Job Category
Teaching, Research & Scholarship
Vacancy Type
Fixed term contract
Fixed Term Duration
3 years
Employment Type
Full time
Salary Other
£18,622 per year tax-free stipend (2023-24 rate)
Location
Chelmsford
Faculty/Prof Service
Faculty of Business & Law
Ref No
2727
Closing Date
03/03/2024
About ARU:
We are ranked in the world's top 350 institutions in the 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and we are a global university transforming lives through innovative, inclusive and entrepreneurial education and research. Our research institutes and four faculties bridge scientific, technical and creative fields. We deliver impactful research which tackles pressing issues and makes a real difference to our communities. Our academic excellence has been recognised by the UK's Higher Education funding bodies, with 16 of our research areas assessed as world-leading. In 2021, we were awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for our world-leading music therapy work.
About the Role:
Anglia Ruskin University is inviting applications for a fully-funded Vice- Chancellor's PhD Scholarship for a period of 36 months in the School of Economics within the Faculty of Business and Law.
Project Description:
There has been growing interest from scholars and policy makers in analysing and addressing social and economic inequalities. The UK Government Levelling Up White Paper is developed to resolve regional economic disparities and it identifies universities as important anchor institutions for facilitating knowledge sharing and collaboration between public and private sectors, providing equal opportunities to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and improving regional growth (Gov.UK, 2022). This move in policy is nationwide and a big step up to the access and participation plan introduced by the Office for Students (OfS) in 2018.
With funding from Research England and the Office for Students, Student at the Heart of Knowledge Exchange (SHoKE) was launched at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in February 2021, with the aim of improving student access to resources and opportunities. SHoKE assist students develop their social capital and a sense of belonging in the society, with welcome support from over 20 external civic and charitable partners. The initiative delivers three student-centred schemes, which are “Student Consult”, “Spotlight on” and “Impact 24”. Our partners then select the most promising ideas and commission Student Consult teams to provide an in-depth analysis and propose implementation strategies where they help identify potential solutions to partners' societal challenges. The projects typically focus upon organisational challenges relating to social value initiatives and sustainability.
This research will evaluate the impact of SHoKE on students' academic performances and subsequent degree attainment gap and graduate outcomes. Our contribution is twofold. Firstly, following OfS's call to monitor the effectiveness of access and participation plans, and to ensure the long-term sustainability and growth of SHoKE, it is imperative that we implement a robust monitoring and evaluation process, especially now that the initiative has passed its challenging start-up period since the pandemic. Second, we contribute to the literature by utilising a difference-in-difference estimator with synthetic twins to determine the causal relationship between post-entry intervention initiative SHoKE and the degree attainment gap, and to what extent such initiatives `work'. This follows OfS's drive to have evidence- based approach when developing institutional access and participation plans.
The award is subject to the successful candidate meeting the studentship Terms and Conditions which can be found on our website alongside further information about the project: https: // aru.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research/vc-phd- scholarships and enquiries can be directed to [email protected]
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting welfare of our staff and students and expect all staff to share this commitment.
We value diversity at ARU and welcome applications from all sections of the community.