AI, Academic Literacies, and Responsibility in Widening Participation Higher Education (VC2638)

About the Project

University of the West of Scotland (UWS) is seeking to attract a PhD candidate of outstanding ability and commitment to join its vibrant and growing programme of internationally excellent research.

This PhD project explores how generative AI is reshaping academic literacies, writing practices, and relationships of responsibility in widening participation higher education. As AI tools become increasingly embedded in students’ everyday study practices, important questions arise about learning, authorship, feedback, judgement, and educational equity. These questions are especially pressing in widening participation contexts, where students often bring more complex and diverse linguistic repertoires, educational histories, and prior relationships to academic writing.

The project will examine how students and staff understand, use, negotiate, and respond to AI in higher education, with particular attention to the implications for teaching, assessment, inclusion, and academic development. It will ask how AI affects not only what students produce, but also how writing is understood and valued as a relational, social, and intellectual practice. The project is expected to contribute to current debates on AI in education by bringing together academic literacies, applied linguistics, (linguistic) ethnography, and relational ethics.

The successful candidate will undertake an empirically grounded study with a strong linguistic ethnographic orientation, likely employing research tools such as classroom observation, interviews, and analysis of (policy) discourse, interaction, and student writing practices and general output. The precise research design will be developed with the supervisory team.

The project offers the opportunity to join a vibrant interdisciplinary research environment and to contribute to an urgent and fast-developing area of scholarship with significance for pedagogy, policy, and the future of higher education.

The candidate/eligibility criteria

Applicants should hold, or expect to obtain before the start date, a strong undergraduate degree and a Master’s degree in a relevant field. We particularly welcome candidates with interdisciplinary backgrounds spanning areas such as applied linguistics, education, academic literacies, sociolinguistics, linguistic ethnography, linguistic anthropology, English language, and cultural studies.

The successful candidate should demonstrate excellent academic writing skills, critical thinking, and the ability to undertake independent research within an interdisciplinary project. They should have a clear interest in qualitative and (linguistic) ethnographic research, and in questions of language, literacy, learning, and (ethical and political) responsibility in higher education. An interest in generative AI in higher education, widening participation, and the ethical dimensions of writing and pedagogy will be especially valuable.

The successful candidate must meet the following criteria:

• be a UK National (meeting residency requirements),
• or have settled status,
• or have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements),
• or have indefinite leave to remain

For more information, or to discuss the project informally, please contact Dr Luke Holmes (luke.holmes@uws.ac.uk) or Dr Fernando León Solís (Fernando.Leon-solis@uws.ac.uk)

Application Deadline: 15/06/2026

Start Date: 01/10/2026

Applications must be made via the UWS Online System.

Funding Notes

This is a fully funded PhD Studentship and includes payment of tuition fees for 36 months at the home/UK rate and an annual maintenance stipend equivalent to UKRI minimum stipend rate (£21,805pa from 01/10/2026).

The successful candidate must meet the following criteria:

•        be a UK National (meeting residency requirements),
•        or have settled status,
•        or have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements),
•        or have indefinite leave to remain