News and Blog

Paul Chaney gives plenary speech at the 2015 Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference

This week WISERD Co-Director Professor Paul Chaney was the invited plenary speaker at the 2015 Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference, which took place at the University of Leeds from 8th – 9th September. The event is the UK’s leading interdisciplinary research conference for academics, policy makers and practitioners with a shared interest in researching…

Democracy & Dragons: How do we teach citizenship education in continually devolving Wales?

A recent review of the national curriculum for Wales has called for a radical reimagining of how curriculum is to be conceptualised, enacted and assessed (Welsh Government, 2015). Currently, citizenship education in Wales is philosophically framed by the Curriculum Cymreig, an initiative to develop a “Welsh ethos” in schools in Wales and delivered through the Personal…

Championing evidence

The Alliance for Useful Evidence is an open-access network of more than 2,000 individuals from across government, universities, charities, business and local authorities in the UK and internationally. It was established by Nesta, ESRC and Big Lottery Fund to champion the use of evidence in social policy and practice. We’re grateful to be hosted by WISERD in Wales. Calls for more evidence-based policy…

WISERD Awarded Funding from Cardiff Incoming Visiting Fellowship Scheme

We are delighted to announce that WISERD has been awarded two modest amounts of funding under the Cardiff Incoming Visiting Fellowship Scheme and International Collaboration Seedcorn Fund. The first award goes to Professor Ian Rees Jones, Dr Sin Yi Cheung and Rhys Davies to build links with Professor Mike Hout at NYU and Professor David Grusky…

WISERD visits the National Eisteddfod

For the first time, WISERD will be presenting research at the annual National Eisteddfod, taking placed this year in Montgomeryshire. The Eisteddfod Festival is the pinnacle of the Welsh cultural calendar. It travels from place to place, alternating between north and south Wales giving communities across the country a chance to welcome up to 160,000 visitors…

Framing the Geographies of Higher Education Participation: Schools, Place and National identity

How young people make choices about university, where and what to study has been a question asked by many social researchers, policy-makers and practitioners alike. Research has shown that when young people make choices about going to university, a range of factors come into play including peer influences, their families’ experience of university and their…