The Warwick Observatory for Social Mobility (WOfSM) has been established to act as an international centre of expertise in the development of evaluation and impact measures for social mobility, widening participation and access.

To this end the Observatory will:

• contribute to the development of a national framework for evaluation that enables cumulative evaluation of interventions and the bridging of quantitative and qualitative data;

• develop toolkits for those interested in implementing interventions that support social mobility;

• support capacity development through the provision of training and professional development in evaluation and impact processes and methodologies;

• provide the infrastructure for the coordination of research to inform social mobility by:

o developing the infrastructure for data linkage to a range of administrative and social survey datasets

o providing a searchable database for researchers, policy makers and students;

The Observatory will lay the foundations for the critical analysis and development of policy for social mobility agenda in three main ways:

• Research Services:

o provide the facility and infrastructure for national evaluation of existing policies (national and institutional) on HE applications, access and progression by a range of researchers and interested bodies;
o support the development of expertise through professional development in evaluation and impact;
o bring together a vast network of researchers and policy makers in the social mobility field from the UK and beyond.

• Research Programmes: develop innovation in interdisciplinary approaches to evaluation and impact that takes account of a range of stakeholders.

• Research Products:

o Including conferences, seminars, newsletters, working papers, research reports, toolkits, etc.

 

 

Director Professor Christina Hughes Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) christina.hughes@warwick.ac.uk

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Inaugural Conference

OFFA-Warwick Symposium