Dr Georgy (Gueorgui) Petrov

Profile

Roles:

• Reader in Management Education and Practice
• Director of Skills and Employability

Biography:

Dr Georgy Petrov is Reader in Management Education and Practice and Director of Skills and Employability. His work focuses on embedding employability, experiential learning, and authentic assessment across business and management education. Georgy has led major curriculum innovations, including the introduction of compulsory Professional Development modules, Year in Industry programmes, and the award-winning Step Ahead Plus university transition scheme. In 2024–25, he was a Queen Mary Academy Fellow, focusing on advancing employability integration in the curriculum.

Prior to joining Queen Mary Georgy held academic positions at a number of universities, including: the Coventry University London campus, where he acted as Associate Head for Student Experience and Quality; the Kingston University Business School, where he co-founded and led a successful post-experience Kingston MSc in International HRM programme; and the University of Exeter Centre for Leadership Studies.

Georgy is a Senior Fellow of HEA and holds a PhD in Higher Education and Organisation Studies from the UCL Institute of Education, University of London.

Awards

• Gold Award – Reviewer, The Queen Mary Teaching Recognition Programme, 2024/25.
• Bronze Award – Mentor, The Queen Mary Teaching Recognition Programme, 2024/25.
• QMUL Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Award for Openness and Inclusion, 2023/24.
• QMUL Education Excellence Award for Innovations in Module Design and Assessment, 2022/23

Centre and Group Membership

• Organisation Studies Research Group.
• Centre for Education and Scholarship Research in Economics, Finance and Business Management.

Teaching

Undergraduate

BUS157 – Current Challenges in Business and Management - 2

Postgraduate

BUSM198 – Resourcing and Talent Management

Research

Public Engagement

Georgy maintains extensive external engagement that strengthens Queen Mary’s visibility and partnerships across academia and industry. He serves as a Judge for the global QS Reimagine Education Awards, recognising innovation in teaching and learning, and actively contributes to academic networks including the British Academy of Management, Academy of Management, and the Chartered Association of Business Schools.

He has developed impactful employer partnerships with organisations such as JP Morgan and NHS London, integrating them into both in-curricular and co-curricular employability activities. The JP Morgan partnership has grown to nearly 100 mentors, supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Scholarly Contributions

Georgy’s scholarly interests explore:  

• Development of student skills and employability.
• Inclusive approaches to employability.
• Experiential learning and authentic assessment.
• Leadership and talent development.

Selected publications:

Petrov, G. (forthcoming) ‘Skills for Social Justice’, In P. McGurk, P. (ed.) Managing and Leading for Social Justice. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Petrov, G., Goodnight, J., and Coombs, G. (2026) Project-Based and Problem-Based Learning. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/project-based-and-problem-based-learning-9781789905236.html

Petrov, G. (2025) ‘Enhancing Employability Skills through Project-Based Learning in Business Education: Addressing the needs of widening participation students’, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, No. 32. https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/1391

Petrov, G. (2024) ‘Reimagining the Year 1 Business Management Curriculum: A project-based learning approach', Advance HE, 25 November. https://advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views/reimagining-year-one-business-management-curriculum-project-based-learning-approach

Petrov, G. (2024) ‘Supporting Students in the Transition from BTEC to University’, Chartered Association of Business Schools, 16 July.  https://charteredabs.org/insights/knowledge-sharing/bridging-the-gap-supporting-students-in-the-transition-from-btec-to-university

Petrov, G., Southall, J. and Bolden, R. (2016) ‘Making the ‘Third Stream’ Mainstream: Facilitating effective Higher Education-Employer engagement in workforce development’, Higher Education Review, 48(3), 75-99.

Bolden, R. and Petrov, G. (2014), ‘Hybrid Configurations of Leadership in Higher Education-Employer Engagement’, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 36(4), 408-417.

