IOE in the media

Two-year-olds in England watch TV or digital content for an average of 2 hours per day, double the daily recommendation, finds new research from UCL Psychology & Language Sciences and UCL Institute of Education.

“There are collective concerns over the research review framework, with continual down-valuing of anything that is not demonstrably of the highest internal excellence,” said Professor Ronald Barnett (UCL Institute of Education) on the competitive nature of UK universities.

“If a college perceives they are receiving too few qualified applicants in particular subjects, they might do better to advertise this generally across the school spectrum, or even adjust their educational offering,” said Professor Francis Green (UCL Institute of Education).

“Polish farmers became the largest beneficiaries of European integration,” says Dr Roch Dunin-Wąsowicz (UCL Institute of Education) on Poland’s economic success in recent years.

The Mayor of London’s policy to provide free school meals to all primary school pupils has delivered a wide range of positive benefits despite having a limited effect on academic attainment, concludes a study by Dr Sam Sims and Dr Mark Hardman (both UCL Institute of Education).

“Today there is no independent evidence at scale for the effectiveness of these tools in education, or for their safety, or even for the idea they have a positive impact,” said Dr Wayne Holmes (UCL Institute of Education) on AI tools being used in an educational setting.

Professor Alice Sullivan (UCL Social Research Institute) has expressed her disappointment over student protests when she gave a seminar at the University of Bristol in October 2025.

“People feel the responsibility of raising the next generation in this very individualised way,” said Professor Charlotte Faircloth (UCL Institute of Education) on the pressures of modern parenting.

“Some research indicates that regular, moderate cheese consumption could support bone strength in post-menopausal women and elderly individuals,” said Alex Ruani (UCL Institute of Education) on the potential health benefits of regularly eating cheese.

“They didn’t have that coming-of-age transition into sexual relationships and person-to-person intimacy, which may now be turning into a long-term shift,” said Professor Katherine Twamley (UCL Institute of Education) on young people during the pandemic lockdown.

“We are essentially conducting unregulated psychological experiments on children and vulnerable adults in the name of innovation,” said Professor Rose Luckin (UCL Institute of Education) on the potential negative consequences of having an AI pet.

Synthetic phonics, where children are taught to pronounce sounds in isolation before putting them together to form words, isn’t working for many struggling young readers, a study led by Professor Dominic Wyse (UCL Institute of Education) has found.

Experts from the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education have raised concerns about online misinformation after new research found that over half of pupils have unintentionally encountered Holocaust-related content on social media.

Professor Peter Scott (UCL Institute of Education) argues that he sees the increasing popularity of educational for-profit providers within higher education as a “grave quality risk” to the sector.

“The content of SPRE remain completely unclear, and it is not obvious how Research England can reasonably decide how much weight should be given to this without first deciding exactly what it is,” said Professor Alice Sullivan (UCL Social Research Institute).