Fangya Xu

I joined the Department of Economics at the University of Reading in August 2019 and was promoted to Associate Professor in August 2023. I completed my PhD in Economics at the University of Nottingham, fully funded by a joint scholarship from the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (GEP) and the China Policy Institute. Recognised as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and a University Teaching Fellow, I bring extensive experience in strategic pedagogical leadership, quality assurance, and interdisciplinary research.
Prior to my time at Reading, I worked as a lecturer in Economics and programme leader for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at Plymouth Business School at the University of Plymouth, where I delivered and verified economics modules for various UK and overseas Higher Education partner institutions and served on  the Faculty Teaching, Learning and Quality Committee and the Research Ethics and Integrity Committee.
At Reading, I served roles as Department Director of Teaching and Learning, Department Director of Internationalisation and Programme Director for Teaching Partnerships. My pedagogical research focuses on key higher education themes, including assessment and feedback, student sense of belonging, peer leadership, employability, and degree choice dynamics. I have secured several internal and external grants totalling £17,795 for teaching and learning innovations and my dedication to student success has been consistently recognised with teaching and learning nominations and awards across academic years.
Alongside my commitment to teaching excellence, I work in interdisciplinary research, with a focus on health economics and environmental economics. This includes serving as the Economics Lead on a major UKRI/Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions project evaluating early diagnostics for dementia, alongside published work in leading journals such as Med, International Economic Review, and Economics Letters.

Grants, Fellowships and Awards

•2026, University Teaching Fellowship, University of Reading
• 2026, RSU’s Teaching Excellence Award for SPPE
• 2025, Senior Fellow (SFHEA), Advance HE
• 2025, RSU’s Teaching Excellence Award for SPPE
• 2023-2027, Project Lead (Economics) for Peripheral Biomarker Based Combinatorial Early Diagnostics for Dementia (CombiDiag), Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, £265,251 UoR allocation (funded by UKRI).