The Health of the Social Sciences

英国学术界正在进入一个充满挑战的时期。对于社会科学来说，挑战是深远的--高等教育资金状况动荡，Covid大流行扰乱了国内和国际的学生流动，研究人员的生产率受到影响。与Covid相关的因素似乎在不同学科、受保护特征和大学之间产生不同的影响。也有证据表明，Covid大流行的影响在区域一级也可能有所不同。所有这一切都发生在重大地缘政治和国内事件有可能进一步加剧所讨论的问题的时候。例如，英国/中国和英国/欧盟关系的变化可能会影响付费学生流向英国的流量。同样，Augar审查带来的变化可能还会给该部门带来进一步的挑战。在这种情况下，有必要在大学面临巨大压力的关键时期监测英国社会科学的健康状况。这在一定程度上是为了提供一个观察站，能够以基于证据的方式对正在出现和发展中的问题发出警告。然而，这也是必要的，因为所概述的背景是社会科学潜在的丰富研究机会--因此，这笔赠款的观测职能既注重确定机会，也注重确定威胁。该项目将在兰开斯特大学和社会科学院的合作基础上建立这个天文台。

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.