Mr Nathan Burns
Research Assistant
Mathematics and Statistics
Personal statement
I am a PhD statistics student, having graduated from BSc in Mathematics and Statistics with Colours at the University of Strathclyde in 2020.
My research focuses on the academic outcomes of students in higher education. In particular, I am interested in the prediction/interpretation of these outcomes and their relationship with a student's contextual background: e.g. coming from a deprived area, coming from low-household income, having care-experience, or attending a school with low progression to higher education rates.
My research is particularly aligned with Widening Access initiatives within Strathclyde and other universities in Scotland, which aims to increase participation in higher education from more socio-economically disadvantaged groups. I am also open to collaboration with other institutions in and outwith Scotland/United Kingdom. For example, I currently work with the Lebniz Institute for Educational trajectories (LfBi), which looks at differences in educational attainment in the German population.
Publications
- A comparison of generalised linear models to determine the academic success of university students from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds
- Burns Nathan, Young David, Sherriff A, Kelly Louise
- Royal Statistical Society Annual Conference 2024 (2024)
- A comparison of semi-parametric and parametric survival methods on student dropouts from higher education
- Burns Nathan, Young David, Sherriff A, Kelly Louise
- Royal Statistical Society Annual Conference 2024 (2024)
- Tracking the success of contextual offer students at one Scottish Higher Education Institution
- Burns Nathan Patrick, Young David, Sherriff Andrea, Black Peter, Blackshaw Al, Kelly Louise
- Higher Education Quarterly Vol 79 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.70011
- The impact of student dropouts on Scotland’s Widening Access Agenda
- Burns Nathan, Young David, Sherriff Andrea, Kelly Louise
- The 7th World Conference on Research in Teaching and Education (2024)
- The postcode lottery : how access to Scotland's most advanced mathematics qualification at school-level impacts students' degree-level performance
- Burns Nathan, Kelly Louise, Sherriff Andrea, Young David
- British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics Spring Conference (2024)
Professional Activities
- Bristish Council Springboard Meeting
- Participant
- 26/2/2025
- PGR Conference: Department of Mathematics & Statistics
- Participant
- 15/1/2025
- Contextual Offer Symposium
- Participant
- 6/9/2023
- World Access to Higher Education Network & UNESCO Right to Higher Education Report Launch Conference
- Participant
- 1/6/2021
Projects
- Exploring education outcomes and their association with deprivation and other equality characteristics
- Kelly, Louise (Principal Investigator) Csoban, Tunde (Co-investigator) Stewart, Ryan (Co-investigator) Burns, Nathan (Researcher) Kirkpatrick, Ryan (Researcher)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
- A Scottish study on entry requirements and attainment for students from deprived backgrounds
- Willison, Debra (Principal Investigator) Kelly, Louise (Co-investigator) Stewart, Ryan (Co-investigator) Burns, Nathan (Researcher)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
- KE in Maths + Stats Seminar
- Whoriskey, Suzy (Principal Investigator) Burns, Nathan (Post Grad Student)
- With Cheryl Stewart and Sara Orr-Saiz from The Data Lab.
- 16-Jan-2023
- The relationship between widening access and success at university: a data-driven statistical investigation
- Burns, Nathan (Principal Investigator)
- Widening Access (WA) refers to the removal of barriers for groups of students who are under-represented in Higher Education (HE). Examples of such groups include those who have spent time in local authority care, those who reside in the most deprived neighborhoods of our population and those who have attended a school with a low rate of progression to HE. Widening Access is an area of strategic priority for the United Kingdom (UK) and Scottish Governments and thus for universities and the HE sector as a whole.
The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2014/2015 [1] sets out its ambition that “a child born today in one of our most deprived communities should, by the time he or she leaves school, have the same chance of going to university as a child born in one of our least deprived.” In order to realise this ambition, the Scottish Government appointed a Commission for Widening Access. The final report from this Commission, A Blueprint for Fairness: Final Report of the Commission on Widening Access [2], was published in March 2016. It sets out several recommendations which include (i) by 2030, students from the 20% most deprived backgrounds should represent 20% of entrants to HE, (ii) by 2021, students from the 20% most deprived backgrounds should represent at least 10% of first time degree students at every individual Scottish university and (iii) by 2019, universities should set access thresholds for applicants from the most deprived areas which accurately reflect the minimum academic standard required to successfully complete a degree programme. Progress on the recommendations and targets is outlined in the recent progress report from 2017 [3].
Setting transparent access thresholds for students from WA backgrounds relies on understanding the relationship between factors which contribute to WA status and successful completion of a degree programme. This project will investigate this relationship. - 01-Jan-2020
Contact
Mr
Nathan
Burns
Research Assistant
Mathematics and Statistics
Email: nathan.burns@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3721