Prof Carol Evans
Professional Services
Current positions
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education and Student Experience
Biography
Carol Evans is the Pro-Vice Chancellor Education and Student Experience and Professor of Higher Education at the º£½ÇÂÒÂ×. Professor Evans leads on our Realising Inclusive Education for all education delivery plan.
Carol is a global leader in research-informed inclusive practices and pedagogy and has published over 200 articles in this area. She has held many senior leadership positions within higher education including Principal Assessor for England’s Office for Students (OfS), Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) at Griffith University (Australia), Chair of Higher Education and Academic Lead of HEFi at the University of Birmingham, Professor and Co-Director of Southampton’s Centre for Higher Education, and Board member at the University of Bournemouth. Carol has also held significant roles at the universities of Exeter, UCL: IoE, Durham, and the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Deanery in London. She served as the inaugural UK Vice President of the International Federation of National Teaching Fellows (IFNTF) and was a member of the Committee of the Association of National Teaching Fellows.
Carol is a member of the British Council’s Higher Education Sector Group, and an Honorary Visiting Professor at Cardiff University, and the University of Southampton. Professor Evans advises on national and international education initiatives. She is a National Teaching Fellow and Principal Fellow and has achieved Collaborative and Spotlight Awards for Teaching Excellence (CATE) from Advance HE. She is also a lead assessor for OfS.
Carol has produced world-leading research in assessment and individual differences. Her inclusive Assessment Framework (EAT) promoting equity, agency, and transparency in assessment have been successfully applied within UK and international contexts including an EAT Erasmus+ project with the universities of Cardiff, Bristol, Minho and Zaragoza.
Carol is passionate about enhancing inclusion. She is a strong advocate for disability inclusion for staff and students in higher education. She is a member of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator’s Disability Experts Panel. Working with Transforming Access and Student Outcomes (TASO) and colleagues in the UK and Australia she developed a sector-leading disability inclusion framework and integrated approach to inclusion (IIF). She works closely with the British Council to promote disability inclusion for students within UK higher education and global higher education programmes, supporting the development of an international disability inclusion community.
Carol is also the strategic research lead for Realising Inclusion for Disabled Employees in Higher Education (RIDE Higher), an initiative of NADSN to promote better understanding of the experiences of disabled staff in higher education, and to advance disability inclusion for all.
Professor Evans’ research interests lie in inclusive pedagogies, assessment practices and disability inclusion. She has produced world-leading research in assessment: Making sense of assessment feedback in higher education led to the development of the Equity, Agency, and Transparency (EAT) assessment framework that promotes a research-informed approach to the design and delivery of assessment in higher education. The framework has been used across institutions in the UK and internationally to advance self-regulatory assessment and feedback practice in higher education, and most recently through an international EAT Erasmus project.
Areas of Research
Professor Evans’ research interests lie in the understanding of individual differences in learning from information processing perspectives, inclusive pedagogies, assessment practices and disability inclusion. She has produced world-leading research in assessment: Making sense of assessment feedback in higher education led to the development of the Equity, Agency, and Transparency (EAT) assessment framework that promotes a research-informed approach to the design and delivery of assessment in higher education. The framework has been used across institutions in the UK and internationally to advance assessment in higher education, and most recently through an international EAT Erasmus project.
Recent work includes;
Evans, C., & Waring. M. (2024). Research Handbook on Innovations in Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education: Implications for Learning and Teaching. ELGAR Publishing.
Recent Publications
Evans, C. (2025). Disability Inclusion in UK Higher Education, British Council.
Evans, C. Van den Heever, M., & McKinney. R. (2025). How can higher education better support international students with disabilities.
Evans, C. (2024). Strategic Overview: Progressing Disability Inclusion within the British Council: An institutional approach. Eleanor Glanville Institute (EGI), University of Lincoln for the British Council.
Evans, C. (2023). We need an integrated approach to inclusion in higher education Times Higher, May 22, 2023.
