Can you give a brief summary of your career to date, and the journey that brought you to the University of Edinburgh Business School?
I joined the University of Edinburgh in 1993, just as I was completing my PhD at the University of Manchester. Back then, the School wasn’t yet called UEBS, and it has evolved a lot over the years. I started as Lecturer, progressed to Senior Lecturer in 2006, and have been Professor since 2015. I feel incredibly fortunate to have spent my entire career at the School.
If you had to give your ‘elevator pitch’ and explain your research and/or teaching in layperson’s terms, how would you describe it?
My research focuses on consumer financial wellbeing – in simple terms, helping people (particularly young people) manage their money and make better financial decisions. I explore how financial education, behaviour, services, and policy can support this. Ultimately, my goal is to drive real-world impact by working with educators, financial services providers, and policymakers to equip young people with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to get a strong financial start in life.
Is there anything exciting in the pipeline that you're currently working on?
I’m currently involved in an exciting collaborative project with Edinburgh Futures Institute’s Compassion in Financial Services Research Hub, Young Scot – Scotland’s leading charity for young people - and NatWest Bank. We are working together to shape financial futures for young people in Scotland by co-designing, building, and testing with young people new solutions that will benefit their financial futures.
What do you enjoy most about your teaching and/or research? What challenges or excites you across both areas?
What excites me most is the positive impact that my research and teaching can have – working with organisations, policymakers, and communities to improve financial wellbeing. The challenge, and the reward, is translating research and evidence into meaningful change that makes a real difference to people’s lives. In teaching, I particularly enjoy providing students with real-world projects and opportunities and also supporting students with dissertation and PhD research, seeing them excited by their research.
What do you enjoy most about working at UEBS?
Without a doubt, it’s the opportunity to pursue research that I’m passionate about and working with colleagues who have shared interests. I feel very fortunate to work with such brilliant colleagues across different disciplines in the School in a supportive research culture, and with talented and motivated students - that makes teaching and supervising students here a pleasure.
What advice would you give to your younger self, just about to leave home and embark on further education?
I would tell myself to be brave and curious, and to make the most of every opportunity that comes along. University isn’t just about lectures and exams — it’s about meeting people from different backgrounds, trying new things, and learning about yourself along the way. I’d also remind myself not to worry too much about getting everything “right” the first time, failure is just another step on the path to success.
What one book, piece of music, and beloved item would you take to a desert island?
I love making things, so I’d take a book filled with projects and techniques to keep me creative while I’m there. For music, it would have to be Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen — in fact, almost anything by Queen. That song in particular reminds me of my undergraduate days. For my beloved item – assuming I can’t take my husband! – I would take my kayak. With a kayak, I could discover the coastline, spot wildlife, and feel a little more connected to the world beyond the shore.
If you could invite anyone (past or present) over for dinner, who would it be and why?
I would invite Terry Robinson, my undergraduate dissertation adviser, who sadly passed away some years ago. He sparked in me a passion for research, encouraged me to do a PhD and gave me the confidence to do so. I’d love to thank him and let him know how much his guidance has shaped my academic career.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I’m particularly drawn to coastal places, because I enjoy spotting marine life. At the top of my list are the Galápagos Islands, with their extraordinary wildlife and unique ecosystems. I’d love the chance to see the unusual creatures that live there up close — and maybe even explore the coastline from a kayak.
Research Spotlight: Dr Tina Harrison
Dr Tina Harrison (Personal Chair of Financial Services Marketing and Consumption) discusses a novel approach designed to enhance long-term financial planning by fostering a deeper connection with our future selves.
Dr Tina Harrison’s research has led to the development of an innovative financial planning approach that integrates emotional and psychological elements to help individuals visualise and plan for their future more effectively. Created in collaboration with Aegon, it aims to address the persistent pension savings gap in the UK by making retirement planning more relatable and proactive. This approach emphasises personalised strategies that align with individual life goals.
[Tina Harrison]
I'm Tina Harrison, Professor of Financial Services, Marketing and Consumption at the University of Edinburgh Business School.
Our research has been motivated by the persistent and growing pension savings gap in the UK. Despite policy interventions such as auto enrollment, too many people are not saving enough for retirement. There is a forecast pension savings gap of 350 billion by 2050. The gender pension savings gap is particularly stark, with women's pensions pots only half of those of men's.
So the pension savings gap is both a behavioral and a mindset challenge. And one of the the key behavioral challenges is present bias. All of us tend to focus more on the present rather than thinking about future goals. That's also compounded by the way in which we think about our future selves. We tend to think about our future selves as distant or different from our present selves, and often think of them like somebody else. But research shows that when people can more vividly visualise their future selves, they're much more likely to significantly plan for and save for their futures.
So, building on this research insight, we set out to develop a tool to help people more concretely connect with their future selves and to plan more for their future.
So, unlike other financial planning tools, our tool focuses on connecting people more emotionally and psychologically with their future selves. Encouraging people to engage more emotionally and psychologically with financial planning. So it's not about only thinking about the financial impacts and consequences, but thinking about the sort of lives that people want to lead in the future.
So this tool would not have been possible without the collaboration that we had with Aegon. So we've worked with Aegon from the start in developing this tool. Their insight into customers behaviours and also their insight into how we can commercialise and operationalise this tool have been really helpful.
We have developed a prototype tool, and in five years time where we'd like to see this tool be is fully embedded in Aegon's website so that Aegon's customers and also other people can access this on their public website. So for individuals, this offers them a tool for them to think concretely about their future selves and help them in planning. Ultimately, enabling them to build financial resilience and build long term financial security. And this is going to help to reduce the savings gap for them.
For employers, this is a tool that they can use in communicating their employee pension schemes to their workforce, helping them to enhance their overall, financial well-being initiatives that they do within the workplace.
And for financial advisors, this is a tool that they can use to have more meaningful conversations with their clients, to engage with them, not just on a financial basis, but also more emotionally and connect them with the psychological and overall, well-being aspects to do with their longer term financial planning.
Early findings from our research showed that the genders, responded differently. To different kinds of interventions. And so that allowed us to tailor our tool to ensure that women were engaged more meaningfully in thinking about their pensions. This is particularly important given the disparity between men and women in longer term pension savings..
Thank you for listening.
Personal Chair of Financial Services Marketing and Consumption