Professors Kate Purcell and Peter Elias discuss whether in today's financial climate it is still worth studying for a degree.

Professors Purcell and Elias are members of the IER research team responsible for Futuretrack, the most extensive investigation of the relationship between higher education and employment ever undertaken in the UK. The survey is being undertaken on behalf of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU).

Dr Tony Meagher (Centre of Policy Studies, Monash University) and Dr Chandra Shah (Centre for the Economics of Education and Training, Monash University) are visiting IER during week commencing 26 September. Dr Meagher and Dr Shah will attend the Warwick International Symposium on Employment and Skills Forecasting on Thursday 29 September, organised by Professor Rob Wilson. Rob recently visited Monash as part of a collaborative research project being undertaken jointly with Tony Meagher on Anticipating Future Skill Needs, funded by the Monash-Warwick Strategic Funding Initiative. Dr Meagher will be presenting a paper during the Evaluation and Assessment session of the Symposium on “Assessing the reliability of labour market forecasts”.

The 2011 meeting of the heads of research councils in the G8 countries , scheduled this year in the UK, was held at Scarman House from 10 to 12 July. This annual event, held in turn in each of the G8 countries, provides an opportunity for the research council heads and senior representatives to hold relatively informal discussions and to hear presentations on a topic of common interest. For the July event, Peter Elias organised a workshop entitled: ‘Access to research data: new developments and old problems’. This workshop included contributions from Professor Paul Boyle (Chief Executive of the ESRC and International Champion for RCUK), from Professor Paul Burton (genetic epidemiologist, University of Leicester) and from Ms Melanie Wright (director, Secure Data Service, University of Essex). Visits were organised to the Warwick Innovative Materials Research Centre (WIMRC) and to the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford. A formal dinner, attended by the Vice-Chancellor and by Robert Lindley, Peter Elias and Margaret Birch from IER, was held at Mallory Court. The event was organised by RCUK and facilitated at Warwick via IER in close liaison with RCUK staff.

Professor Ravi Srivastava, Professor of Economics in the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, visited the Institute on Friday 9^th July to discuss common interests related to labour market change with Professor Kate Purcell, who is currently leading a collaborative ESRC-funded Pathfinder Brazil-India research on the impact of higher education expansion and economic restructuring.