Interview with Dr Rebecca Hawkins

Dr Rebecca Hawkins has been part of the University of Lincoln since the start of her undergraduate degree in Sport and Exercise Science in 2011 and has since stayed at the university to complete her Masters in 2015 and her PhD in 2023.

Rebecca started working at the University as a part-time lab technician in 2016, and was quickly given part-time lecturing hours, before moving into a full-time lecturing position and starting her PhD part-time, alongside her full-time role. Having studied Sport and Exercise Science as an undergraduate, and Sport Science in her Masters, Rebecca describes having a broad knowledge of the areas of sport science, including biomechanics, physiology and psychology, with psychology piquing her interest the most. This led to Rebecca’s PhD in exercise psychology, with the focus being on psychological strategies that can be used to enhance experiences when participating in exercise or physical activity.

I had the opportunity to chat to Rebecca to learn about her journey at the university, her advice for students and how she manages her crazy busy schedule with ease, as well as so much more – and I can’t wait to share what I’ve learnt!

Rebecca is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the university, which includes roles and responsibilities such as teaching, personal tutoring and dissertation supervising. As well as this, Rebecca has many additional roles. Rebecca is the Early Career Researcher (ECR) rep, which she describes as supporting a group of researchers in the early stages of their research career. Being in the ECR group allows Rebecca to apply for different types of research funding and gain some allowances with her research time – sounds like an awesome group to be in! Along with being a representative for the ECR group, Rebecca is also the open day co-ordinator for the Sport Science subject area, which she describes as being responsible for organising the open days and making sure that everyone is doing what they should be doing in order to recruit students onto our undergraduate programmes! But that’s not all – Rebecca has a third role, as the Programme Leader for the BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science degree and describes this as being responsible for the success of the programme and dealing with any issues that come to light.

Rebecca shared how special it felt to have the privilege of graduating three times, mentioning that she could hear people admiring the ‘fancy gown’ she wore for the PhD graduation as she stood alongside only two other PhD graduates that day!

Rebecca, alongside colleagues in our school, and at universities in Australia, published a paper just a few weeks ago (read it here: https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2025.2467695) which she describes as being “a really important time stamp in the journey of open goals”. The research generated a conceptual understanding of what open goals are and the mechanisms for how they work – and is an amazing step forward in open goal research!

Rebecca also shared that she has an additional paper under review, which was a multiple-methods paper where over 60 participants went through a two-week goal setting experiment, pursuing either a SMART goal or an open goal to see the difference in their physical activity and psychological experiences. The study also involved a qualitative follow up interview!

As well as this Rebecca is engaging in many other research projects, including one looking into the process that a health professional (such as a physio, a personal trainer, well-being or health advisor) takes to set goals, and whether it works, why it works or what’s missing from their approaches. A further project is looking at how open goals or specific goals work with children, this will involve children participating in little physical tasks like shuttle runs, two footed jumps, and medicine ball pushes, and seeing how they respond with different types of instruction at this year’s Summer Scientist event! Finally, a project on Ozempic, a new project exploring goal setting in the education sector, as well as a systematic review of failure rates in goal setting! Fair to say, Rebecca has a lot going on at the moment – and we can’t wait to read all about it! 

Rebecca describes herself as a highly organised person – and has an exceptionally planned Outlook calendar! She says that absolutely everything goes on the calendar!

Rebecca shared that whilst she didn’t have a set career path she was interested in when she finished her undergraduate degree, it wasn’t through lack of trying, and her number one piece of advice is to explore what it is that you want to do and do that early. Rebecca shares that she had tried many different options during her undergraduate degree, including going to a local football club to explore a career in massage and physiotherapy and also going into a school to explore working with children, and although none of those things were for her, it was still an insight that got her one step closer to finding out what was the perfect career for her (and I speak on behalf of all her students when I say – lecturing was an excellent move!).

Rebecca followed this by emphasising the importance of not putting limits on yourself, sharing that as a student she never believed she could be like her lecturers and remembers thinking they were a million miles away from anything Rebecca herself could achieve! Rebecca shared she didn’t think it was possible until it happened, and so not to put limits on yourself.

“The biggest barrier a lot of the time is asking for help and just coming and talking to us and seeing that we’re actually human and that we can help – and that we can talk you through and make sense of things that you’re struggling with”

“I think in any walk of life, giving yourself time and being organised is important. (…) My job is 10 times easier if I’m organised. If I’m not organised, this all descends into chaos. If I’m not on top of my emails, if I’m not on top of my marking, my teaching, my admin, this all falls apart. So being organised is a key skill that I think is important not just for this role and for academia, but just general life!”

Rebecca shared her love for all things Disney, saying that if she’s working at home, there’s always a Disney movie on in the background! Some of her favourites are Monsters University, Coco, Encanto and Moana! She also shared that she has a love for both the classic Disney movies as well as the live action versions.

Rebecca said the fictional character she is most like is Meeko, the raccoon from Pocahontas. And whilst she’d love to be able to claim she is most like Pocahontas herself, Rebecca thinks a more accurate description would be “a mischievous, food-loving raccoon who is often lacking sufficient sleep and therefore has permanent dark circles around her eyes!”.