Current projects

I am involved in four main research projects.

1. Eurostudents

There are over 35 million students within Europe and yet, to date, we have no clear understanding of the extent to which understandings of ‘the student’ are shared. This project (which runs from 2016-2021, funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant) thus investigates how the contemporary higher education student is conceptualised and the extent to which this differs both within nation-states and across them. This is significant in terms of implicit (and sometimes explicit) assumptions that are made about common understandings of ‘the student’ across Europe – underpinning, for example, initiatives to increase cross-border educational mobility and the wider development of a European Higher Education Area. It is also significant in relation to exploring the extent to which understandings are shared within a single nation and, particularly, the degree to which there is congruence between the ways in which students are conceptualised within policy texts and by policymakers, and the understandings of other key social actors, such as the media, higher education institutions and students themselves. You can read more about the project here.

2. Enablers and constraints of equal or primary caring among UK fathers and the realities of such care

I am also working with my colleague Paul Hodkinson at the University of Surrey on a project about fathers who have taken on substantial responsibilities for caring for young children, funded by an internal grant from the University of Surrey.  Based on a series of interviews with fathers who are equal or primary carers for children age 3 or under, we have written two articles and a book about the circumstances that enable and constrain equal or primary caring among UK fathers, and the everyday realities of such care. We are currently conducting a follow-up study of the fathers, so explore whether their caring arrangements have changed over time, and how they have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic..=

3. International student mobilities

Together with Johanna Waters, a geographer based at UCL, I have recently completed a book, entitled Student Migrants and Contemporary Educational Mobilities, to be published in September 2021. We are also conducting research on the extent to which mobile students can be considered to be part of ‘knowledge diasporas’, and patterns of student migration from East Asia to elite UK higher education institutions. I have also recently completed a project for the British Council on higher education partnerships (including student and staff mobility) between Turkey and the UK.

4. Supranational space in higher education policy

Since November 2020, I have been working with colleagues at UCL and Oxford on a project exploring the supranational space in higher education policy – i.e. the ways in which policy is formed, disseminated and implemented above or beyond nation-states. This is part of the ESRC-funded Centre for Global Higher Education. The strand for which I am responsible focussing on European higher education in particular.