News and Blog

We are delighted to announce that the call for papers is now OPEN for the WISERD Annual Conference 2022. WISERD Annual Conference 2022 Swansea University   Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th July 2022 The theme for our Annual Conference is ‘Civil society and participation: issues of equality, identity and cohesion in a changing social landscape’….

A shortage of robust, nationally consistent evidence at a town level has been a longstanding problem in the UK. Without evidence it is difficult for town stakeholders, such as planners, town councils, third sector organisations and community groups, to determine local needs, evaluate the effectiveness of town management strategies and to learn from past success….

Pupil needs can vary significantly and might require for the provision of individually tailored special education and/or additional support. Special education needs (SEN) have been linked with a number of adverse outcomes including poor mental health and loss of school days, which in turn can lead to deterioration of mental health, highlighting the need to…

In this blog, Stephen Drinkwater, Professor of Economics at the Business School in the University of Roehampton and academic lead for the EU Settlement Scheme Data Linkage Project, looks at the latest data available on applications made to the Home Office for EU Settled Status and how this data is helping to shape the project…

On September 13th, the UK’s four chief medical officers concluded that children aged 12 and over can be offered one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination. There has been much debate about whether all children and younger teenagers should be offered vaccinations, with discussion about the safety of vaccines, consent from children and the need…

In Wales as elsewhere, the role of volunteers has been brought to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic as people offered their services to help address the needs of vulnerable groups within their communities. Concerns surrounding the sustainability of such volunteering efforts have drawn attention to the types of infrastructure that could help facilitate and…

Pupils differ significantly in terms of their individual characteristics and needs. It’s therefore important for schools to be able to identify and assess the level of need/disability, and provide for pupils with learning difficulties that call for special education provision, described as special education needs (SEN). Under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales)…

We are delighted to announce the winner of our annual WISERD PhD Poster Competition 2021. Muhao Du from Cardiff University has won the prize for his poster – ‘Finding Harmony in Hardship: experiences of expatriates in subsidiaries of Chinese MNCs in the high technology sector’. Emma Reardon from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David…

School practices on discipline and punishment of disruptive behaviour can affect the exclusion rates being recorded and they have been shown to vary across different jurisdictions of the UK. These practices could be closely linked to and shaped by pupil-level characteristics and needs, including free school meals (FSM) eligibility and special education needs (SEN) provision…

Dr Peter Mackie and Dr Ian Thomas, are the academic leads for ADR Wales’ Housing and Homelessness body of work. Dr Ian Thomas discusses their plans to explore COVID-19 infection rates amongst people experiencing homelessness in Wales using the COVID-19 test data that is now available for approved researchers to access via the SAIL Databank….