Linda Renton graduated as an occupational therapist in 1981 (Edinburgh), and worked in mental health for 8 years. Since then she has been lecturing on under and post graduate Occupational Therapy programmes at Queen Margaret University. She is a Senior Lecturer and the Programme Leader for the MSc in Occupational Therapy programme. She has experience in curriculum design, programme validation and e-learning. She attained an MSc in Counselling Studies in 2005. For 16 years she has been involved in European work as a past Secretary of the European Network of Occupational Therapists in Higher Education (ENOTHE) and by contributing to the E Learning and Tuning Project Groups. She has been the UK WFOT 1 st Alternate from 2007-10 and was awarded the Merit Award from the British Association of Occupational Therapists in 2008. At present at QMU she is; the a dmissions Tutor for MSc in Occupational Therapy (Post Reg), Chair Programme Committee MSc in OT (Post Reg), Chair Joint Board of Studies: CPTI Collaborative Programme, member of Programme Committee BSc/BSc(Hons) Occupational Therapy, and is the Academic Advisor and Chair of the Joint Board of Studies for an External Agency The Counselling and Psychotherapy Training Institute (CPTI) for their MSc in Counselling (Transactional Analysis). She also sits on the Academic Quality and Standards Committee, the Recognition of Prior Learning Committee and the Collaborations Forum in QMU.

Current Teaching includes:

MSc in Occupational Therapy : Programme Leader and Module coordinator for; Dissertation, Occupational Therapy in Mental Health Contexts,  Specialist Practice through Independent Study and she contributes to Developing Professional Practice: Work Based Learning and Research Methods modules.

BSc(Hons) in Occupational Therapy : Module Coordinator for: Occupational Therapist as Reflective Practitioners,, Counselling and Occupational Therapy and Dissertation supervision. She contributes to the following modules; Contemporary Issues in OT, Occupational Therapy as an Enabling Profession, Occupation, Interaction and Performance, Assistive Technology ,  Interprofessional Education 4, Mind Brain Body 1, Mind Brain Body 2. Practice Placement.

Invited Teaching; QMU/ENOTHE Representative Lecturer in the development of Lecturer Education in Occupational Therapy Theory, Education and Practice in Poland, Bielsko-Biala University. In 2009 she was the Invited speaker/lecturer ETOS School of Ergotherapy. Osnabruck Germany. In 2007-10 she took part in an ERASMUS Teacher Exchange at Superior de Saúde do Alcoitão, Alcabideche (Estoril, Portugal, School of Occupational Therapy.)

 Linda is presently the OT Coordinator for both ERASMUS Student/Teacher Exchanges with Norway/Portugal and Leonardo Student Exchanges; Osnabruck Germany.

Summary of Research: Topics include counselling and occupational therapy, mental health, alcohol. Grant application in process: Elizabeth Casson Fund for continued research into OT students’ knowledge, skills and understanding of alcohol misuse for clients. Linda was also part of the ENOTHE and the TUNING Project. 2 year project and part of the TUNING initiative. Was a UK and ENOTHE rep. on the Project Group made up from 10 countries. The TUNNG methodology can be found on the TUNNG website http://tuning.unideusto.org/tuningeu/index

PUBLICATIONS

Edited Books ; College of Occupational Therapy. (2009)  Curriculum Framework for Pre Registration Occupational Therapy Programmes. London. Member of Working Group/editors.

Published Presentations

Renton L and Maclean F (2010) Enquiry Based Learning as an educational philosophy for Masters (post registration/qualifying) programmes. POSTER presentation; 15th WFOT Congress, 2010, Santiago Chile. 

Renton L (2010) Students' views on the use of  the KAWA Model for their personal development." ORAL presentation; 15th WFOT Congress, Santiago Chile.  

Renton L (2008)  Presentation final outcomes;  E-Learning Project Group at 14 th Annual Meeting of European Network of Occupational Therapists in Higher Education (ENOTHE),
Renton L (2008) .  “ The meeting of occupational therapists and their clients in initial interviews, and the place of counselling skills” College of Occupational Therapists Annual Conference, Harrogate.