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This case study has two strands:
The University of Huddersfield's School of Education and Professional Development has produced an extensive body of research addressing the experiences and needs of educationally marginalised young people. This work has developed understanding of the experiences of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), learners in alternative education and those on low-level vocational programmes. Responding to stakeholder demands for a more nuanced insight into these problems and their possible solutions, research has been disseminated to practitioners, policymakers, voluntary organisations, local authorities and the wider public through conference presentations, keynote addresses and the media, benefiting user communities at local, regional and national levels.
Recent decades have witnessed a rapid decline in youth participation in UK electoral politics, in terms of both voting and party membership. Many authors and political commentators view this situation as marking a crisis in British democracy. Sloam's research and his collaboration with user groups have addressed this important issue and strengthened efforts to engage young people in politics, broadly conceived. In particular, his work has highlighted the growing `participation gaps' between rich and poor young people in the UK and between young people in the UK and across the European Union. Sloam's work on teaching and learning within political science, on citizenship education and on the social role of higher education has informed policy and practice within the educational sector. His research on young people's political participation in British democracy has advanced knowledge about the nature of young people's politics, helping policy-makers form strategy, approaches and indices to create better engagement with the next generation of citizens.
In response to growing calls for competence-based continuing professional development across healthcare professions, Professor Ian Bates and colleagues at the UCL School of Pharmacy have led multi-disciplinary collaborative research to develop frameworks for the professional development of pharmacists. These have been adopted across the UK, and are now the norm for pharmacist development. In addition, the cumulative evidence base was used by the Department of Health to establish the first NHS Consultant Pharmacist posts in England. The frameworks are increasingly being adopted for use in different countries around the world and, most recently, have underpinned a global framework for practitioner development under the auspices of the World Health Organization and UNESCO.
A unique insight in The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education (2008), and developed through an ESRC Seminar Series, is that a therapeutic ethos in education is creating a diminished human subject through a `dual attack' on the human subject as a knowing subject and the subject-based curriculum.
A conscious public defence of the subject-based curriculum was then undertaken through seminars, debates and conferences involving think tanks, charities and union organisations. The appointment of Professor Dennis Hayes to the London Mayoral Education Inquiry (2012) was one consequence. The Inquiry resulted in funding of £24.5 million for the London Schools Excellence Fund.
The global pledge of achieving Education For All by 2015 is compromised by providers' reliance on education services that are designed for sedentary users and exclude nomadic pastoralists. Dr Caroline Dyer (University of Leeds; Senior Lecturer in Development Practice, 2004-2011; Reader in Education in Development, 2011- present) has re-visioned approaches to education for nomadic groups through her analysis of how public policy perpetuates pastoralists' educational marginalisation and design of research-based models of service provision that can deliver pastoralists' right to education inclusion without compromising their mobile livelihoods. Her research led to changes in national policy strategy and re-designed service delivery in Kenya in 2010, shaped policy debate in Afghanistan from 2012, and has supported community and NGO advocacy in India since 2008.
Research by Coleman (University of Leeds, 2007-present) on the disengagement of young people from political democracy has contributed to public debate about citizenship education and the need to build stronger connections between political and popular culture. This record of research directly informed the creation and development of `Youth Amplified', a suite of resources designed to inspire new ways for education providers to support young people in developing confident and effective speaking and listening skills. Evidence of engagement with the `Youth Amplified' resources amongst leading education providers and over 200 schools across the UK can be used to demonstrate impact, as well as reported improvements of young people's ability to express themselves in public situations.
Research by the University of Huddersfield's School of Education and Professional Development has played a significant role in influencing changes to `Prevent', a key government educational policy aimed at preventing terrorism. The work of Professor Paul Thomas has reshaped local approaches in Kirklees and Rochdale local authorities and, following national media coverage and oral evidence to a House of Commons Inquiry, has helped influenced policy change at national level. Thomas' recommendation to focus more on cohesion was largely accepted by the Coalition government in its review of Prevent, as a result of which the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has placed renewed emphasis on the value of cross-community cohesion.
This case study demonstrates the impact of research focussed on establishing a set of European core competences in genetics for health professionals. Prior to the research, there were clear inequities and inconsistency of practice regarding genetic health services for patients across Europe, in particular in the fields of genetic counselling and genetic nursing. The core competences for genetic nurses and counsellors are now being used as the foundation for genetic nursing and genetic counselling profession in Europe, to improve standards of patient care. Standards of practice and education, curricula for Master's degree training programmes and a formal European registration process for genetic counsellors and nurses are all based on the outcomes of the initial study at Plymouth. These measures have resulted in professionalization of genetic nursing and genetic counselling in the European context and consequently improved consistency of care.
Across the Higher Education sector, in the UK and in much of Europe, university lecturers in professional fields are usually appointed on the basis of their practitioner experience and expertise, and they may have little prior experience of teaching at Higher Education level or of research activity. The impact of the research in this case study has been on individuals, Heads of Department, academic developers and universities across the UK in influencing changes in academic induction practices leading to enhanced professional development of university lecturers in professional fields, especially in teacher education, nursing and the allied health professions. The dissemination of the research included the publication by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) of guidelines for academic induction of teacher educators.