Dr Jennifer Harper

Professional biography

Dr Jennifer Harper is one of the Faculty Strategic Implementation Leads, a Student Experience Manager and a Lecturer at the Open University for the Faculty of Business and Law. In addition to holding a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, her research focus examines development and training, technology and artificial intelligence, and enhancing the learning experience. She is actively involved with different HE institutions in the development and training of leaders in the FE, HE and business sectors. 

Her scholarship and research centre on technology, innovation, and leadership in higher education, with a particular emphasis on how these strategic capabilities shape institutional performance and student experience. I examine how digital technologies, such as learning platforms, analytics, and emerging AI-enabled systems are mobilised through leadership and management practice to drive meaningful innovation rather than surface-level digitalisation. Drawing on strategic management and leadership theory, I conceptualise leadership as a capability-building process that aligns technological investment, organisational culture, and pedagogical practice, enabling institutions to adapt to complexity and change. A key strand of my research investigates how innovation is enacted across pedagogical, organisational, and cultural domains, and how management systems, incentives, and governance structures either support or constrain these processes. Within this framework, I explore student belonging as a critical outcome of effective technological and organisational innovation, particularly in relation to equity, inclusion, and student success. Through this work, I aim to advance scholarly understanding of strategic leadership and innovation in higher education while informing academic practice and graduate-level teaching on how technology-enabled change can be human-centered, inclusive, and sustainable.

Publication

Harper-Roberts, J. (2025) Are leaders born or made? Can technological approaches assist the development and training of future leaders? [PhD thesis, University of Chester]. Chester Rep Open Repository. Available at: https://chesterrep.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10034/629523/Jennifer%20Roberts%20PhD.%20Thesis%20Final.pdf?sequence=1

Scholarship Outputs

Harper, J., & Russell, D. (2024) Recruitment, study intensity and retention: Study of a ‘D’ presentation. Online presentation, Share Research Friday, The Open University, 3 May.

Harper, J. (2024) Don’t get FOMO! Getting connected and participating in the learning experience. Online presentation, Cross-Faculty Symposium, The Open University, 4–5 December.