Congratulations to Professor James Hartley, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Keele University and BPS Fellow, who has been given a lifetime achievement award by the Society’s Education and Public Engagement Board. The award recognises unusually significant and sustained careers in psychological education.

With a career spanning 50 years, Professor Hartley used teaching methods in the 1980s that are still considered innovative today.

Nominating him for the award, Professor Michael Murray, Head of the School of Psychology at Keele University, said: 

‘In one of his course modules he got a cohort of students to write a textbook to be used by students in the next year. Students authored and edited, with Professor Hartley acting as a sort of Chief Editor – this pre-dates the current notion of “students as partners and co-producers in learning“ by two plus decades, and the benefits in terms of student independent learning, peer learning, employability and student engagement cannot be overstated.’

Still active in research, Professor Hartley has published 16 books, 30 book chapters and more than 350 research articles, with a focus on academic writing and the readability of research papers, the legibility of text and the comprehensibility of journal abstracts, as well as student study skills, academic writing and publishing.

Read more about Professor Hartley in an article in the August issue of our monthly magazine The Psychologist (you will need to sign in to the website).

For more information about the Society’s Education and Public Engagement Board lifetime achievement award click here. Information about all the Society’s awards and grants can be found here. 

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