Dr Emma Bolger

The initial findings of our landmark research project exploring the career advantages of Gaelic Medium Education (GME) will be presented for the first time at the Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig conference this week. The project, led by myself and Ann Morrison, and titled Gaelic Medium Education: A career advantage for school leavers in Scotland? , investigates what senior phase pupils perceive as the added value of Gaelic and how equipped they are to capitalise on these advantages. The study also surveyed young adults aged 17–25 who had been through GME, to explore its relevance to their career outcomes. Independently funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, the research reveals that immersive Gaelic education delivers positive, long-term impacts. Key Findings Career advantages: Young people believe GME provides clear, tangible benefits that enhance employability, career opportunities and overall wellbeing Impact: Benefits were recorde...

Thank you to the Career Matters editorial team for putting my book forward for review, and in turn for the glowing review from Sally-Ann Monger. It's great to see the book being received exactly how I hoped it would by freelance practitioners. Image of the review below, I can share an accessible version if required. 

From Review to Opportunity: Expanding Interdisciplinary Curricula and Practice in Higher Education Undergraduate Interdisciplinarity is increasingly positioned as essential to addressing complex social, environmental, and economic challenges, yet there remains limited clarity about how interdisciplinary engagement is introduced, sustained, and developed across learners’ educational journeys. This paper examines pathways for interdisciplinary activity through a critical review of interdisciplinary curricula and practice, drawing on an institutional case study of a large, open access university with a longstanding tradition of multidisciplinary provision.  Using secondary data, comparative analysis of UK interdisciplinary programmes, and institutional reflection, the paper explores the distinction between multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary learning, and interdisciplinary practice, arguing that these differences are often blurred in both curriculum design and external discourse. The...

It is Seachdain na Gàidhlig - World Gaelic Week 2026! On Wednesday 25th February, I will be sharing publicly for the first time some of the findings from my research on the impact of Gaelic Medium Education on young people’s careers. As the keynote speaker at the Career Development Institute Conference (Scotland), I will be speaking about the career value of Gaelic Medium Education. The keynote will cover: An overview of Gaelic Medium Education Why there is a need for specific research into Gaelic Medium Education and careers A summary of the research project, Gaelic Medium Education: a career advantage for school leavers in Scotland? funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, under the Research Incentive Grant Scheme (Principal Investigator: Dr Emma Bolger, Research Assistant: Ann Morrison) The research findings indicate that Gaelic appears to offer career-long benefits, during education, post-school and into the early stages of adulthood, particularly in enhan...

I'm the Keynote speaker today at the National Research Conference for Career Practitioners. In my keynote I speak about the how we need to shake up our perspectives on how we value research. Good research does one thing: it fulfils its purpose. I believe we need to move away from hierarchies and prescribed structures to better ensure that our research meets the audience it needs to meet. In doing so, we can prioritise ourselves as researchers; conducting and sharing our knowledge in manner that suits us best, to the benefit of all.  And in a possible juxtaposition for a research conference, I also speak about how not wanting to be a visible researcher is also ok.  My slides for my Keynote are available here: Appropriate Outputs For more information about the innovative researcher skills development module YXM830, Advance your independent learning, that I tutor on for the Open University , go to: Advance your independent learning My book, The Career Professional's Guide to Rese...

I have been appointed as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors and Trustees at Scottish Charity, Connect. In the coming months, expect to hear from me about the vision, mission and values of Connect, and our strategic priorities as we head into our 78th year. I'll also be talking about how the work that we do impacts on every early years and school community in Scotland. If Connect is new to you, here’s our website where you can find out more: https://connect.scot/ For now, it is my first task to thank outgoing Chair Denny Henderson whose 5 years in the role have seen significant activity at Connect, particularly behind the scenes in relation to finance and governance. Thanks also to my fellow Board members for appointing me as Chair. But most importantly, I want to take the opportunity to commend the Connect staff team , a brilliant collective of dedicated and proactive folk who drive forward the work of Connect, Scotland’s independent charity for parents and carers in ed...

The start of 2026 marked a number of work/life changes for me. It is February, already, and I haven’t really conveyed what these are, despite enquiries! For those who missed the “big news” I left my full-time role as a senior lecturer at a campus university on 31 December 2025. Friends and contacts who know me well, have said one thing to me on this: “You’ll still be busy, though?” I think this conveys that people have an accurate sense of who I am ; someone who, using the Scottish turn of phrase on this, likes to “keep busy.” There has however been a rebalancing of where that “busy” lies. In a switcheroo of previous roles, I’m now the main parent managing the kids and home with my husband being the one working more than full-time hours. I’ve spoken about the gender balance of our set up before, in a nutshell: society still isn’t really set up for mum to be the main earner and dad to be the main carer, but we put in a shift at trying to improve this. I’ve also said before that it’s i...