By Susie Paterson

The Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA) is holding its annual conference this week at UWS Ayr Campus.

One hundred and twenty five academics in Education from around the world have gathered to discuss and share ideas on researching education to improve learning around the world.

I asked Derek Robertson, from the University of Dundee what he got from 3 days of conference? He said: “This is my first time at the SERA conference, but I do attend others.  The reason we go is because it is part of the job, be it a conference in Dundee or a ‘techie’ conference in May in Oportu – which I’m going to –  to share the work that I’m doing.”

UWS Dean of School, Education, Professor Donald Gillies said the topic of this years conference was ‘Educational futures in a changing landscape: bridging boundaries, or Mind the Gap.’

He said that whilst the standard of speakers was always high, he was particularly looking to the social events.

“I spend most of my life in an office looking at spreadsheets and budgets so its great to get out and about and speak to people about issues.

“I’m actually looking forward to a variety of from across the UK and internationally.  Pupil exclusion I think is really interesting.  Its an interesting set of papers from across the UK for something that is really very troubling for us.”

SERA is a truly international forum and will run for three days from 22 – 24 November with keynote speakers from as far away as New Zealand and USA.  Professor Allyson Macdonald,  from the department of educational sciences in the School of Education at the University of Iceland is part of a contingent of twelve.

For further information see Twitter https://twitter.com/SERA_Conference