Dr Dorota (Dot) Ujma

Apart from managing the Postgraduate Suite of Tourism, Hospitality and Events courses at the University of Central Lancashire, Dot is also looking after Research Students in her role of the Research Degree tutor. This role includes advising potential applicants for the research degrees, interviewing them and checking their progress on a research journey. She is also a Principal Investigator for an international research project, funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA). 

Dot previously taught at the University of Bedfordshire and the Krakow University of Economics in Poland. She completed a Master’s degree in Krakow, specialising in tourism marketing of health resorts and a PhD on tourism distribution channel relationships at the University of Bedfordshire. In addition, Dorota previously worked with the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, which opened her eyes to the nebulous nature of employability and complex links between employers and curriculum. Her research interests touch upon tourism marketing, specifically distribution in tourism and hospitality as well as health and wellness resorts. She is also interested in pedagogic issues and perspectives in higher education, especially how they are impacted upon by the developing technology. She is a fan of polling and research software, for example Vevox and Qualtrics. Processes guiding development of tourism career management skills, for example through work placements and personal development planning, or more general educational research areas including links between assessments and learning / teaching, and the value of feedback to students and members of staff were added to her research agenda as the result of co-operation with UK and international research fellows. She likes working with colleagues through coaching and mentoring schemes. The co-operation with the Polish University College of Tourism and Ecology (WSTiE) in Sucha Beskidzka, where she was a visiting lecturer, led to the international project, funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), titled “Design thinking as a tool of practical support for the development of business and science, based on the international academic partnership: Polish – Italian – English – Hungarian”. Its aim is to uncover solutions in which entrepreneurial and employability skills are developed in tourism-related courses in four co-operating universities in Poland, UK, Italy and Hungary. Dot with four other colleagues from the Tourism, Hospitality and Events lead the project-related activities at the University of Central Lancashire.