arrived!
Invited talk

SIME Summer Fest
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Keynote: Tom’s Christmas Trifle
Invited talk

CiviCon24
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

CiviCon24
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Design Thinking 4 Higher Education
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Lancaster Evaluation Group Seminars
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Business Education Scholarship & Teaching (BEST) network (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Collaboratory 2 – INSIGHT
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Developing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Hunter Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Design Thinking 4 Higher Education - Discovery
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Place-making + policy design = NET-0
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

I-Connect Project
Invited talk

Empathy in curriculum design
Oral presentation

Using Blogs and Social Media for Scholarship in Management Education
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Roll into Spring: Lune Valley Family Fun Day
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Electech: Trade-offs in Place-based Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
Oral presentation

Instagram in Economics modules: transformative impact of integrating social networks into learning
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Business Education Scholarship & Teaching (BEST) network conversations
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Hosting Scott Schmidt
Types of External academic engagement - Hosting an academic visitor

Journal of Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education Issue (Journal)
Editorial activity

The utility of user personas in higher education development projects
Invited talk

FutureDesignEd 2020: Updating values - San Marino, Italy (Event)
Publication peer-review

Pilkington Teaching Award
Prize (including medals and awards)

  • Centre for Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education
  • Pentland Centre