Universities are crucial to sparking growth and opportunity, by bringing together student populations, research partners, local businesses, and employers to create vibrant communities, jobs, and opportunity across the UK. This series of briefings takes a look at how universities are generating growth and opportunity across the nine regions of…

Universities are crucial to sparking growth and opportunity, by bringing together student populations, research partners, local businesses, and employers to create vibrant communities, jobs, and opportunity across the UK. This series of briefings takes a look at how universities are generating growth and opportunity across the nine regions of…

Universities are crucial to sparking growth and opportunity, by bringing together student populations, research partners, local businesses, and employers to create vibrant communities, jobs, and opportunity across the UK. This series of briefings takes a look at how universities are generating growth and opportunity across the nine regions of…

Employment contributes to well-being, yet many autistic people who want to work face barriers to meaningful employment. Much research focuses solely on employment rates, rather than taking a more holistic view of professional trajectories and occupational experiences. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 autistic adults to explore their…

Thirteen per cent of all 16-24-year-olds in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET). This equates to nearly one million young people who are not currently learning or earning. The long-term scarring impact of being NEET for a sustained period of time on young people, society, and the economy, is well known. It is therefore of…

Many studies have highlighted the limited 'opportunity structures' of working-class undergraduates. However, there have been few studies exploring how students' agentic internal conversations mediate societal structures. Internal conversation is a reflexive process in which thoughts and decisions are considered in relation to social circumstances.…

Drawing on the concept of the "literate environment," the authors conceptualise the numerate environment to explore the development of adults' numeracy. Numerate environments provide opportunities, supports, and demands for numeracy practices. Case studies of domestic energy bills in the UK and of the currency conversion process to the…

Individuals with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are currently underrepresented in employment, and supported internships have been promoted to increase the likelihood of young people with SEND gaining paid employment. The SEND Code of Practice and the Preparing for Adulthood agenda emphasise the need to improve future outcomes…

Universities are committed to offering high-quality higher education that delivers value to students and taxpayers. This means ensuring students can access higher education, whatever their background, circumstances or location. It also means delivering courses that develop the skills and knowledge our economy needs to drive local and national…

This dissertation studies the effect of higher education costs on students' outcomes in the labor market, particularly when credit constraints are absent. It utilizes the UK's institutional setting to identify such an effect. The key findings are as follows. (i) Increasing tuition fees does not have adverse effects on students as long as credit…

The UK's Quality Assurance Association for Higher Education (QAA) recommend that all undergraduate courses at UK universities include in their curricula elements of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education; and Education for Sustainable Development. This paper examines the detail of the QAA's recommendations and…

In January 2024, building on the Genomics Beyond Health report, the Department for Education (DfE), with co-funding from the Government Office for Science (GO-Science), commissioned Ipsos UK through the Futures Procurement Framework to understand the potential future risks and opportunities of the use of genomics in education. The Government…

Universities may offer students from disadvantaged personal or socioeconomic contexts a lower threshold for entry compared to students from a more stable or affluent background; this is termed a contextual offer. Examples may include having a health condition, disability or living and going to school in a less affluent area. While there has been…

This report puts forward practical actions to address economic and social disparities across the United Kingdom (UK). It sets out the evidence of the impact universities are making across three main themes, outlines the potential to go further, and makes recommendations for how the government can work with universities to maximise their…

Supporting more autistic people into employment is a major priority of the United Kingdom's National Autism Strategy (2021-2026). However, little is known about the barriers employers perceive to hiring autistic people. A pre-registered cross-sectional survey study was conducted on a nationally representative sample of 1212 individuals with recent…