Patience Nyamunda is a lecturer in the School of Education and a member of the People, Place, and Social Change (PPSC) Research and Teaching Group.

Patience completed her BA Honours in Economic History and an MSc in Population Studies at the University of Zimbabwe. She was a lecturer at the same university until she moved to South Africa where she studied for a PhD in Development Studies at the Higher Education and Human Development Research Centre.

Her Ph.D. thesis examined the conceptualisation and operationalisation of quality higher education teaching and learning from a human development perspective. Although using Zimbabwe as a case study, the research was contextualised within broader international higher education policies and practices which heavily influence developments in the global South. Upon completing her doctoral studies, Patience was first a post-doctoral fellow and then a Researcher on an ESRC/DFID-funded project examining the complex interaction of factors that enable or inhibit students from low-income backgrounds getting into and through higher education.

Prior to joining the University of Glasgow in September 2023, Patience worked as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.  

Informed by the capabilities approach (Amartya Sen & Martha Nussbaum), Patience is interested in how universities foster human development and create more just, inclusive, and sustainable societies. She focuses on the experiences of marginalised groups in different higher education contexts. Her areas of interest are conceptions and operationalisation of quality in higher education, with a specific focus on teaching and learning; and higher education access, participation, and employment/ employability. 

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Human Development and Capabilities Association (HDCA) Education Thematic group coordinator (2020- to date).  

Reviewer for Compare: A journal of international and comparative education.