Evans, C. (2022). Equity, Agency and Transparency in Assessment. An inclusive approach to assessment in higher education. Inclusivehe.org; University of Birmingham.
Evans, C. (2022). Making disability inclusion a reality in higher education Times Higher, Aug, 23, 2022
Evans, C. (2022). The EAT Framework. Enhancing assessment practice in higher education. Inclusivehe.org
Evans, C., with ErasmusPlus+. (2022). Using EAT in Practice. Supporting professional development in self-regulatory assessment practices within higher education. Cardiff University and Inclusivehe.org.
Evans, C., Kandiko-Howson C., Forsythe, A., & Edwards, C. (2020). What constitutes high quality higher education pedagogical research? Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 46(4) 525-546.
Evans, C., Kandiko-Howson, C., & Forsythe, A. (2018). Making sense of learning gain in higher education. Higher Education Pedagogies, 3(1): 1-45.
Evans, C. Kay, W., Rutherford, S., Amici-Dargan, S., de Miguel González, R., & Donert, K. (2024). Developing a scale to explore self-regulatory approaches to assessment and feedback with academics in higher education. Frontiers in Psychology.
Evans, C., with Rutherford, S. & ERASMUS TEAM (2021). A self-regulatory approach to assessment in higher education. Cardiff: University of Cardiff with Erasmus+.
Evans, C., & Waring M. (2021). Enhancing students’ assessment feedback skills within higher education. In the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology (pp. 451-477), Oxford University Press.
Evans, C., & Waring. M. (2024). Research Handbook on Innovations in Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education: Implications for Learning and Teaching. ELGAR Publishing.
Evans, C., and Waring, M. (2024). Chapter 26: Prioritising a self-regulatory assessment and feedback approach in higher education in C. Evans and M. Waring (2024). Research Handbook on Innovations in Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education: Implications for Learning and Teaching. ELGAR Publishing.
Evans, C., Waring, M., & Christoudolou, A. (2017). Building teachers’ research literacy: Integrating practice and research. Research Papers in Education, 32 (4), 303-423.
Evans, C., & Zhu, X. (2022). The Disability Inclusion Institutional Framework (UK and International Versions). Inclusivehe.org; Eleanor Glanville Institute, University of Lincoln and Cardiff University.
Evans, C. & Zhu, X. (2023). Disability evidence review produced for TASO. Inclusivehe.org
Evans, C. & Zhu. (2023). What works to reduce equality gaps for disabled students. TASO and University of Lincoln.
Evans, C. & Zhu, X. (2023). The development and validation of the assessment engagement scale. Frontiers in Psychology.
Hobson, D., & Evans, C. (2024). Supporting the development of Graphic Arts’ students’ assessment literacy, in C. Evans and M. Waring (2024), Research Handbook on Innovations in Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education: Implications for Learning and Teaching (pp. 82-115). ELGAR Publishing.
Grange, L., Evans, C., & Zhu, X. (2024). Supporting STEM students’ self-regulatory skills through developing their assessment literacy and evaluative judgement capabilities in C. Evans and M. Waring (2024), Research Handbook on Innovations in Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education: Implications for Learning and Teaching (pp. 168-193). ELGAR Publishing.
Waring, M., & Evans, C. (2024). Chapter 18: Facilitating students' development of assessment and feedback skills through critical engagement with generative artificial intelligence in C. Evans and M. Waring (2024), Research Handbook on Innovations in Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education: Implications for Learning and Teaching. ELGAR Publishing.
Zhu, X., & Evans, C. (2024). Enhancing the development and understanding of assessment literacy in higher education. European Journal of Higher Education, 14(1), 80–100.
Carol is an innovative leader in education having worked successfully across sectors and disciplines to promote the highest quality of education in the UK and internationally. Professor Evans is a National Teaching Fellow, Principal Fellow and has received Collaborative Awards and Spotlight Awards for Teaching Excellence.
She played a central role in setting up the International Federation of National Teaching Fellows which she launched at the House of Lords in 2016. She has supported many colleagues throughout her career to achieve excellence in education through her self-regulatory approach to staff development.