News and Blog

In the first of a series of blogs about students’ perspectives on the fairness of GCSEs, Dr Rhian Barrance outlines the recent reforms to GCSEs across England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and considers students’ views on linear and modular courses. Across England, Northern Ireland and Wales, many 16-year-olds are awaiting the release of their GCSE…

The 28-30th July marked the 8th annual Social Media & Society Conference. The conference is organised by the Social Media Lab at Ryerson University in Toronto and this year it returned home to Canada after last year’s excursion to Goldsmiths in London. WISERD Research Associate, Dr Wil Chivers presented at both of these conferences and in his latest blog he reveals his highlights…

The presentation was of research into whether Welsh medium schools are middle class, and was covered by BBC Radio Wales and Golwg Magazine on 10/08/2017.

Are pupils who attend Welsh-medium schools in south-east Wales mostly from middle-class backgrounds and does it matter? Siôn Llewelyn Jones, from Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences, will examine these questions in a presentation at Cardiff University’s tent at the National Eisteddfod on Anglesey on Thursday 10th August at 4pm. Mr Jones recently presented his…

WISERD has been delighted to host five undergraduate students this summer, four of whom were part of the Cardiff Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (CUROP). The CUROP programme is now considered to be one of the largest undergraduate research schemes in the UK and it aims to offer students paid experience of working in a research…

Dr Rhian Barrance presents her research into teenagers wanting more choice and fairness when it comes to GCSEs, part of a study with Queen’s University Belfast. The article can be seen by following the link here.

WISERD Civil Society is mentioned on the Welsh Assembly Research Service Blog. A link to the blog post can be found below:   https://seneddresearch.blog/2017/06/23/the-welsh-third-sector-an-independent-force-or-just-another-branch-of-government/

Professor David Blackaby comments on ITV’s ‘Wales at Work’ about the cancellation of the electrification of the railway line between Cardiff and Swansea and the impact on the economic development of Wales.    

As part of the WISERD Cardiff lunchtime seminar series, Dr Ian Thomas reported recent findings from his exploration into the Internet’s effects on sexuality. He questions whether the Internet is an intermediary and/or a mediator, and whether it is altering our understanding of sexuality. In my WISERD lunchtime seminar, I began by drawing on the…

A new study by researchers from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) and Queen’s University Belfast has found that students in Wales and Northern Ireland want more choice and fairness when it comes to their GCSE experience, including the subject selection process and the pressure to take on particular…