Elizabeth Bone, Head of Group Research
Elizabeth joined NUS Services in 2009 and leads the research team at the NUS. She is responsible for the growth of the research department as a full services market research agency delivering gold standard, professional market research to leading commercial, third sector and students union clients.
Elizabeth is your first point of contact and will work with you individually, using her wealth of experience and proven expertise to provide you with impartial research advice.
She ensures a collaborative and strategic approach to research, with the focus on providing high value solutions to clients and funders through thoughtful problem definition, tailored, creative research techniques, and relevant, insightful reporting.
Elizabeth is privileged with the management of the dynamic staff within the research department, and is an associate member of the MRS.
She has qualifications in both quantitative and qualitative research techniques.
You can contact Elizabeth on ebone@nussl.co.uk
Sarah Farrar, Research Officer
Sarah joined the NUS Services Research Department, in 2011 as Research Officer. Sarah’s background has been in marketing, with a focus on research, in particular qualitative research.
Sarah is an experienced qualitative researcher, as well as project manager, co-ordinating all aspects from briefing, design, fieldwork, analysis and debrief presentations.
Sarah’s role at NUS Services will see her leading on the exciting new Student Online Panel, as well as taking on the Research Department’s numerous and varied ad hoc research projects.
Sarah graduated from the University of Stirling with a BA (Hons) in Religious Studies where she focussed on gender and cultural studies.
Prior to NUS Services Sarah has worked at Manchester’s Social Research/Design Agency The Hub, and before this was based up in Edinburgh where she worked as a Planner at The Leith Agency and agency secondee client-side at The Scottish Government’s Marketing Unit.
Rachel Drayson, Environmental Researcher
Rachel joined NUS Services in 2011 as Environmental Researcher. Rachel forms part of the research department, working closely with the Ethical and Environmental team.
Rachel has five years experience of working in environmental and sustainability research have previously worked for Brook Lyndhurst, a specialist sustainability research consultancy.
Her research skills have also been developed throughout her educational career, having gained a BA (Hons) in Geography from Durham University and an MSc in Environment, Science and Society from University College London.
Rachel has developed both qualitative and quantitative research skills through working on a range of different project including community action on environmental issues such as climate change, evaluating behaviour change and communicating environmental issues with SMEs.
Rachel leads the Green Gauge environmental research package, along with supporting the research team on a variety of funded environmental research projects.
Sarah McNicol, Research Project Officer
Sarah works as a research project officer at NUS Services. Her work focuses on research into the use of new technologies in learning, such as Open Educational Resources.
Before joining NUS Services, Sarah worked as a researcher at the University of Leicester, and previously, at Loughborough University and Birmingham City University.
She has researched and published extensively in the information studies and learning technologies fields.
She has worked on projects funded by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) and the MLA (Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries), as well as carrying out research for individual universities, local authorities and charities.
Sarah has a BSc in Information Studies, and a PhD in History. She also has a PGCE and teaching experience in the FE sector.
Helen Kerr, Research Officer – Commercial Intelligence
Helen joined NUS Services in June 2012 bringing 4 years of agency-side market research experience with her.
She has worked for three of the top five market research agencies, with a range of blue-chip clients. Her experience spans brand, advertising and stakeholder research, continuous tracking research, as well as EPOS data handling and analysis.
Helen graduated from Lancaster University with a Business Studies (hons) degree. She also has a merit in the Advanced Certificate in Market and Social Research Practice from the Market Research Society.
Helen’s role with NUS Services will see her leading on internal commercial intelligence. She works across a range of teams within the organisation to provide information to the Group about NUS initiatives, programmes and business models, as well as leading evaluations of anything from events to membership satisfaction.
Mary-Jane Sturt, Junior Research Officer
Mary-Jane joined NUS Services in December 2011 as a research assistant and her high quality work meant she was promoted to Junior Research Officer in March 2012 to allow her more responsibility.
She has experience working across a breadth of research types including commercial, medical, social and political.
Having rich experience in supporting a variety of research initiatives, she completed her MSc in social and political research in order to gain the necessary skills to advance her abilities.
Mary-Jane provides valuable support to projects within the research team and has rich experience in handling qualitative and quantitative data.
Louise Bailey, Research Assistant
Louise joined the NUS Services in 2008 within the Administration and Communications Departments and, after taking some time out following the birth of her daughter, she joined the Research Department in August 2012.
The skills Louise has acquired in her past roles will be put to good use providing valuable support to the Research Department’s numerous and varied research projects.
Prior to NUS Services, Louise graduated from The University of Edinburgh with a BSc (Hons) in Ecological Science (Environmental Science) where she was able to develop her research skills, including a dissertation on compensatory photosynthesis in Sycamore trees.
