Biography

Dr Marios Kremantzis (SFHEA, CMBE, AFORS) is a decision scientist and Senior Lecturer in Business Analytics at the University of Bristol Business School. His research sits at the intersection of AI-enhanced business education, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and decision analytics, with a focus on Generative and Agentic AI in business and higher education, authentic assessment, curriculum innovation, learning analytics, responsible AI integration, and future-facing capabilities. Methodologically, his work draws on optimisation, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), performance measurement, and applied business analytics to examine efficiency and performance improvement across higher education and other applied settings.

At the University of Bristol Business School, Marios holds several major education and academic leadership roles. He serves as Education Lead for the Technology & Operations Group, supporting a group of more than 40 academics, and as Programme Co-Director for the MSc Management and pathways portfolio, contributing to the leadership of postgraduate provision for over 700 students annually. He also co-leads the Business Education Research & Scholarship (BERS) Network, supporting the development of pedagogic research, education-focused scholarship, and research-informed teaching across the School.

His previous leadership roles include serving for three years as Programme Director for MSc Business Analytics, a programme supporting around 110 students annually, and for four years as Senior Tutor in the Postgraduate Tutor Team, contributing to academic and pastoral support for approximately 1,100 postgraduate students each year. Across these roles, he has played a significant part in curriculum enhancement, student support, quality assurance, staff development, authentic assessment, and strategic education leadership.

Marios has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, alongside book chapters and sector-facing and policy-oriented publications. His work appears in leading journals including Studies in Higher Education, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, Expert Systems with Applications, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Sustainable Development, Operational Research, and the Journal of Global Information Management. His wider professional writing has appeared through outlets such as Times Higher Education, Advance HE, Inside OR, PolicyBristol, and the Chartered Association of Business Schools. He regularly curates analytics‑and‑education streams and network‑DEA workshops for flagship international conferences such as the UK's OR Society, IFORS, DEA, ICBAP, OAPA, LTSE, and the Advance HE Teaching and Learning Conference building bridges between cutting‑edge research and practice.

Beyond Bristol, Marios contributes actively to the wider academic, professional, and sector-facing communities in business education, learning technologies, operational research, and analytics. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Intelligent Technologies in Education, published by the Open Access Publishing Association, and Associate Editor of Interactive Learning Environments. He has also held a range of guest editorial roles for international journals, including special issues on AI-enhanced student engagement and the future of higher education in Studies in Higher Education, and the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. He is currently Guest Editor for the Evaluation Review special issue “Evaluation and Assessment for Teaching and Training in the Era of AI” and for the Socio-Economic Planning Sciences special issue “Generative AI and Data Envelopment Analysis for Performance Measurement and Public Value”.

Marios also plays a significant role in learned-society leadership. He is the Founder and Chair of the OR Society’s Network on OR, Analytics, and Education, a community that supports dialogue and collaboration around operational research education, analytics pedagogy, learning analytics, and AI-enhanced educational practice. He also serves on the OR Society’s General Council and Education Sub-Committee. His professional standing is reflected in his recognition as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), Associate Fellow of the OR Society (AFORS), Certified Management and Business Educator (CMBE), and Member of the British Academy of Management and the British Educational Research Association.

He is currently the Principal Investigator on a Bristol Institute for Learning & Teaching (BILT) Education Development Project entitled “Enhancing Teaching and Learning through AI Chatbots in Higher Education”, designed to generate robust, evidence‑based insights into how chatbots can enrich curriculum delivery and elevate the student experience through personalised, agentic support.

His sustained excellence in research-informed education, pedagogic scholarship, and academic leadership has been recognised through several awards and nominations. These include the University of Bristol Business School’s Research Pedagogy Award (2026), Outstanding Lecturer Award (2025), Outstanding Personal Tutor Award (2024) and the Inspiring and Innovative Teaching Award at the Bristol Teaching Awards (2023), with multiple institutional nominations between 2021 and 2026 and a key nomination for the 2026 National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) scheme. In 2025, his MSc Business Analytics teaching team was also one of only three teams shortlisted university‑wide for the Inspiring and Innovative Teaching Team Award. Earlier, the University of Southampton recognised his pedagogical leadership with the Doctoral College Director’s Award (2021).

