DrAhlam Ali

I am a Lecturer in Biomedical Science (Cancer Biology) and Foundation Year Course Lead for BSc Biomedical Science with Foundation Year. I teach across Levels 3 to 7, spanning our foundation, undergraduate and Master's provision.

I hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

My teaching is shaped by a simple question: where are students actually getting stuck, and what in the design of the course is putting them there? When I took over Fundamentals of Healthcare Science (3BM003), a module of 134 students, I looked closely at the points where students were falling away and made deliberate changes to how the material was taught and assessed. Pass rates improved on both modules I lead, 3BM003 and Clinical Genetics (6BM034), and Clinical Genetics received a 100% Excellent rating in its student module evaluation. I am now designing new provision launching in 2026/27, including Cell and Molecular Biology (4BM042), where I have authored the module design and built the Canvas content, teaching materials and practicals from scratch.

I am committed to research-led teaching. I bring my active cancer research directly into student learning, training myself in techniques such as 3D tissue culture and anticancer high-throughput screening and translating them into hands-on Level 6 and Master's research projects. These projects are consistently oversubscribed. I have supervised over twenty undergraduate and postgraduate research projects, and I am Director of Studies for a PhD student working on colorectal cancer high-content screening.

As Inclusivity Lead for the School of Life Sciences, I lead school-level delivery of the University's Race Equity Charter Bronze action plan. I use institutional student outcomes data to identify where awarding gaps open up, and I treat those gaps as questions about curriculum design, assessment load and transition support rather than about student ability. Current work includes assessment scheduling audits, minimum standards for consistent project supervision, and targeted support at the Semester 1 transition point where the gap is widest.

I have an active interest in pedagogic scholarship. My PGCert case study on using Vevox as an interactive teaching tool was selected by the University as an exemplar for its Curriculum Framework Toolkit. I am currently working on a self-efficacy skills project designing questionnaires that track how students' confidence in core skills develops from foundation through to Master's level.