Professor Rob Mears, Head of School

I was an undergraduate at the University of Leicester and completed the MSc in Medical Sociology and Health Policy at the University of London. My PhD was on ethnic minority nationalism but my main interests now are in the sociology of health and illness and health policy. As a Research Associate at Leicester I worked on a number of projects and published research monographs on co-operative organisations and an evaluation of a health promotion campaign and contributed to several books. I published a review of medical accountability in the journal 'Policy and Politics' and an essay on the French sociologist Auguste Comte was included in A Readers Guide to Social Science published by Dearborn Fitzgibbon. I have contributed to a number of journals including The Journal of Higher Education and Training, Journal of the Society of Cooperative Studies, Social Science Teacher and the British Medical Journal. I have reviewed for the Journal of Social Policy, International Journal of Intercultural Studies, Medical Sociology News and Sociological Review. I directed a HEFCE national project, 'Assessment Strategies and Standards in Sociology' which led to the publication in 2000 of Assessment Strategies in Sociology: a workbook, and in 2001 Eric Harrison and I edited Assessing Sociologists in Higher Education.

I was a member of the QAA Sociology Benchmark Panel and a Subject Reviewer for the Welsh Higher Education Funding Council and in 2003 a QAA reviewer of Foundation Degrees. I was a member of the British Sociological Association Professional Development Committee and am currently Chair of the Sociology reference group and member of the steering group of the Higher Education Academy Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics (C-SAP) at the University of Birmingham. In September 2003 I was Director of the ESRC/BSA Postgradute Summer School held at Bath Spa. In 2005/06 I worked on a review of the QAA Codes of Practice and I was elected to the Executive Management Team of the British Sociological Association. In 2007 I chaired the review of the National Benchmark Panel in Sociology.

Meet some students:

Why I chose Bath Spa
I think the primary reason for choosing this...

Field Trip to Chew Valley Lake
This field trip consisted of a visit to Chew...

Field trips
Environmental Science is a particularly valuable...