Dr Forster's main research areas are in the field of organisation studies especially organisation culture and international/cross-cultural management, and  has an in-depth interest in the influence of Islamic values on management practice, with most of her research in this area currently focusing on Morocco.  In addition, Gillian also undertakes research in pedgagogical and employability developments relating to postgraduate international students.  The results of Gillian's research have been published both as journal articles and research monographs. She has examined doctorates on trust, leadership in education and emotional regulation, as well as supervising doctoral students studying aspects of employability and entrepreneurial education.  Gillian is a reviewer for academic journals including the International Journal of Human Resource Management. 

Dr Gillian Forster is a Director of Education for Postgraduate Programmes in the department of Marketing and Operation Systems, and Postgraduate Framework Lead for Newcastle Business School in the Faculty of Business and Law.  She has extensive experience of leading, designing and developing programmes particularly at postgraduate level as well as being a frequent member of validation and accreditation panels both internally and externally. Gillian has introduced a range of activities to enhance the student experience, including the team building and leadership development residential weekend and more recently the co-development coaching programme to enhance the self-confidence of international female students for employability.

Gillian teaches organisational analysis, leadership development and cross-cultural management and leads on postgraduate experiential learning activities.

 Gillian is an active researcher.  Her main research areas are currently in the area of  international/cross-cultural management, in particular the influence of Islamic values on management practice, as well as pedagogical developments and employability support and interventions  for postgraduate (international) students.