Franziska Lessky

Franziska Lessky is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, Assistant Professor at the University of Innsbruck, and Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna (IHS). She is passionate about educational pathways into, through and out of university, as well as careers in the graduate labour market and gender-related inequalities academia. Her teaching focuses on education, gender, social mobility, comparative education, qualitative and quantitative methodology as well as professionalization in higher education. Franziska has held positions as Guest professor at the Centre for Social Inequalities (CRIS) at Sciences Po in 2026 and as Adjunct Professor at the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES), based at Curtin University, Perth). She has received multiple awards, including the Stephan-Koren-Prize for excellent PhD Theses (Vienna University of Economics and Business). She is co-convenor of the Bourdieu Study Group of the British Sociological Association (BSA) and has served on the board of the German Society for Higher Education Research (GfHf). Furthermore, she is an Early Career Researcher Board Member of Higher Education Quarterly (HEQU) and a member of the Editorial Board of Journal for Higher Education Development.