Dr Nidhi S. Sabharwal (CPRHE, NIEPA) joins DES as Honorary Associate Professor

Dr Nidhi S. Sabharwal has joined the Department of Education Studies as an Honorary Associate Professor. Dr Sabharwal is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education (CPRHE), National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi, India. She is Co-Principal Investigator (India Lead) for the Fair Chance Foundation project 'Widening Access to Higher Education in India: Institutional Approaches' (Co-PI Emily Henderson DES, Co-I Ann Stewart, Law, 2022-2026). Dr Sabharwal's current research area lies in the area of access and equity in higher education, with a focus on issue of college readiness, diversity, social inclusion and higher educational success of socially and economically disadvantaged students. Her extensive publication list includes: Caste, Discrimination, And Exclusion in Modern India (Sage, 2015), Bridging the Social Gap: Perspectives on Dalit Empowerment (Sage, 2014), India Higher Education Report 2016: Equity in Higher Education (Sage, 2018), India Higher Education Report 2022: Women in Higher Education (forthcoming).  

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.

This special issue launch panel presents an edited collection of papers on academic mobilities, entitled Stuck and Sticky in Mobile Academia. It has been published in Higher Education and co-edited by Charikleia Tzanakou (Oxford Brookes University) and Emily F. Henderson (University of Warwick). The core aim of this special issue was to explore the assumptions and norms underpinning the concepts of mobility and immobility and think beyond this binary, querying the conceptual certainties that are inherent to discourses around academic mobility itself. In this collection of papers, they have aimed to capture ways in which mobility and immobility intersect and overlap, where an academic may be both mobile and stuck, for instance.

The panel event is taking place on Friday 11 March 2022 12:00-14:00 and you can register to attend onlineLink opens in a new window.

We are pleased to note the new co-authored publication from Dr Emily Henderson and Ahmad Akkad, one of our PhD students, published in the Teaching in Higher Education Journal. The article, entitled 'Exploring the role of HE teachers as change agents in the reconstruction of post-conflict Syria', is based on Ahmad's MA Global Education and International Development dissertation work, and can be viewed online.

Dr Emily Henderson and Dr James Burford were recently invited to present a seminar on "Inclusive Conferencing" by the "Equitea" forum in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group at Warwick. The presentation focused on why inclusive conferences matter, and how to make conferences more inclusive from an organiser's and a delegate's perspective. You can see more information about Equitea on their website.