Tania Lyden is a Senior Fellow of the HEA and an Assistant Professor on the Centre for Lifelong Learning’s Career Studies and Coaching courses. She is the Course Director for the Career Education, Information and Guidance in HE (CEIGHE) programmes as well as working as module leader for the Research in Professional Practice CDCS/CEIGHE MA/Diploma module and the ‘Challenges of Careers Work in Higher Education’ and ‘Management of Careers and Employability Services in Higher Education’ for CEIGHE. She contributes to the Career Development Theories and Career Coaching modules and supervises masters’ dissertations and doctoral studies.

Biography and Professional Interests

Prior to joining the Centre in November 2021, Tania worked as a Careers Practitioner for the University of Oxford, University College of Estate Management (UCEM) and at the University of Reading. Most recently she was the Career Consultancy Lead for Curriculum and Academic Engagement, managing a team of Careers Consultants. Prior to this she established the careers provision at UCEM and was part of the Oxford University Careers Service’s Strategic Management Team. Tania has also worked in the private sector for Thames Water and PriceWaterhouseCoopers as an HR professional.

Tania’s research interests lie where Higher Education, careers and social justice meet. Her recent PhD entitled “Career Mentoring in Higher Education: exploring mentoring and employability gains across different social groups” identifies that, tangible gains in labour market knowledge, work exposure and ease of professional interaction are comparable across social groups. However, low socio-economic status mentees gain more psychosocially, in both self-belief in securing graduate level employment upon graduation and in career clarity. In addition, this mixed-methods research identifies a range of ways in which socioeconomic status differences play out within career mentoring relationships and provides a model of career mentoring of undergraduates in Higher Education.

Tania is currently a member of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services Research and Knowledge Committee which oversees fulfilment of the parts of the AGCAS Strategy relating to research and knowledge, identifies emerging ideas and priorities for research and knowledge creation, encourages innovation, develops opportunities for members to undertake high quality research and facilitates dissemination of relevant research. She is also a member of the UpReach Advisory Board. UpReach are a social mobility charity for undergraduates in the UK. Prior to this Tania co-founded and Chaired the National AGCAS Career Mentoring Task Group which facilitates the development of Career Mentoring in Higher Education.

PhD Supervision

Potential PhD candidates are welcome to get in contact regarding research proposals relating to one or more of the following topics:

• Social mobility and higher education.
• Career Mentoring in Higher Education.
• Graduate Employability.
• Career and wellbeing.

Tania has experience with mixed and qualitative methods.

Selected Awards, Conferences and Publications

Awards

Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services Award for Excellence in Research Informed Practice 2018.

Nomination for the National HEA Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence 2017.

University of Reading Collaborative Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning 2016.

Conferences

AGCAS Annual Conference - Employability: Ethics and Evolution 20-21 & 27-29 June 2023, Keele University (Presentation).

NICEC Conference 2019 (Poster/Presentation).

Access and Participation Across the Student Lifecycle Conference: highs and lows of research and practice, University of Reading 2018 (Presentation).

HEA Conference: Generation TEF: Teaching in the Spotlight 2017 (Poster/Presentation).

AGCAS Research Conference 2017 (Poster/presentation).

HEA Conference 2016 (Poster).

Publications

Co-creator and co-writer of the AGCAS CAREER MENTORING SURVEY 2023/24 An Analysis of Career Mentoring in UK Higher Education Institutions. AGCAS Career Mentoring Task Group. AGCAS Webpages. September 2024.

Lyden, T. (2022, 6 July, 23) “Exploring the Ethics of Career Mentoring for Social Mobility”. Career Guidance for Social Justice Blog.

Lyden, T. (2021). Career mentoring in higher education: exploring mentoring and employability gains across different social groups. Thesis. University of Reading.

Lyden, T. (2020, October, 21). “Raising undergraduate aspirations through career mentoring?”#diverseReading.

Lyden, T. (2016) “Students Thrive with Alumni Mentoring at Reading.” Phoenix 147, February 2016, AGCAS: Sheffield.