people

Main Collaborators

Jake Anders is Professor of Quantitative Social Science at UCL, where he serves as Deputy Director of the Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities and Head of Research in the Department of Learning and Leadership at the Institute of Education. He is Principal Investigator of the COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities study (COSMO). His research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of educational inequalities and evaluating policies and programmes aiming to reduce them. He has published widely across economics, psychology, sociology, and education journals.

Rhys Davies is Cardiff Co-Director for the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD). As an applied labour economist, his research examines employment and labour market issues using large-scale primary and secondary data sources. His research has been published in Labour Economics, Cambridge Journal of Economics, and British Journal of Industrial Relations.

Hans Dietrich is a researcher in the Education, Training and Employment over the Life Course department at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg. His research spans youth unemployment, school-to-work transitions, apprenticeship training, and mental health and labour market outcomes. He has contributed extensively to policy advice on vocational training reform and youth employment programmes, and has led numerous projects including international comparative studies on youth joblessness during the COVID-19 crisis.

Alan Felstead is Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University, where he was Research Professor in the School of Social Sciences (2006–2024) and Co-director of WISERD (2022–2024). His research focuses on work quality, skills and learning, non-standard employment, and workplace geography. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW).

Duncan Gallie is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Nuffield College, Oxford University, which he joined as Official Fellow in 1985. His research focuses on work quality, attitudes to social inequality, and the social consequences of unemployment. He served as Vice-President Social Sciences of the British Academy (2004–2006) and Foreign Secretary of the British Academy (2006–2011).

Francis Green is Emeritus Professor of Work and Education Economics at the UCL Institute of Education. His research focuses on education, skills, job quality, and the graduate labour market. He is a member of the LLAKES Research Centre and was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences in 2007. He previously served as Editor of the British Journal of Industrial Relations (2002–2006).

Rob Higham is Associate Professor at the UCL Institute of Education. His research explores the governance of school systems, the operation of education markets, the involvement of civil society and businesses in state schooling, and the reproduction of educational inequalities. His current work examines free schools and academies in England, investigating which actors gain access to open new schools, the competitive pressures they create, and their effects on attainment and social segregation. He has given evidence to the House of Commons Education Select Committee and his research has been reported by the BBC, The Observer, The Economist, and the Times Educational Supplement.

Ingrid Schoon is Professor of Social Policy at the Social Research Institute, University College London. A chartered psychologist, her research focuses on human development and wellbeing across the life course. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the Social Science Centre Berlin, past President of the European Association for Research on Adolescence (2022–2024), and past President of the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (2020–2022). She is a member of the OECD 2030 Competencies Framework Working Group and the UNESCO Inclusive Social Policy Lab.

Ying Zhou is Professor and Director of the Future of Work Research Centre at the University of Surrey. Her research focuses on job quality, occupation, and employee wellbeing. Her work has been published in Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and British Journal of Industrial Relations. She received her MPhil and DPhil in Economic Sociology from Oxford University.

Former Research Students

Anan Chen is an Honorary Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Education and a postdoctoral researcher at the Graduate School of Education, Peking University.

Granville Pitter is Dean of the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies at the University of Technology, Jamaica.