Newcastle University

Fiona has been a lecturer with the Business School since completing her PhD in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies in 2006. She was appointed as Director of Engagement for the Business School in September 2009.

In her role as Director of Engagement she seeks to develop mutually beneficial relationships with external organisations to ensure that the School's research impacts upon practice; that students are provided with an enhanced learning experience through exposure to the corporate world, and that the School makes a contribution to the economic, social and cultural life of our region.

She currently facilitates the Herbert Loebl Export Academy and the Santander Universities Business Of Sustainability Week. 

Fiona graduated with a first class degree in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge in 1990 and subsequently worked in relationship banking for NatWest Bank for 9 years.

Research Interests

Fiona completed a PhD in Economic Geography at Newcastle University in 2005 looking at the use of clusters in economic development policy and retains a research interest in the interactions between firms, and other entities, particularly in the marine technology industries. She also has a strong research interest in regional economic development policy and the way in which firms interact with universities.

Other Expertise

She has been involved in a variety of research assignments including an identification and assessment of sectoral strengths in the North East for the regional development agency One NorthEast; a study of the implications of an emerging regional policy for higher education in England for Universities UK and a study of the impact of the higher education institutions in the Yorkshire and the Humber Region for Yorkshire Universities. Work from her PhD contributed to an EU FP5 research project CRITICAL (City-Regions as Intelligent Territories: Inclusion, Competitiveness and Learning)

Current Work

Fiona's main current research relates to writing up the findings of an ESRC Business Engagement project. This project aimed to identify the ways in which firms, particularly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the subsea engineering company could work together to promote their industrial sector and tailor skills provision for their requirements. This led to a collaborative project with Newcastle College and the development of two specialist subsea degrees, in addition to a range of practical activities to engage young people in the engineering sector. 

Fiona also held a curriculum development grant to produce a range of entrepreneurial video narratives for use in teaching across the university. This project has also led to a joint research project with Dr Janine Swail looking at student perceptions of entrepreneurship.

Postgraduate Supervision

Ben Whiston - ESRC CASE Studentship with Enterpreneurs' Forum (joint with Dr Simon Down)

Andrea Cocchi 0 joint with Dr Neil Alderman 

Esteem Indicators

Member of Subsea North East Executive Committee and Skills and Resources Committee

Funding

ESRC Business Engagement Funding £75,300 (April 2008-April 2009)

Projects

• Entrepreneurial Intentions in an Entrepreneurially lagging region
  Project Leader(s): Fiona Whitehurst
• ESRC North East Energy Skills Seminar
  Project Leader(s): Dr Fiona Whitehurst
• Exploiting the Potential of the Subsea Energy Cluster in the North East of England
  Project Leader(s): David Charles
• Herbert Loebl Export Academy
  Project Leader(s): Fiona Whitehurst, Joanna Berry

Undergraduate Teaching

Fiona is module leader for Business Enterprise (BUS2011)where she works closely with Entrepreneur in Residence, Angela Mclean and the Careers Service. In this module students, in groups, devise, plan and operate a business under the Young Enterprise Graduate Programme. The module is supported by a large number of business mentors drawn from the regional business community.

Postgraduate Teaching

Fiona developed, with Joanna Berry, a new degree programme - the MA in Arts, Business & Creativity for which she was Degree Programme Director in its first year of operation.

• Whitehurst F, Hodgson CM. Regional Policy Makers, Higher Education and Clusters: Regional Strategic Human Resource Development?. In: Engage HEI. 2010, Bradford, UK.
• Whitehurst F, Hodgson CM. When Two (or Three or Four) Worlds Collide?: The Case of a Collaboration involving Further Education, Higher Education and Industry. In: British Academy of Management Conference. 2010, Sheffield, UK.
• Hodgson CM, Whitehurst FC. ‘Match Making and Making Sense: A potential role for business school academics in industry-university engagement’. In: HE Academy, Business, Management, Accountancy and Finance Annual Conference. 2009, Cardiff, UK.
• Whitehurst FC, Swail J. Just One Question – Do entrepreneurship educators sufficiently account for students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship?. In: British Academy of Management Conference. 2009, Brighton, UK.
• Whitehurst FC. A contact sport, not a numbers game: the use of clusters in economic development policy. In: DIME International Workshop, Reconsidering the Regional Knowledge Economy: Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Insights from Diverse Research Approaches. 2008, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
• Whitehurst F, Siedlok F. Regional Leadership: The Emergence of Subsea NE and the Subsea Technology Cluster in North East England. Regions Magazine 2009, 275(1), 20-23.
• Whitehurst F, Siedlok F, Race JM. Reach in and reach out: the story of the MSc in Pipeline Engineering at Newcastle University. International Small Business Journal 2008, 26(6), 709-733.
• Whitehurst FC. [PhD Thesis] The use and misuse of clusters in economic development policy:A case study of two cluster policy initiatives in the North East of England. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2007. Centre for Urban & Regional Development Studies.
• Whitehurst FC, Siedlok F. From closure to excellence: micro-clusters, local embeddedness and public policy. In: Paper presented at the Institute for Small Business & Entrepreneurship 29th National Conference.2006,Cardiff, UK
• Whitehurst F. Cluster policy in the North East of England: High or Low Tide? policy approaches to the life sciences and the marine and offshore cluster. In: Economic Geography Research Group Postgraduate Symposium. 2004, University of Sheffield, UK.
• Benneworth, P., and F. Whitehurst. The Wicked issues of clusters, clustering and cluster policy. Regional Review 2002, 11.