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UCL research shows that UK ethnic minority (EM) medical students and doctors frequently underperform in both undergraduate and postgraduate examinations. These findings have been used to help ensure the safety of medical healthcare, particularly via contributions to debate and decision-making among policy-makers and medical education professionals. This has led to: the development of new or amended guidelines; changes to the ways in which international examinations are run; greater transparency in the sector's analyses of how ethnicity impacts on key outcomes; and subsequently greater transparency in the public dissemination of information relating to medical education's successes and shortcomings. The use of the research to inform relevant media discourse has likewise improved transparency about these shortcomings, as well as engaging a broad public audience with these and important related issues.
Extended schools research and related projects have contributed to debate and policy-making in the UK and in countries in Europe, Asia and Australasia post-2008 on the role of the school in relation to disadvantage. Our research has strongly informed English government policy 2008-11 and the actions (including funding and scaling up extended schools) taken to develop community-oriented, full-service and extended schools to help address the impact of disadvantage on educational outcomes. We have had sustained and far-reaching impact on the policy and actions of schools and local authorities (LAs) in their development of extended schools. Professional practice changes include greater willingness to collaborate across agencies and an amendment to policy on `raising aspirations' to become `reaching aspirations'. Additionally our innovative research methodology, a version of theory of change, has been taken up and used by schools, LAs and other organisations.
Since 2008, UK and overseas policies, practices and tools aimed at evaluating and promoting quality in schools and supporting student learning, attainment and progress have been profoundly influenced by research conducted at the University of Bristol. The work began in 2001 in the Graduate School of Education; from 2005, the School's efforts were complemented by those of the Centre for Multilevel Modelling. The research has generated original knowledge about school performance measures and school, teacher and context factors which promote student learning. This knowledge has transformed government and institutional policies and practices. New improved methods of evaluating schools and interventions in education (and other sectors) have been demonstrated and widely disseminated, thereby enhancing public understanding of institutional league tables and facilitating the scaling-up of new approaches nationally. The development of statistical methodology and MLwiN software and training has enabled more rigorous and sensitive quantitative analysis of educational datasets around the world, as well as wider take-up of this methodology by non academics.
Bristol research has led to a fundamental improvement of policies and programmes in the English education system so that they make visible and take into account, the needs of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) learners at risk of underachieving. The studies have been used to shape progressive rounds of Government policy and programming including the implementation of the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant and the Black Pupils Achievement Programme, informing and scaling-up good practice relating to school leadership and teaching in local authorities and schools throughout the 2008-2013 assessment period. They have also been used to increase levels of understanding amongst policymakers and the wider public about the barriers to achievement facing BME pupils and successful practice for overcoming those barriers.
Educational effectiveness and improvement research by the University of Southampton School of Education has contributed significantly to the design and implementation of educational policy and practice at both national and international levels. Impact has been predominantly in the area of policy, but the School's ground-breaking research has also shown the effects of (and practice within) `good' schools and has pioneered novel approaches to school improvement, school organisation and the use of data in schools. The Educational Effectiveness and Improvement Group has helped establish the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) and given it a global reach; its research has directly informed policy implementation through academy chains, schools and local authorities in the UK generally and in Wales in particular, and internationally in the US, China, Sweden, Cyprus and Chile. The School's worldwide reach is among the most widespread in Education.
The field of medicine has become more complex and morally demanding as it faces the challenges of technological advances, changing social attitudes and financial constraints, all dramatically highlighted in the recent Francis Report. These challenges require a profession with independent judgment and a willingness to listen to, and communicate humanely with, patients. The complex skills required for this can be developed through what have become known as the `medical humanities', or the application of philosophy and other humanities to medical education.
This argument was first explored and tested in the UK by researchers at the University of Glasgow (UoG), where the key actors in the UK medical humanities movement worked together to articulate and trial humanities content to students of medicine.
The impact this can have on medical practice has been recognised by the General Medical Council, funding streams in the Wellcome Trust and other major funding bodies, the Royal Colleges and NHS units. From the pioneering work at Glasgow, there are, as of 2013, five centres of medical humanities in the UK and 24 in total worldwide, and humanities content is delivered to medical students at module or degree level in 30 of the UK's 32 medical schools.
Impact is demonstrated through the ways in which research findings have been utilised by schools and Alternative Provision (AP) providers, to evaluate and remodel educational policies and practices. Evidence is presented to support the assertion that by seeking out the perspectives of children and young people, schools can become more critically aware of the complex educational, social, cultural and economic factors that serve to increase pupil exclusion, vulnerability and exposure to risk. An increase in professional understanding and awareness is demonstrated with reference to examples of personalised pastoral interventions, which respond directly to the needs of alienated and disaffected pupils.
The research impacted on the Coalition Government's decisions to (a) discontinue the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) national strategy (2011), and (b) roll out the Achievement for All (AfA) pilot programme at a national level (2011). Both of these major decisions on public policy and professional practice were underpinned by the findings of large-scale national evaluation projects.
Prior to the E.G. West Centre's research, low-cost private schools were not on any agency's radar as having a positive contribution to make to "education for all"; our work changed that position dramatically. In terms of significance, since 2008 the research has led to changing awareness, attitudes and policies embracing a positive development role for low-cost private schools from international agencies such as DFID (Department for International Development) and national governments. Philanthropists and investors have also been inspired by the research to bring funding and expertise to improve opportunities for children in these schools. The reach of the research has extended to 20 countries in five continents, including Burkina Faso, China, Dominican Republic, Ghana, India, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.
The Pupil Premium Toolkit is an evidence-based resource for schools in England looking for guidance on spending their premium, which is in turn a funding policy to address the effects of poverty on attainment. The continuously developing Toolkit, created by researchers at Durham University, provides a unique cost/benefit summary of the relative impact of different teaching approaches in schools. Independent research suggests it is now used by at least 36% of school leaders in England in determining their spending priorities for the Pupil Premium and to review their support for disadvantaged pupils. It has had a direct impact on the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and its funding strategy for the £200 million it will spend over 15 years to reduce inequalities in school outcomes. The EEF's approach to commissioning research and evaluation is explicitly based on this synthesis of research evidence. The Toolkit has also directly influenced Government spending on education and the policy decisions of governments outside England. In March 2013, the Toolkit was identified as a model for the `What Works' network for social policy, which will inform over £200 billion of Government spending.