Professor Daniel Berger

A passionate advocate for widening participation in higher education, Daniel’s research interests explore effective and innovative learning and teaching methods to improve student engagement, performance and outcomes. His publications focus on awards gaps, social mobility and academic achievement of under-represented groups. Daniel is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

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Background

With his background as a company director, holding a law degree, as a qualified barrister and with a PhD in Bayesian probabilistic reasoning, Daniel’s academic and practice profile background is truly interdisciplinary.

Having started university as a mature student – and the first in his family to enter higher education – Daniel became keenly aware that university study had the potential to create a paradigm shift in the social mobility and employability of large swathes of the population who, due to the demands and complexities of modern life, may otherwise not have the opportunity to benefit.

To ensure this shift takes place, universities must ensure that they are ‘student ready’, and not expect students to be ‘university-ready’. This means being welcoming, inclusive, approachable and job-market focused/relevant. Daniel's findings are that this can be achieved through enriching induction programmes, such as the Heist-Award winning institution-wide Into ARU programme, ensuring assessments are authentic to workplace scenarios, designing active blended learning environments, and accrediting co-curricular activities, such as his Pearson Award-winning ARUCPD award.

Research interests

• Active blended learning environments in higher education
• Enriched induction programmes in higher education
• Authentic assessment in higher education
• Social mobility and inclusion in higher education
• The use of AI in higher education
• Accredited co-curricular activities in higher education
• Continuing personal and professional development in higher education

Areas of research supervision

• Graduate employability in higher education
• Student experience in higher education
• National and international student recruitment in higher education
• Educational pathways to legal practice
• Legal reasoning and advocacy

Teaching

• LLB (Hons) Law

Qualifications

• LLB (Hons) Law, University of Hertfordshire
• PgDp Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), College (now University) of Law, London
• PhD ‘Improving Legal Reasoning using Bayesian Probability Methods’, Queen Mary, University of London

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Birmingham City University – authentic assessment

Selected recent publications

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2017). Forgotten Lore: Can the Socratic Method of teaching be used to reduce the attainment gap of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students? Higher Education Review.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF): Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? Higher Education Review.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). Enhancing student performance and employability through the use of authentic assessment techniques in extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs). The Law Teacher.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). Refining the traditional flipped-classroom model to optimise student performance on undergraduate degree programmes. Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). Turned on, tuned in, but not dropped out: Enhancing the student experience with popular social media platforms. European Journal of Law and Technology.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). Using authentic assessment techniques in Extra and Co-curricular course (ECCAs) delivery to reflect the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority’s (SRA) change towards legal vocational stage delivery. International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 9(1).

Fenton, N., Neil, M. and Berger, D. (2015). Bayes and the Law. Annual Review of Statistics and its Application, 3.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2015). Using authentic assessment techniques in extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs) to improve teaching standards on academic law programmes. Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education, 10(1), p.70.

Fenton, N., Berger, D. et al (2014). When ‘neutral’ evidence still has probative value: implications from the Barry George Case. Science & Justice, 54 [2014], pp.274-287.

Fenton, N., Berger, D. et al (2014). Response to ‘On the use of the likelihood ratio for forensic evaluation: response to Fenton et al. Science & Justice, 54 [2014], pp.319-320.

Recent presentations and conferences

Berger, D. (2024). Teaching the Parts AI can’t teach – why the future of Higher Education has never looked brighter. The Future of Education Consortium, European Diplomats, Cambridge.

Berger D., Mevoli A., Hassani S. (2023). Approaches to Driving Engagement and Continuation through a bespoke intervention strategy: A case study of the Student Development Leads at Anglia Ruskin University. Student Retention and Learning Symposia: The Cost of Student Poverty, Leeds.

Doing it all: Driving student engagement, outcomes, enhancing student recruitment and reducing awards gaps with the ARUCPD accredited co-curriculum. Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) Learning and Teaching and Student Experience Conference, Wales, 2023.

Enhancing graduate level employability outcomes and student engagement through accreditation of extra- and co-curricular skills-focused activities. Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) Learning and Teaching and Student Experience Conference, Belfast, 2022.

Work-ready Graduates ‘Building Employability Skills for a Hybrid World’. With Professor of Entrepreneurship Jillian Gordon, University of Glasgow, and Matt Swarbrick, CMI’s Director of Partnerships. Webinar, 2021.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). Refining the traditional flipped-classroom model: Teaching students HOW to think, not WHAT to think. Presented at BILETA 31st Conference, University of Hertfordshire.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). The Proposed Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF): A Formula for Teaching Excellence. Presented at the 4th European Conference on Education (ECE2016), UK.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF): Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? Presented at the 22nd International Academic Conference, Lisbon.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). Getting the job done: Using authentic assessment techniques in extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs) to improve law students’ employability prospects. Presented at the International Conference on Education and e-Learning (ICEEL), Barcelona.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). Practice Makes Perfect: Using authentic assessment techniques in Extra and Co-curricular course (ECCAs) delivery to reflect the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority’s (SRA) change towards legal vocational stage delivery. Presented at the International Journal of Arts & Sciences’ (IJAS) International Conference for Education, Paris.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2016). Burning the Paper Tiger: Using authentic assessment techniques in academic law degree delivery. Presented at the International Academic Business Conference, Venice.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2015). Giving students the third degree: Using authentic assessment techniques in extra and co-curricular activities (ECCAs) to improve teaching standards on academic law programmes. Presented at the International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences (IISES) 20th International Academic Conference, Madrid.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2015). The Real Deal: Using formative assessment techniques in authentic assessment delivery, to improve law degree academic performance. Presented at the International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning & E-learning, CIAE, Vienna.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2015). Get Real: Using authentic assessment techniques to improve law degree academic performance. Presented at the International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences (IISES) 2nd Teaching & Education Conference, Florence.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2015). Social Media and the Student Experience. Presented at the European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL) 14th Conference, UK.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2015). The central importance of co-curricular activities as an authentic assessment mechanism within modern legal education. Presented at the Annual Learning & Teaching Conference, University of Hertfordshire.

Berger, D. and Wild, C. (2015). Turned on, tuned in, but not dropped out: Enhancing the student experience using popular social media platforms. Presented at BILETA 30th Conference, University of the West of England.