Dr Ryan Stewart

Teaching Fellow

Mathematics and Statistics

Contact

Personal statement

I started at Strathclyde as an undergraduate student in 2014 with a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics & Statistics. Following that, I then started my PhD at the University of Glasgow. My PhD explored trends and inequalities in dental caries and obesity in Primary 1 children in Scotland and explored the role of the Childsmile programming in reaching children with co-existing dental caries and obesity. 

In January 2022, I began my teaching career at Strathclyde as a Teaching Assistant before being promoted to Teaching Associate in August 2022. I am the director of the Septembers of the Online MScs in Applied Statistics.

As a Teaching Associate, I mainly teach statisticss modules in Year 1 (Statistics and Data Presentation), 2 (Probability and Statistical Inference), 4 (Experimental Design), and 5 (Data Dashboards with RShiny; Data Analytics in R). 

Teaching Interests

In the Academic Year 2023/24, I am involved in the following modules

On-campus modules

  • MM104: Statistics and Data Presentation (Lecturer and Module Coordinator)
  • MM204: Probability and Statistical Inference (Lecturer)
  • MM404: Statistical Modelling and Analysis (Lecturer and Module Coordinator)
  • MM962: Data Dashboards with RShiny (Lecturer and Module Coordinator)

Online modules

  • MM923: Data Analytics in R (Lecturer and Module Coordinator)
  • MM961: Data Dashboards with RShiny (Lecturer)

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Publications

The influence of maternal long term health conditions including multimorbidity on child oral health : a scoping review and evidence gap map protocol
Campbell Faith, McGregor Scott, Marryat Louise, Stewart Ryan, Clarkson Jan, Cassie Heather
Wellcome Open Research Vol 9 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.21725.2
Obesity and dental caries in childhood : trends in prevalence and socioeconomic inequalities - a multicohort population-wide data linkage study
Stewart Ryan, Conway David I, Macpherson Lorna MD, Sherriff Andrea
Archives of Disease in Childhood Vol 109, pp. 642-648 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2023-326587
Obesity and dental caries in children in Scotland : trends, inequalities, and the reach and impact of the Childsmile
Stewart Ryan
(2023)
Child oral health and preventive dental service access among children with intellectual disabilities, autism and other educational additional support needs : a population-based record linkage cohort study
Sherriff Andrea, Stewart Ryan, Macpherson Lorna MD, Kidd Jamie BR, Henderson Angela, Cairns Deborah, Conway David I
Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology Vol 51, pp. 494-502 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdoe.12805
Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in underweight and obesity in 5-year-old children, 2011–2018 : a population-based, repeated cross-sectional study
Stewart Ryan, Reilly John J, Hughes Adrienne, Kelly Louise A, Conway David I, Young David, Sherriff Andrea
BMJ Open Vol 11 (2021)
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042023

More publications

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Professional Activities

Mathematics & Statistics Teaching Away Day
Organiser
22/5/2024
Research Talk
Speaker
15/5/2024
Introduction to Digital Accessibility
Participant
14/5/2024
Royal Statistical Society Glasgow Local Group Committee (External organisation)
Advisor
10/5/2024
Royal Statistical Society Glasgow Local Group Committee (External organisation)
Member
5/2024
Research Talk
Keynote speaker
23/4/2024

More professional activities

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)
01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
Re-engaging Students in Learning Development through Subject Specific Resources
English, Rosanne (Principal Investigator) Ciocarlan, Cristian (Co-investigator) Miller, Ainsley (Co-investigator) Stewart, Ryan (Co-investigator) Vaughan, Helen (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
A Scottish study on entry requirements and attainment for students from deprived backgrounds
Burns, Nathan (Principal Investigator) Kelly, Louise (Academic) Stewart, Ryan (Academic) Willison, Debra (Academic)
The Commission on Widening Access’ (CoWA) published its recommendations and targets for educational reform in Scotland in 2016 (Commission on Widening Access 2015, 2016). The key target was that by 2030, 20% of entrants to higher education across Scotland should come from the most deprived background. This refers to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) areas that rank in the lowest 20% in terms of deprivation (Quintile 1). When these targets were introduced by the CoWA, they also recommended the introduction of contextual offers. Such offers consider a student’s contextual background alongside their prior attainment when making admissions decisions. Applicants that are eligible for contextual offers are assessed against Minimum Entry Requirements (MERs), which are typically lower than the Standard Entry Requirements (SERs) by one or two grades. By 2019, MERs were to be implemented across all degree programmes in Scotland and publicly viewable by potential applicants (Universities Scotland 2017). The CoWA argued that a student’s “potential” was not solely reflected in their academic attainment from high school, rather this was just one contributing factor alongside their contextual background. In these arguments they cited empirical evidence from the Universities of St. Andrew’s (Lasselle, McDougall-Bagnall, and Smith 2014) and Bristol (Hoare and Johnston 2011) which suggested that students from more disadvantaged backgrounds can perform as well as, or better than, their non-disadvantaged peers at university.

To date, the main Widening Access efforts in Scotland have been focused on increasing the proportion of SIMD 0-20 Quintile entrants to university, in line with the CoWA targets; less emphasis has been placed on how these students perform whilst at university. Strathclyde implemented contextual offers and MERs in 2015/2016 and since then, have met WA targets ahead of schedule. Meeting targets has, however been challenging for Science-based subjects, including Chemistry. Previous projects have been undertaken to understand why this challenge exists and how to address the imbalance between Science and Humanities/Business programmes. In this project, we plan to extend this work by looking more closely at entry requirements and their influence on performance. Using a linked dataset of anonymous student records, we will undertake a statistical analysis to determine if there is any difference in performance between students that receive a contextual offer (CO) and those that receive a standard offer (SO). If differences are found to exist, we will explore the effects of SIMD Quintile and prior attainment to determine which of these factors, if any, has most influence. The results of the analysis will be used to inform how we set our MERs and SERs and, if appropriate, offer support. We anticipate that taking informed action will improve access, retention and attainment of students from the most deprived backgrounds within Scotland.
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)
01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025

More projects

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Contact

Dr Ryan Stewart
Teaching Fellow
Mathematics and Statistics

Email: ryan.stewart@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3715