Credit: Sam Robinson for UCL

27 January 2025

By Gideon Sappor and Eirini Gkouskou

This blog is dedicated to Richard Harrison, who was co-chair of the IOE Department of Leadership and Learning’s decolonising and liberating the curriculum working group, until his untimely death in the spring of 2025.

In higher education, the call to decolonise and liberate the curriculum is not just a trend, it’s a transformative movement aimed at fostering equity, inclusion and critical engagement (Meda, 2020). This is borne out of the principles of fairness, equity and justice in relation to diversity that have long occupied a prominent position within social and political discourse in the UK and beyond, not least within higher education. This sustained engagement reflects an enduring societal aspiration to construct an equitable and inclusive order in which structural inequalities are dismantled and individual life chances are not predetermined by immutable characteristics such as race, socio‑economic background or place of birth (Sappor & Franks, 2025). (more…)

Credit: 2024 Alejandro Salinas Lopez “alperucho”.

2 December 2025

By Jessica Ko

In an era where policy decisions increasingly demand robust evidence, science-policy organisations (SPOs) are emerging as pivotal actors in shaping more equitable and effective public systems. However, extant research has largely focused on the role of the individual knowledge broker rather than organisational factors in the policymaking process. This is a research gap that our British Academy-funded research project hopes to address. (more…)

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20 November 2025

By Carol Vincent

Brexit, migration and the Israel/Palestine conflict are just three issues that have saturated public debate and generated polarised reactions in recent times. Meanwhile, young people in particular are increasingly receiving their news through social media (Internet Matters 2025), and research suggests that, although the relationship is complex, social media does play a role in aggravating ‘destructive’ polarisation (Esau et al 2024). (more…)

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21 October 2025

By Wilton Lodge

In recognition of Black History Month, this reflection explores what it means to engage in racially just research and scholarship. Drawing on the works of Du Bois, Fanon and Tuhiwai Smith, it considers how power, history and epistemic privilege shape knowledge production. Through three key shifts – adopting racially just epistemologies, practising reflexivity and rejecting deficit models – I invite educators to reimagine scholarship as a space for justice. (more…)

Credit: Antenna on Unsplash.

18 September 2025

By Rob Davies

In the world of academic research, producing groundbreaking studies is only half the battle. The other half (arguably the more challenging part) is ensuring your research actually influences policy and practice. At CLOSER, we’ve learned that knowledge mobilisation and policy impact is like an iceberg: what you see on the surface is just a fraction of what’s happening beneath. (more…)

Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones with Keri Wong and UCL Institute of Education students. Credit: Courtesy of Keri Wong.

16 September 2025

By Keri Wong

‘A day in a life…’ is an excellent role-play experience for children dreaming big and teenagers wanting to find out about career options – but why not have this for academics, too? Like many academics, I’ve spent most of my career trying hard to publish, not perish. This year, however, I got the chance to extend my policy-related networking, this time with a visit to the House of Lords, where scientific evidence is used to scrutinise, ‘sense check’ and inform government decisions. (more…)

Amina Meshnuni and Abdullahi Yussuf, speakers for this year’s TCRU-Coram annual lecture. Credit: James Tye for UCL.

3 June 2025

By Andrea Verdasco and Dushana Pinfield, Events and Communications Manager, TCRU

IOE’s Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) and Coram have called for a fundamental shift in how asylum-seeking children and young people in the UK are supported. The case was put forward by IOE’s Professor Elaine Chase and Coram Young Citizens, Amina Meshnuni and Abdullahi Yussuf, speakers for this year’s TCRU-Coram annual lecture. The lecture marked a significant step in collaboration between UCL and Coram, with the public signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between them, underpinning a commitment to deeper partnership on research-led policy change regarding children’s rights. (more…)

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28 January 2025

By Sandra Leaton-Gray and David Scott, with Rita Chawla-Duggan, University of Bath

In many higher education institutions, best practice principles for curriculum design frequently reflect a model that perpetuates colonial assumptions about knowledge, learning, and assessment. These principles, ranging from “cutting-edge content” to “optimised engagement”, prioritise well-recognised measurable benchmarks and notions of corporate efficiency while failing to interrogate the power structures embedded in curricula. A decolonised curriculum, on the other hand, challenges these assumptions and offers a transformative approach to education. In this blog post we analyse what that means and how it might best be achieved, drawing on learning from other, interconnected parts of the education system. (more…)

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21 January 2025

By Aine McAllister

Highly skilled refugees and asylum seekers encounter multifaceted barriers to accessing postgraduate study in UK higher education. These include wider societal and structural barriers as well as those specific to university entry. Often, the latter is a twofold barrier: to access at all, and to access commensurate with existing qualifications, professional experience and achievements. (more…)

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14 November 2024

By Rosa Mendizabal and Viviana Ramirez, UDLAP (Universidad de las Américas Puebla, México)

World Prematurity Day, marked every 17 November, unites families and professionals to raise awareness about the challenges of preterm birth. Global landmarks are lit in purple, symbolising hope, compassion and support, while sock lines with nine full-sized pairs of socks and one tiny one represent the one in ten babies born prematurely. Addressing this issue through improved, holistic neonatal care remains crucial for reducing preventable deaths and adverse outcomes at birth. Despite the various challenges posed by preterm births, it is important to recognise that much has been achieved so far in improving care – in part through allowing children, including the most vulnerable neonates, a voice. (more…)