The Health of the Social Sciences

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The UK academic community is entering a challenging period. For the social sciences the challenges are profound - the Higher Education funding landscape is turbulent, the Covid pandemic is disrupting student flows both domestically and internationally and the productivity of researchers is being impacted. Covid related factors seem to be impacting differently across disciplines, protected characteristics and Universities. There is also evidence that the impact of the Covid pandemic may vary at a regional level also. All of this is happening at a time when major geopolitical and domestic events threaten to further exacerbate the issues discussed. Changes in UK/China and UK/EU relations could, for example, impact on the flow of fee paying students to the UK. Similarly changes arising from the Augar review may yet provide further challenges for the sector.In this context, there is a need to monitor the health of UK social sciences over a critical period of intense pressure on universities. In part that is to provide an observatory than can warn, in an evidence based fashion, of emerging and developing issues. Yet it is also necessary because the context outlined is one in which there are potentially rich research opportunities for the social sciences - the observatory function of this grant has, accordingly, as much focus on identifying opportunities as threats. This project will establish this observatory, based on a collaboration between Lancaster University and the Academy of Social Sciences.