Case studies of practice:

Petrov, G. (2025) ‘The Coffee Shop Challenge: An inclusive, in-curriculum business simulation for employability skill-building’, Queen Mary Academy Toolkits and Resources. Available at: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/queenmaryacademy/educators/resources/graduate-attributes/all-case-studies/the-coffee-shop-challenge-an-inclusive-in-curriculum-business-simulation-for-employability-skill-building/

Smith, S., Petrov, G., and Emeordi-Okeke, C. (2025) ‘Embedding Employability in the Undergraduate Business Management Curriculum: Equipping students with career management skills through a compulsory professional development module’, Queen Mary Academy Toolkits and Resources. Available at: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/queenmaryacademy/educators/resources/graduate-attributes/all-case-studies/embedding-employability-in-the-ug-business-management-curriculum-equipping-ug-students-with-career-management-skills-through-a-compulsory-professional-development-module-/

Woon, A. and Petrov, G. (2025) ‘Employability in the Undergraduate Curriculum: Co-creating with AI for decision-making in business simulation’, Queen Mary Academy Toolkits and Resources. Available at:  https://www.qmul.ac.uk/queenmaryacademy/educators/resources/graduate-attributes/all-case-studies/employability-in-the-undergraduate-curriculum-co-creating-with-ai-for-decision-making-in-business-simulation/

Petrov, G. (2022) ‘Authentic Assessment for a Large First Year Module’, Queen Mary Academy Toolkits and Resources. Available online at: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/queenmaryacademy/educators/resources/assessment-and-feedback/resources/assessment-case-studies/case-studies/authentic-assessment-design-for-large-first-year-module/

Conference presentations:

‘Show and tell: Educators’ practical approaches to integrating AI into the undergraduate programme’, Academy of Management conference, Copenhagen, 25-29 July 2025. With L. Schofield, X. Zhou and A. Woon. 

‘The Coffee Shop challenge: Brewing employability skills through business Simulation in the first year BSc Business Management’, Queen Mary University of London ‘Festival of Education’, 10 June 2025.

‘From extra-curricular to essential: Embedding micro-credentials into the curriculum to drive inclusivity and employability’, British Academy of Management Teaching Practice Conference, London, 5 June 2025. With S. Yesiloglu.

‘Embedding AI literacy in undergraduate business education programme’. Chartered Association of Business Schools ‘Learning, Teaching and Student Experience’ Conference, Nottingham, 19-20 May 2025. With L. Schofield, X. Zhou, and A. Woon.

‘Advancing inclusion in preparing first-year undergraduate students for employability skills through authentic assessment and ‘learning by doing’’, International Management and Organisational Behaviour Teaching Society Conference, Singapore, 27-30 June 2024. With L. Schofield, X. Zhou and L.Morrison.

‘Measuring and enhancing impact of authentic assessment for UG students’, British Academy of Management Teaching Practice Conference, London, 6 June 2024.  

‘The impact of mentoring on students’, Keynote at JP Morgan Employability Symposium, London, 3 June 2024. 

‘Building bridges and creating connections: Students mentoring students with BTEC to transition to University’, Chartered ABS ‘Learning, Teaching and Student Experience’ Conference, Birmingham, 14-15 May 2024. With E. Haziri and K. Miah. 

‘Developing first-year students' employability skills through authentic assessment and ‘learning by doing’’, Queen Mary Festival of Education, 6 March 2024.

‘Developing first year students’ employability skills through ‘learning by doing’’, School of Economics and Finance 2^nd International Conference in Education and Scholarship, QMUL, 10 November 2023.

‘Developing students’ professional skills through authentic learning and assessment’, Academy of Management ‘Teaching and Learning’ conference, Boston MA., 6 August 2023.

‘Closing demographic and entry qualifications gaps through authentic learning’, Chartered Association of Business Schools ‘Learning, Teaching and Student Experience’ annual conference, Newport, 22-23 May 2023.  

‘Developing students’ professional skills through engaging employers in experiential learning and authentic assessment’, Chartered Association of Business Schools ‘Learning, Teaching & Student Experience’ annual conference, Belfast, 24-25 May, 2022.

‘Engaging a real business in authentic learning and assessment’, British Academy of Management ‘Management Knowledge and Education’ conference, online, 23 June 2021.

Grants

Co-Principal Investigator - 'Co-Creating Resources to Support the Integration of Employability into Curriculum and Assessment', QMUL President and Principal’s Fund for Educational Excellence.

Lead - 'Integrating Credit-Bearing Extra-Curricular Micro-Credentials within Business and Management' and ‘Project-Based Learning’.