News and Blog

New research from the ADR Wales team based within WISERD, at Cardiff University, has uncovered important insights into how pupils in Wales make post-16 subject choices, and what drives their academic success.  Drawing on data from more than 8,000 sixth form pupils, the research examined links between GCSE attainment and AS-level (first year of A-level) subject choices and outcomes. The findings reveal that…

ADR Wales has published the first in a series of Data Insights providing new evidence on Welsh language ability, how it is transmitted across generations and how it influences education and early career outcomes. Carried out by the ADR Wales Skills and Employability team using census and linked administrative data, the research seeks to inform key policy…

Concerns about living in a “post-truth” society – where evidence struggles to compete with misinformation, ideology and emotion – are now familiar. From vaccine hesitancy to climate change denial, public debates increasingly hinge not on a lack of information, but on how people judge evidence, expertise and uncertainty. These concerns are often framed as a problem…

Young men, masculinities, education and employment are gaining increasing societal attention. On 17 October in sbarcIspark, we launched an important new publication in this field of research by Dr Richard Gater, a research assistant at the Centre for Adult Social Care Research (CARE) and previously a postdoctoral research fellow at WISERD. Dr Gater’s timely new…

The narrative around science education in the UK and globally is often framed around a “leaky pipeline”. While every pupil is required to study science until age 16, many step away from it beyond this point. Reasons for disengagement are multifactored: gender differences, socioeconomic barriers, subject popularity (maths and biology dominate over physics), and now,…

ADR Wales has been awarded almost £26million to continue its ground-breaking work using administrative data to inform public policy and improve lives across Wales. The funding will run from 2026-2031 and was officially announced today by the Rt Hon Mark Drakeford MS during his address to delegates at the ADR UK Conference in Cardiff. Following…

On the 30 June and 1 July, the 15th WISERD Annual Conference took place at Aberystwyth University, welcoming over 130 delegates. The agenda comprised 14 paper sessions, two panels, and three symposia and workshops under the theme of ‘Participation and partnership in a time of precarity and polarisation’. For the first time, this year’s agenda…

Research explores how communities can work together to bring about positive change. Academics will investigate how citizens, civil society organisations and policymakers are collaborating to tackle some of society’s most pressing problems. WISERD has secured £1.6m of funding from the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the three-year research programme, ‘People, Places, and…

On 13 May 2025, Dr Sophie Bartlett, an ADR Wales research associate based at WISERD, at Cardiff University, presented education research at ‘Science and the Senedd’, the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 20th annual event held at the Senedd and the Pierhead in Cardiff Bay. The event was sponsored by the Deputy Presiding Officer of the…

A child’s characteristics and family background provide important indicators of whether they are more likely to have special educational needs (SEN), a Cardiff University study concludes. Academics analysed data from 284,010 pupils attending schools in Wales. Males, pupils of White ethnicity, pupils who were persistently absent, those from households with a lower socio-economic background all…