News and Events

The event marked the launch of a new report published by the Academy of Social Sciences, in partnership with eight Midlands-based universities.

We are delighted to offer two PhD scholarships linked to these two important topics:

1. Intercultural research on diversity in professional contexts

2. Linguistic Bias in Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence

We’re proud to share that Dr Katie Compton and Dr Tom Perry have both received Best Presentation Awards at the prestigious BERA Conference 2025, recognised by Special Interest Groups (SIGs) for their outstanding contributions to educational research.

Dr Katie Compton was honoured for her presentation: “Improving Prosocial Behaviour in the Primary Classroom Through a School-Based Mindfulness Programme”

Dr Tom Perry, alongside collaborators Clara Jorgenson and Laurence Lessard-Phillips from the University of Birmingham, received the award for:
“Pupil School Mobility – preliminary findings from a mixed-methods study into mobility types, pathways and implications for education”

These awards highlight the impactful and innovative work being carried out by Warwick academics in shaping the future of education.

Learn more about the awards: BERA SIG Best Presentation Awards 2025Link opens in a new window

Very pleased to announce the release of our report on cyber security expertise and diversity. You can read the web version here:

https://warwickcim.github.io/cyberexpertisediversity_survey/

This was a collaboration between Matt Spencer, Carlos Cámara-Menoyo and Timothy Monteath, with the support of the Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security.

We make the case for:
> more extensive data collection to ensure that the implications of professionalisation for diversity in cyber security are well understood,
> enhancing the breadth of the specialisms recognised by the Cyber Security Council to better represent fields such as human factors or security awareness,
> better interdisciplinary engagement with the CyBOK framework to ensure that social and cultural expertise are recognised, and,
> empirical analysis of cyber security problems to ensure that specialisms are aligned with practical needs.

We are delighted to share some positive results we have received from National Student Survey 2022.

A new study, co-authored by Professor Anant Sudarshan, shows that doorstep delivery of water is a highly cost-effective way of enabling near universal adoption of clean drinking water in rural India.

More than 2 billion people lack reliable sources of safe drinking water, with only 14 percent of rural households in low- and middle-income countries enjoying tap water in their homes. Even when the pipes do exist, the water it provides is often just as contaminated as local ground- and surface-water sources. As such, universal access to clean water remains one of the world’s most pressing public health challenges.

A new study, published in the American Economic Review, evaluates an inexpensive, effective, and simple solution: localized treatment of water coupled with doorstep delivery.

Professor Sudarshan explains: “We suggest that one approach to bringing clean water to the poor is to literally deliver it to them. Small rural companies are increasingly providing this service but not at prices that most households can afford.

“We show that households value safe water and can afford it at discounted prices, suggesting that government subsidies or vouchers may be a good idea.

"We all look forward to a day when we have clean piped water in every home, but until we get there, this idea seems a highly promising solution to one of today’s biggest public health challenges.”

Dr Fiona Burlig, assistant professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, adds: "Our research shows that the goal of providing tasteless and safe drinking water that is also convenient to access can be achieved without relying on expensive pipe infrastructure.

"The approach we tested appears to be economically sustainable, with people willing to pay more than previously thought, and it delivered measurable health benefits for a population where waterborne diseases remain a significant threat.

"With the right incentives, simple water treatment and delivery could become a key tool to providing universal access to clean drinking water.”

Dr Burlig and her co-authors, Harris Public Policy Assistant Professor Amir Jina and University of Warwick Professor Anant Sudarshan, partnered with Spring Health Water—a local business whose water treatment plants are powered using solar energy—to test this idea through an experiment that covered 60,000 households in 120 villages in Odisha, India—one of the poorest areas of the country.

The researchers created three different contracts to figure out how much people valued water: 1) some households paid for home-delivered water at varying prices; 2) some received a set amount of free bottled water each month; 3) some were given a water entitlement but, if they chose not to use all of it, they could instead receive a cash rebate.

At low prices, about 90 percent of households chose to order clean water, a number far above the 40-50 percent take-up rates of alternatives such as chlorine tablets—which have proved persistently unpopular even when given away, perhaps because of taste and inconvenience. As prices rose, demand dropped, but even at high prices, households that bought water did so in large enough quantities to cover their drinking needs. And although only a small number of households were willing to pay high prices out of pocket, very few of those who were given an entitlement swapped it for cash even when rebates were high.

By this measure of valuation—how much money would it take for you to give up your water entitlement—households value water far more than their low interest in solutions such as chlorine treatment might lead us to believe. The researchers estimate a valuation of more than $4.73—around 4 percent of total expenditures—a month, enough to cover costs of supply.

Clean water seemed to deliver health benefits. The study did not carry out clinical assessments but did ask households to report on illness or missed work. Drinking treated water improved these metrics, with households reporting less sickness and fewer absences from work. Households also said it saved time, as household members did not need to spend as much time collecting water from wells and fuelwood to boil it.

The study also measured how cost-effective clean water delivery was, especially in comparison to chlorine tablets used to treat water at home. Although chlorine is cheaper on a per capita basis, numerous studies have repeatedly found far lower take-up rates compared to the 90 percent take from clean water delivery.

As such, the study concludes that while home delivered water and chlorine tablets are both highly cost-effective ways to improve health, home delivery of water may provide even greater benefits overall.

• The Value of Clean Water: Experimental Evidence from Rural India Fiona Burlig, Amir Jina, and Anant Sudarshan. American Economic Review (Forthcoming).

Details of more successes for our students

On 11 December 2025, Warwick Law School welcomed Professor Ryan Calo of the University of Washington School of Law to deliver an invited lecture on the challenges of regulating emerging technologies. The online talk was held as part of the LA319/LA919 Regulation and Technology Governance module led by Dr Svitlana Lebedenko.

PAIS colleagues Feargal Cochrane, Neophytos Loizides and Aimee Smith alongside staff from the University of Kent, the University of Essex and the University of Cyprus presented written evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee this year. The report was published last week with MPs putting forward a range of recommendations for future legislation relating to the legacy of the Troubles. These included the establishment of the Legacy Commission, ensure independence and input from stakeholders and engagement with groups in the UK, Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland.

Warwick Philosophy is inviting expressions of interest (EOI) in the latest round of the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. The deadline for EOIs is Thursday, 18 December 2025 at 12 noon. 

Full details of EOI process and timelines are linked above.

The Department of Sociology are delighted to announce that Professor Claire Blencowe has been selected to receive a prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council. The grant, worth £1.8 million, will enable her to lead a 5-year, cross-continental, cross-faith investigation of the role of religious authority in extractive industry struggles.

The University of Warwick’s Centre for Teacher Education (CTE) has received a glowing report following a recent Ofsted inspection, highlighting the exceptional quality of training and support provided to its teaching trainees. The inspection report underscores the University’s commitment to nurturing future educators who are well-prepared and passionate about their careers.