Profile

Last updated / May 2025

Current doctoral students

Jim McKinley is Professor of Applied Linguistics in higher education at University College London IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (previously UCL Institute of Education), and Co-Head of Research in the Department of Culture, Communication and Media. Having first taught in US schools, he has since developed as an academic in the UK, Japan and Australia. He also spent time as a visiting scholar at Makerere University in Uganda on a Rotary International Teacher's Grant (2002-03), and was a visiting scholar at Trinity College Dublin (2014-15). He was recently a NAWA Ulam Research Fellow at Krakow University of Economics (UEK) (2023), and is currently a Visiting Senior Researcher at Waseda University's Institute of Advanced Studies (WIAS) (2025). His research focuses on the intersection of applied linguistics and the internationalisation of higher education, targeting implications of globalisation for second language (academic and scholarly) writing, English medium instruction, and the teaching-research nexus in higher education. He currently serves as an Editor-in-Chief for the journal System, an Editor for the Cambridge Elements series on Language Teaching, and guest editor for a special issue with Research Methods in Applied Linguistics.

At UCL, Jim serves as Co-Head of Research, and had previously been Academic Head of Learning and Teaching in the department of Culture, Communication, and Media 2020-2024. He is currently teaching on the MA TESOL Pre-Service programme, contributing to all core modules and serving as module leader for Researching Second Language Learning and the MA Report. He also teaches on the Higher Education Management MBA. UCL postgraduate supervision currently includes primary and secondary supervision of 11 PhD and EdD projects, as well as MA TESOL Pre-Service students. Since 2020, Jim has also supervised DPhil and MSc students at the University of Oxford, where he is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education.

Jim's research agenda is focused on the teaching-research nexus in higher education and TESOL, doctoral writing and L2 writer identity, and internationalisation education policy concerning English medium instruction (EMI). 

Claudia Andreani - PhD student

Tolera Simie - PhD candidate; English language teacher (South Thames College)

Josef Mueller - EdD candidate; Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Language Learning (Queen Mary University of London)

Dandan Zhu - PhD candidate; thesis submitted

Subsidiary supervision:

Sid Mohammadi - PhD student; PGTA, UCL IOE

Tim Hampson - PhD candidate; PGTA UCL IOE Centre for Doctoral Education

Agata Mikołajewska-Furmanek - PhD candidate; Data analyst

Nathan Thomas - PhD candidate; lecturer (UCL); thesis submitted

• Karina Cicero, PhD
• ​Yibei Wang, PhD
• Kan Chai, PhD

Editing/reviewing highlights

• Co-Editor-in-Chief for System (2023 impact factor 4.9 - 3rd/297 in Linguistics)
• Co-Editor of Cambridge Elements: Language Teaching​
• Special issue Co-Editor for Journal of English for Academic Purposes (2025)
• Special issue Co-Editor for Research Methods in Applied Linguistics (2024-2025): "Qualitative research in applied linguistics: A call for temporally focused methods"
• Special Issue Co-Editor for TESOL Quarterly (2023-2024): "Global Englishes and TESOL"
• Special Issue Co-Editor for Applied Linguistics Review (2022-2023): "EMI in Chinese Higher Education"
• Editorial Board member: Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Journal of English Medium Instruction, IJPINT (Poland), Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, Research Synthsis in Applied Linguistics.
• Reviewer for: Higher Education; International Journal of Educational Research;  Scientometrics; Applied Linguistics; TESOL Quarterly; Journal of English for Academic Purposes; ​International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education; Studies in Second Language Acquisition; Language Policy; Linguistics and Education; ​English for Specific Purposes; Journal of Language, Identity and Education; Language Learning Journal; Journal of Language, Culture and Society; and more

Research output highlights

 A SELECTION / 2018 - 2023

• Problems posing as solutions: Criticising pragmatism as a paradigm for mixed methods research. Research in Education, 2023.
  
• An argument for globalized L2 writing methodological  innovation. Journal of Second Language Writing, 2022. 
• May I see your credentials, please? Displays of pedagogical expertise by language teaching researchers. The Modern Language Journal, 2022.
• Ecological Systems Theory and Second Language Research​. Language Teaching, 2022.
• Whose values? Whose time? Issues of (in)visibility in academic practice in UK universities. Studies in Higher Education, 2022.
• Chinese pre-service English teachers’ beliefs about English as an International Language (EIL). Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2022.
• English-only’ English medium instruction: Mixed views in Thai and Vietnamese higher education. Language Teaching Research, 2022.
• ​English medium higher education in China: challenges and ELT support. ELT Journal, 2021.
• The incentivisation of English medium instruction in Chinese universities: Policy misfires and misalignments. Applied Linguistics Review, 2021.
• Transnational universities and EMI in China: How admissions, language support and language use differ from EMI programs in Chinese universities. RELC Journal, 2021.
• Eyes on the enterprise: Problematising the concept of a teaching-research nexus in UK higher education. Higher Education, 2021.
• ​Global Englishes and language teaching: A review of pedagogical research. Language Teaching, 2021.​
• Developing Awareness of Global Englishes: Moving away from ‘native standards’ for Thai university ELT. System, 2021.
• Exploring the socio-contextual nature of workplace writing: towards preparing learners for the complexities of English L2 writing in the workplace. English for Specific Purposes, 2021.
• Investigating policy and implementation of English medium instruction in higher education institutions in China. British Council, 2020.
• Evolving the TESOL teaching-research nexus. TESOL Quarterly, 2019.
• Language and the development of intercultural competence in an ‘internationalised’ university: staff and student perspectives. Teaching in Higher Education, 2019.
• Developing intercultural competence in a ‘comfortable’ third space: Postgraduate studies in the UK. Language and Intercultural Communication, 2019.
• Conceptualizations of language errors, standards, norms and nativeness in English for research publication purposes: An analysis of journal submission guidelines. Journal of Second Language Writing, 2018.
• Integrating Appraisal Theory with possible selves in understanding university EFL writing. System​, 2018.
• Japan's English medium instruction initiatives and the globalization of higher education. Higher Education, 2018.

Get In Touch

Feel free to use the contact form via this website, or simply email me j.mckinley[at]ucl.ac.uk / j.mckinley[at]education.ox.ac.uk

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