About

Academics from the Mathematics Education Centre have won national and international awards for their research and research-informed teaching practices. Together the Centre’s staff lead a lively group of PhD students from across the globe.

Research in the MEC focuses on two interest groups which form the focus of our research activity: the Culture, Pedagogy and Identity Interest Group; and Mathematical Cognition Interest Group.

The Centre’s research explores the fundamental processes involved in learning mathematics, as well as the design and evaluation of innovative pedagogy. The staff enjoy connecting with other specialists across the country, and run monthly research workshops which attract academics and researchers from across the region.

There is an active programme of workshops incorporating seminars by external and internal researchers (including PhD students) and reading group sessions. External funding for research is increasing with grants from the ESRC, the Royal Society, the Nuffield Foundation, the British Academy, Action Medical Research and the HE STEM programme. In recent years we have hosted five prestigious fellowships: Dr Sophie Batchelor (ESRC Future Leaders Fellowship), Dr Camilla Gilmore (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship and Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship), Dr Matthew Inglis (Royal Society Educational Research Fellowship) and Dr Ian Jones (Royal Society Educational Research Fellowship). The MEC's growing international reputation has been reflected in Loughborough University's appearance in the top 200 universities in the world for Education in the 2013 QS World University Rankings by Subject, and by being ranked as the fifth highest education department in the UK in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (based on the percentage of 3/4* activity).

The MEC is responsible for the university-wide Mathematics Learning Support Centre, which provides mathematics and statistics support to all students. In addition, one-to-one support for students at all levels of study is provided by MEC staff and colleagues in the department of Mathematical Sciences. The Statistics Advisory Service is a specialist service which is in great demand, providing support for final year project students and postgraduates and staff requiring help with statistics. 

There is also increasing demand for support from the Eureka Centre for mathematical confidence which supports students with a range of neuro-diverse needs. The MEC, together with Coventry University, hosts the sigma Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in university-wide mathematics and statistics support. In 2011 this work was awarded the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Support for Students.