This is an exciting development as we seek to build the profile of the IOE’s work in social research, alongside that in education, and to re-emphasise social research as a long-standing and important part of the IOE’s heritage.
The Social Research Institute hosts work on longitudinal studies, research synthesis, childhood, families, health, migration, inequalities, time use, education, and other topics. Current ongoing research includes an examination into the everyday life of children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic, mapping evidence on COVID-19, and surveying cohort study participants in order to build up the national picture of the impact of COVID-19.
The SRI also offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in the social sciences, sociology, social policy and social research methods.
The name change is part of the IOE’s commitment to grow the multi-disciplinary nature of its work, within the faculty and with wider UCL and partners nationally and internationally.
Within the SRI this includes working with UCL Population Health Sciences to develop the health aspects of the four longitudinal studies based at the Institute, and the social science aspects of the birth cohort study hosted in UCL Population Health Sciences. The SRI also works closely with other UCL departments in the social sciences, particularly Economics, Political Science, Geography and Anthropology, and several staff have links with the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Professor Sue Rogers, Interim Director of the IOE, said: “In renaming the Department of Social Science as the Social Research Institute, we take an important step in increasing the visibility of our world-leading work in social research, to complement our existing profile within the field of education. We continue to work with UCL colleagues and external partners across a wide range of disciplines to extend the reach and scope of our research and teaching, in pursuit of our mission to further social justice.”
Professor David Voas, Head of Social Research Institute, said: “Through its constituent centres, the Social Research Institute has a heritage of more than six decades of ground-breaking empirical work on social problems. This new step showcases our collective strengths and promotes our global presence in research and higher education.”