Role
Iryna is an Associate Professor of Education Policy (Teaching and Research). Her work bridges internationally recognised research, academic leadership, and research-led teaching.
Iryna's research and external engagement reflect her commitment to advancing global conversations in international higher education policy, sustainable development and social justice.
She plays an active leadership role across various university initiatives, having launched and edited the Working Papers Series “Meeting New Challenges in Education”, which supports early-career researchers and postgraduate researchers globally. Iryna also leads the cross-university Special Interest Group (SIG) “Education and International Development” and co-founded the international Webinar Series on Education and International Development with Dr Abdishakur Tarah, fostering cross-institutional collaboration and global dialogue.
In addition, she has launched and co-leads the School-wide “Theory Aloud” Seminar Series with Dr Richard Gee, which explores the use of theory in social science research and teaching. She also initiated a strategic partnership between NTU and Taras Shevchenko National University (Ukraine), enabling teaching and research exchange.
Iryna serves as Co-Chair of the School of Social Sciences Undergraduate Research Ethics Committee, shaping ethical review processes. She also reviews ethics applications from staff and PGRs, contributes to NTU’s research culture as an internal reviewer for REF (UoA C23 and more recently C20) and supports colleagues through the NTU Professional Recognition Scheme as a reviewer and decision board member for HEA applications (AFHEA, FHEA, SFHEA). She is also involved in the University of Sanctuary initiative, jointly hosted by NTU and the University of Nottingham.
Iryna was awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in 2021. She has been supervising doctoral candidates as well as Master’s and Undergraduate dissertations. Since joining NTU in 2018, she has taught on 25 different modules, many of which she led or designed, including: Comparative and International Education (EDUC24330), Lifelong Learning in Education (EDUC24334), Dissertation in Education (EDUC33053), What is Education (EDUC16015), Personal and Academic Tutorials (EDUC17011), Social Justice in Education (PDEP43698-30599), Educating the People (EDUC33007), Identity and Power (EDUC23119), Learning in Context 2 (Professional Placement) (SPD21113), Research Dissertation (EDUC33033), Research in Context (SPPD35007), Social Context of Post-Compulsory Education and Training (EDUC33057), Social Justice in Education (PDEP43698-30555), Class Practices in Education (EDUC23006), Comparative Education (EDUC16003), Developing Professionalism (SPPD11115), Education and Social Policy (EDUC16001), Education: Aspiration, Transition and Identity (EDUC23106), Educator Identity (EDUC24305), Learning and the Individual (EDUC23206), Professional Placement (EDUC23112), Sociological Explorations in Education (EDUC16002), The Business of Education (EDUC23115).
Career overview
Academic qualifications: PhD (University of Edinburgh, UK), MA (Central European University, Hungary/Austria), PSCert (Ball State University, USA), BEd Hons (Ternopil National Pedagogical University, Ukraine), BA Hons (Ternopil National Economic University, Ukraine)
Career mobility: Dr Kushnir joined the Nottingham Institute of Education as Senior Lecturer in 2018 before being promoted to an Associate Professor in 2023. Prior to joining NTU, she held academic posts at the University of Edinburgh (2014-2016 – Moray House School of Education and the School of Social and Political Sciences) and the University of Sheffield (2016-2018 – Department of Sociological Studies). She also worked as a Lecturer of Education Research at two Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools in Kazakhstan.
Research areas
Iryna’s research spans three interconnected areas:
1. Higher education policy, politics and internationalisation
Iryna's research explores global trends in higher education internationalisation, including cross-national comparisons and the diffusion of education models. Iryna has a sustained interest in the policy and politics of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), including the Bologna Process and mechanisms of policy learning. Her work critically examines the reform trajectories of UK, Ukrainian, and EU countries’ education systems, especially in relation to Europeanisation and integration. She has published widely on these topics and recently led a Spencer Foundation-funded project ($50,000) titled “Europeanisation agenda and membership in the European Higher Education Area post-2020: stakeholders’ perspectives from the UK, Germany, France and Italy”.
2. Education and sustainable development
Iryna’s work in this area focuses on UN SDG policy-making and embedding sustainability within higher education policy and curricula.
3. Education in crisis contexts and forced migration
She also researches the role of education in contexts of crisis, displacement, and war. Her recent publications address the experiences of Ukrainian refugees accessing higher education in host countries, and the ethical dimensions of conducting research in war-affected regions.
Methodologically, Iryna is predominantly a qualitative researcher. She has worked extensively with data from interviews, policy documents, official communications, textbooks, websites, and systematic literature reviews. Her dominant analytical approaches include thematic analysis and critical discourse analysis. Iryna’s fieldwork spans over a dozen countries and includes engagement at the international level, including conducting high-profile interviews with representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament. From a quantitative perspective, she has also applied descriptive statistics.
External activity
Iryna co-established the Ukrainian Education Research Association (UERA) in 2015 thanks to a collaborative capacity-building grant ($10,800) from the American government, and has been co-developing UERA in various roles, shaping research culture in Ukraine. UERA has become the biggest and most influential national research association in Ukraine, and is a sister organisation of the British Educational Research Association (BERA). In cooperation with BERA, Iryna has successfully led on the delivery of the Research Ethics Guidelines for researchers in education in Ukraine. Her work in the area of research ethics was also impactful for BERA, having acted as a reviewer of the 4th edition of BERA Research Ethics Guidelines and a developer of the 5thedition of BERA Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research (2024), influencing ethical research practices across UK educational institutions and internationally.
Iryna was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bergen (Norway) in 2022. She gave invited talks about European higher education policy at various institutions in the UK and abroad (e.g., the University of Oxford (UK), Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine), the Nordic Institute for Studies Innovation, Research and Education (Norway)). Her research has featured in news outlets such as THE Pie News, the Huffington Post and Veto. She has extensive experience in invited peer review for journals, publishers, conferences, prizes and grants, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Sponsors and collaborators
Iryna has recently secured highly competitive funding from the Spencer Foundation ($50,000 - PI), the British Academy (£3,300 - PI), the Ministry of Higher Education in Malaysia (RM80,000 - collaborator) and Erasmus+ to lead globally oriented research, mentoring, and mobility initiatives. Iryna has also secured internal NTU funding for 11 research projects.
She collaborates with a diverse network of esteemed scholars across multiple world regions, reflecting her strong international profile and leadership in the field.
Amongst the many awards Iryna has received are the Nottingham Trent University Vice-Chancellor’s Collaboration Award (2019), Recognition Awards from University of Sheffield (2017 and 2018), a Teaching Award from the University of Edinburgh (2016), and the ERC Best Paper Award (2014).
Publications
Iryna has an established publication track record of high-impact outputs, with over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles published in leading journals (e.g., Emerald’s International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education IF4.3; Elsevier’s Sustainable Futures IF3.3), two research monographs, two edited volumes, multiple book chapters, and a range of other outputs such as research datasets, features, working papers, archives, and blog posts.
Indexes: Scopus, Google Scholar, ORCID