Dr Helen Coulshed is Associate Vice Dean (Assessment and Quality Assurance) in the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences and a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry Education in the Department of Chemistry, King’s College London.

Helen’s academic background is in synthetic and inorganic chemistry. She holds an MSci in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Queen Mary University of London and a PhD in synthetic inorganic chemistry from the University of Bristol, completed as part of the Chemical Synthesis Centre for Doctoral Training. Her doctoral research focused on diphosphoamine ligand design and catalysis, alongside extensive teaching and supervision of undergraduate and junior postgraduate students.

Since joining King’s College London in 2015, Helen has specialised in chemistry education research, with interests in inclusive assessment, feedback literacy, evaluative judgement, and student transitions into higher education. She leads and contributes to cross-institutional projects on neuroinclusion, co-creation with students, and equitable learning and assessment practices in STEM disciplines.

Helen has held several senior education and EDI leadership roles, including Chair of the Faculty Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee (2020–2024). She has received King’s Teaching Awards for Inclusive Education in 2019 and 2025, recognising her sustained impact on inclusive pedagogy, curriculum design, and student partnership.

Research interests

Helen’s research delivers measurable impact on inclusive education practice, assessment quality and student outcomes in chemistry and STEM higher education. Her work addresses structural barriers in assessment and feedback, with a focus on evaluative judgement, feedback literacy and neuroinclusion, particularly for neurodivergent and underrepresented students. Using mixed-methods and cross-institutional approaches, she investigates student transitions, confidence, and academic self-efficacy, translating findings into co-created, evidence-based interventions. These include inclusive assessment frameworks, scenario-based training and digital resources adopted across institutions. Her research directly informs policy, curriculum design and staff development, contributing to improved student experience, retention, and progression, and aligning with sector priorities on equity, participation and research-informed teaching.

Teaching

• Inorganic Chemistry 1
• Advanced Analytical Chemistry
• Advanced Topics (Green and Sustainable Chemistry)
• UG Research Methods Labs (Lead on Organophosphorus and Sustainable Analytical Chemistry projects)
• UG Research Methods Literature Review
• MSci Research Project & Dissertation
• MRes Research Project in Interdisciplinary Chemistry

Publications:

Series of student co-created, short, AI-animated videos relating to student and staff feedback literacy https://included-he.com/

Research profile

For more information on Dr Coulshed's research please see her Research Portal page

The Coulshed Group

Postgraduate Researchers

• Alex Palmer

Helen is interested in evaluative judgement and understanding how chemistry students determine what high-quality means in the context of chemistry assessments. Her research focusses on how students develop their evaluative judgement during their chemistry degree programme and developing methods where staff and students can co-create a shared understanding of what quality means in the context of an assessment.