Dr. Patience Nyamunda

Biography

Patience Nyamunda is a lecturer in the School of Education and a member of the People, Place, Social Change (PPSC) Research Teaching Group at the University of Glasgow. She completed her BA Honours in Economic History and MSc in Population Studies at the University of Zimbabwe. Patience then moved to South Africa to study for her Ph.D. in Development Studies at the Higher Education Human Development Research Centre. Her doctoral thesis examined the conceptualization and operationalization of quality in higher education teaching and learning from a human development perspective, contextualizing her research within broader international higher education policies that heavily influence developments in the Global South. Following her doctoral studies, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow on an ESRC/DFID-funded project, investigating the complex interactions of factors that enable or inhibit students from low-income backgrounds in accessing higher education. Before joining the University of Glasgow in September 2023, she was a lecturer at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Patience's research interests are informed by the capabilities approach proposed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, focusing on how universities foster human development and create inclusive, sustainable societies. Her work particularly emphasizes the experiences of marginalized groups in higher education contexts, including themes around the operationalization of quality in education and issues related to access, participation, and employability.

Research Interests

Experience