Biography
Professor Fiona Robson joined Heriot-Watt Dubai in May 2023 as Head of the School of Social Sciences and Edinburgh Business School. Fiona sits on the Dubai Executive Committee and represents Dubai on the global School of Social Sciences Executive Board.
As Head of School, Fiona assumes overall leadership and accountability in making sure that programmes are delivered to the right quality and standard and ensure that quality assurance processes, such as student feedback, academic reviews and the professional accreditation, are carried out effectively and timely. Fiona leads, manages and coaches colleagues in the four Departments in the School of Social Sciences in Dubai.
Fiona teaches Human Resource Management and supervises dissertations. Fiona is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Academic Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Background
Professor Fiona Robson joined Heriot-Watt from AFG College with the University of Aberdeen in Doha, where she was Head of Discipline for Business and Management for two years, during this time she led several strategic initiatives including a development programme for senior women.
Prior to this Fiona was Director of Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University Business School (UK) where she was the first Teaching and Scholarship academic to be awarded a Readership.
Fiona has significant experience in working in transnational education, including as Deputy Director at Roehampton Business School and International Champion at Newcastle Business School; in these roles she set up new partnerships as well as supporting existing ones. Professor Robson’s subject expertise lies within the field of HRM where she holds a BA, MA and PhD as well as the highest professional qualification (Academic CIPD). Fiona has worked extensively with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, including as an author of several publications.
Professor Robson was recognised as an HR expert by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) where she led experts from 19 countries to develop the new international guidance standard on Employee Engagement on behalf of the British Standards Institute (BSI). Fiona has published in a wide range of academic journals in the discipline of HR as well as her pedagogical papers. Professor Robson is also very experienced in attaining and maintaining school-wide accreditations including AACSB and Equis as well as professional body qualifications.
Research
Fiona’s research interests are in the field of human resource management and topics around talent management, performance management and sickness absence. Fiona is also interested in continuing work on self-inititated expatriates.
The second focus of Fiona’s research is pedagogy and specifically evaluating the impact of different innovations in learning and teaching.
Fiona has supervised six Doctoral students who were all successful in being awarded their Doctorates:
- Second Supervisor of Katja Jonsas, ‘Leading and living. Women and Academic Leadership in Finland and the United Kingdom’, PhD part time. 2020 -
- Principal Supervisor of Emma Mullen, ‘HR Graduates, Are they Fit for Purpose? An Employer’s Perspective’, PhD full-time. 2017
- Second Supervisor of Wai Man Pagon Lo, ‘Cross Cultural Adjustment of Asian Self-Initiated Expatriates in Western Countries’, PhD full-time. 2017
- Principal Supervisor of Maranda Ridgway, ‘How reward influences expatriates’ decisions towards considering and accepting employment opportunities in Qatar’, DBA part-time. 2015
- Second Supervisor of Ceridwyn Bessant. ‘What is the nature of the first line manager academic role in business schools in the UK?’ DBA part-time. 2014
- Second Supervisor of Jagdeep Singh Jassel, ‘Strategic Human Resource Management in Malaysian Hotels: Formulation and implementation challenges’ DBA part-time. 2012