The first Fair Chance Foundation-funded project, a five-year study (2017-2021) entitled 'A Fair Chance for Education: Gendered Pathways to Educational Success in Haryana, IndiaLink opens in a new window' found that young people in rural areas and their families have little to no contact with higher education colleges in their vicinity before making higher education choices. This means that they are making choices about their futures without reliable information, which means that choices are being made on the basis of hearsay – and often reinforce stereotypes associated with gender, class and caste.

Following on from the first project, the Fair Chance Foundation has funded a follow-up project lasting four years which will launch in April 2022. The focus of the second project is to develop the capacity of state higher education institutions in rural and semi-urban areas of India so they can become ‘college knowledge hubs’ in their locations, and empower college principals and staff to become ambassadors for equity in access to higher education.

The research team for the new project is led by Dr Emily Henderson (Education Studies) and Professor Ann StewartLink opens in a new window (Law) from the University of Warwick, and Dr Nidhi Sabharwal from the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration in India.

You can follow the progress of the project on TwitterLink opens in a new window.

The 9th Education Studies PGR Conference offers a dynamic environment for postgraduate research (PGR) students to showcase and discuss their research. This year's conference keynote programme theme is "Education, Conflict and Displacement". For postgraduates who aim to present at the conference, abstracts should be submitted by Monday 21 March 2022.

This year's conference will take place online over 22-23 April 2022. Attendance at the conference is open to all Postgraduate students and the academic community, and is free. You can register online and find out more on the Conference webpages.

Congratulations to Dr Georgiana Mihut and Ellen Hazelkorn on the publication of their co-edited, comprehensive handbook on University rankings, with thirty-seven chapters from seventy-six contributors. The Research Handbook On University Rankings: Theory, Methodology, Influence and Impact has been published by Elgar.

We are pleased to share a new article published by the Times Education Supplement, from one of our current PhD students, Paul Martin. Paul's research looks at the impact that socio-economic disadvantage has on student's progression through education. Paul's research is being supervised by Professor Emma Smith, Head of Department.

We are delighted to share that the 2018/19 Graduate Outcomes Survey has found that 96% of our Postgraduate Taught graduates were in graduate level work after completing their studies. Congratulations to our alumni on their achievements.

You can see more information about our Postgraduate courses on our department webpages.

Derived from the Graduate Outcomes survey of 2018/19 graduates, carried out approximately 15 months after completion. Contains HESA data: Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2020. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived by third parties from its data.