Dr Alison Cooper PhD

Institute of Clinical Sciences
Associate Professor

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 414 4510
Email: a.j.cooper@bham.ac.uk

Address: Birmingham Medical School
College of Medicine and Health
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Alison Cooper’s current role focusses on education; this includes everything from face to face student contact through to responsibility for Quality Assurance activity across the college. Alison’s main strategic role is at College level, as the Deputy Director of Education (Quality Assurance). This involves oversight of data, compliance processes and monitoring as well as advising on the educational aspects of programme and module development.

In addition, Alison is the Academic lead for years 1 and 2 of the MBChB programme – overseeing a team responsible for all organisational aspects from timetabling to assessment. This is coupled to acting as Deputy Programme Director for MBChB with a focus on governance.

Research activities are now very limited; Alison has a background in neuropharmacology research, having worked in areas spanning electrophysiology to behavioural approaches. This has led to a strong interest in the practical aspects of education research, in particular applying the principles of the neurobiological basis of learning to the educational setting.

Qualifications

Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (University of Birmingham)
PhD University of Manchester
MA University of Cambridge
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Biography

A lifelong interest in biology resulted in Alison Cooper reading for a degree in Natural Sciences. During this a developing interest in neuroscience led to a PhD in the laboratory of Alan Crossman in the neuroanatomy department at the University of Manchester. The laboratory had a reputation for work elucidating the neuroanatomical and neurochemical basis of basal ganglia an dysfunction, particularly in relation to movement. The behavioural pharmacology aspects of the PhD required Alison to acquire skills which, at the time, were going out of fashion, but which are now recognised to be deficient in the science base, particularly in relation to drug discovery. Subsequent post doctoral positions continued with the basal ganglia focus and included work on behavioural pharmacology but with a shift in focus to the motivational functions believed to be mediated by these structures. This was followed by a period looking at the electrophysiological properties of neurones of the basal ganglia correlated with their neurochemistry. During the post doctoral phase, Alison was required to undertake some teaching and, to her initial surprise, enjoyed this and actively sought out more teaching opportunities. This led to her being appointed as a teaching fellow at Birmingham which became a lectureship followed by promotion to senior lecturer on the basis of the extent and expertise required for her diverse teaching and administrative role.

Teaching

Research

Research activities are constrained by time availability to a long-standing collaboration investigating the neuropharmacology of feeding behaviour. In addition Alison has a strong interest in the practical aspects of education research, in particular applying the principles of the neurobiological basis of learning to the educational setting.