Research Interests

My research focuses on the use of Business Analytics, Operational Research, Artificial Intelligence, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to improve decision-making, assessment, learning, and performance in higher education and applied organisational contexts.

My current research interests include:

• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in research-intensive Business Schools, with a focus on building future-facing SoTL cultures, developing pedagogic research capacity, and supporting education-focused academic careers
• Generative AI and Agentic AI in Business School education, particularly their implications for critical thinking, student engagement, academic writing, assessment design, and human-AI co-agency
• AI-enhanced teaching and learning, including chatbots, learning analytics, authentic assessment, curriculum innovation, and responsible AI use by students and educators
• Data Envelopment Analysis, optimisation, and performance measurement, with applications in higher education systems, sustainability, agriculture, transport, sport, and organisational productivity

Teaching Activity

My teaching is research-informed, practice-oriented, and focused on helping students develop analytical confidence, decision-making capability, and responsible use of data, models, and AI. I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate modules in Business Analytics, Management Science, Decision Analysis, Simulation, Optimisation, and applied analytics.

Current and recent teaching includes:

• Modelling Analytics - MSc Business Analytics, around 120 students, covering linear, network, and multi-objective optimisation using Python, Excel, and LINDO
• Decision Analysis & Simulation - final-year undergraduate students, around 120 students, covering uncertainty, simulation, game theory, multi-criteria analysis, and decision modelling
• Management Science - second-year undergraduate students, around 300 students, covering optimisation, networks, project management, inventory, and queuing models
• Optimisation & Algorithms - MSc Business Analytics, around 50 students, covering simplex, duality, branch-and-bound, decomposition, and dynamic programming

I also supervise MSc and undergraduate dissertations and applied Business Analytics projects. Since joining Bristol, I have supervised 40+ MSc Business Analytics dissertations, 30+ undergraduate dissertations, and multiple consulting projects with industry and public-sector partners such as IBM, Yeo Valley, and NHS Bristol. Several MSc dissertations have progressed into peer-reviewed publications or manuscripts under review, reflecting my commitment to connecting student learning with research, employability, and real-world analytical practice.

Administrative Roles

Current and recent administrative, leadership, and service roles include:

• Education Lead, Technology & Operations Group, supporting 40+ academics
• Programme Co-Director, MSc Management and pathways, contributing to provision for 700+ students annually
• Co-Research Champion, Business Education Research & Scholarship Network
• Member, Business School Research Ethics Committee
• Member, Workload Allocation Model Committee
• CREATE Mentor and Assessor, Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching
• Former Programme Director, MSc Business Analytics, supporting around 110 students annually
• Former Senior Tutor, Postgraduate Tutor Team, supporting approximately 1,100 students annually
• Former Faculty and Business School Academic Misconduct Chair/Member
• Former Exceptional Circumstances Committee Chair/Member
• Former member, Education Strategy and Management PGT sub-stream
• Former member, Student Experience and Careers workstreams
• Former member, Business School Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee

Qualifications

• PhD in Business Studies & Management, University of Southampton
• MSc in Business Analytics, Lancaster University
• BSc in Business Administration, University of Macedonia
• Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, University of Bristol

Membership of Professional Bodies

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
• Certified Management & Business Educator, Chartered Association of Business Schools (CMBE)
• Associate Fellow of the Operational Research Society (AFORS)
• Full Member, British Academy of Management (BAM)
• Full Member, British Educational Research Association (BERA)
• Full Member, Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE)
• Full Member, Institute of Analytics (IoA)
• Full Member, Business Analytics Educators Forum (BAEF)
• Member, EuroSoTL Special Interest Group on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Business Education

PhD Supervision:

Marios welcomes prospective PhD candidates who aspire to advance the frontiers of operations research, business analytics, and AI‑enabled decision science. He is particularly keen to supervise projects that:

• develop or apply prescriptive analytics, optimisation, or multi‑criteria decision‑making frameworks;
• extend efficiency and productivity measurement, especially Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA), into new sectors or methodological directions;
• harness employability analytics to inform strategic talent development and labour‑market policy;
• leverage Generative AI (GenAI) and Agentic AI (AgAI) to personalise learning, enhance student engagement, or reimagine higher‑education operations.

Applicants with a strong quantitative background and a drive to generate actionable, high‑impact insight are strongly encouraged to get in touch.