News and Events
View the latest news from departments within the Faculty of Social Sciences below.
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Joana Almeida has published an article on the impact of Covid-19 on social inequalities among international students
This article stems from a systematic literature review conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of 11 researchers who are part of the :
Almeida, J., Netz, N., Nika, D., Krzaklewska, E., Aguiar, J., Botezat, A., Fran莽a, T. Jokila, S., Streitwieser, B., Vigd铆s Gu冒marsd贸ttir, R., & Malet Calvo, C. (2025) The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on social inequalities in international student mobility: A scoping review. Comparative Migration Studies, 13(27), 2-24. Read it .
Centre for Education Studies Read more from Education Studies News and Events
Publication of new research in the British Educational Research Journal
A new research paper, led by Professor Emma Smith has recently been published. The study compares findings from two national surveys of education researchers - one from 2002 and another from 2022, that was led by colleagues in Education Studies. It examines how the types of research methods used have shifted over the past two decades and places these trends within broader debates about purpose, quality, and methodology in the field.
The study reveals that education researchers today report using fewer research methods than their counterparts twenty years ago. It also highlights an increasing divide between those who use numeric approaches and those who rely on non-numeric methods.
Read the full article below
Smith, E., Gorard, S., Morris, R., Perry, T., & Pilgrim鈥怋rown, J. (2025).
Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies Read more from News Archive
Centre for Lifelong Learning Read more from News
Dr John Gough's involvement in a project on the role of parents in providing careers guidance
The Gatsby Foundation and the JP Morgan Chase Foundation are supporting the Institute for Employment Research at the University of 桃色视频 to undertake research to understand how parents and carers can be better supported by schools and colleges to feel more informed and confident with the advice they give to their children. Dr John Gough from our Careers team has been involved in the research project on 'The role of parents in providing careers guidance and how they can be better supported.'
You can read the report findings along with the recording of a live webinar explaining more about the project here.
Economics Read more from News
Zoning rules don鈥檛 work in isolation: combined reforms deliver the biggest housing gains
Housing costs are pricing many people out of city living, as demand outstrips supply in areas where there is limited or no new land to release for construction. A new study examines zoning laws in Greater Boston, USA, to better understand what local authorities can do to help.
Since vacant land is scarce in built-up cities and towns and they can鈥檛 create new land, local governments must explore other options to tackle this problem.
One approach is to review the zoning regulations which place barriers in the way of building more densely in cities – but until now, the impact of zoning regulations has typically been studied one at a time and there has been limited evidence on which combination of reforms have the biggest effect on supply and affordability.
For example, allowing apartment buildings in certain areas (a popular current policy suggestion) can not achieve much as long as height and density restrictions limit the number of units and floors that can be built.
In their recent paper – , published in the , Dr Amrita Kulka and her co-authors present the first evaluation of how zoning restrictions combine to impact supply, prices and rents of homes and apartments.
鈥淏eing unable to afford a home that meets your needs isn鈥檛 just a private problem,鈥 Dr Kulka explains. 鈥淚t hurts the regional and national economy if people can鈥檛 live near the jobs they could do best, it stops young people from building savings and equity in their homes, and prevents people from moving to access better jobs or schools.鈥
鈥淲e found 54 state and local governments around the world which have relaxed one or more zoning regulations in an attempt to increase affordability in their areas – but there is limited evidence on what options work best.
鈥淥ur work is the first to create a framework to study how zoning regulations interact and which combination of reforms have the greatest effect on housing supply and affordability.鈥
The research team chose the three most typical zoning regulations in US cities for the study – regulations which limit construction to single-family homes; maximum height restrictions; and density restrictions – such as rules on how large lot sizes must be, how far houses must be set back from the road, and maximum numbers of units per development.
To simulate the effect of relaxing regulations, or upzoning, the team identified zoning boundaries which ran within Greater Boston municipalities, rather than exploring differences across local government boundaries where other factors might come into play.
The 26,078 zoning boundaries across which at least one type of zoning restriction differs were carefully sifted to remove any boundaries where price and density might be affected by other factors such as access to high-quality schools or other amenities. This left 2,835 boundaries to analyse.
Using lot-level zoning data and housing data from property tax records, the team tested how the different zoning rules each side of the border influenced housing supply, housing type, housing characteristics, land values, and prices or rents per unit.
To increase housing supply, the key combination of regulations proved to be density and height restrictions – areas where both of these regulations were more relaxed had up to 85 per cent more housing units per lot than those where the rules were strict, but with no effect of housing prices. Where density rules alone were relaxed, supply increased by only 7 per cent, while loose height restrictions alone had almost no effect.
To tackle affordability, the key regulations in Greater Boston were density, alone or in combination with relaxation of the other regulations. Where density rules were less strict, prices for single-family homes were around 4.4% lower than the other side of the boundary. Rents were also lower. Allowing more density along with allowing flats increased units per lot by 62 per cent and also increased affordability.
Dr Kulka attributes this in part to the way restrictive zoning regulations influence the composition of a neighbourhood鈥檚 housing mix.
鈥淩estrictive zoning regulations push developers towards larger family houses and rental units with more floorspace and rooms, which command higher prices. This means that some households, who would prefer living in a smaller unit, have to overconsume housing, making it harder to live in certain attractive neighborhoods and leaving less disposable income for spending on non-housing items.鈥
The researchers applied their model to simulate the long-term effects of reforms in Massachusetts. In 2021 the city passed a reform which required municipal authorities to permit multi-family housing and increased density near public transit stops. The simulation found that such small-scale upzoning policies can be an effective way to increase supply and reduce prices, particularly in neighborhoods surrounding train stations in suburban municipalities.
Dr Kulka said:
鈥淥ur Greater Boston evidence shows that the most effective way to increase supply and lower prices is to relax density restrictions while allowing the construction of multi-family homes. In other cities and countries, different regulations might be the most restrictive.
鈥淔or example, there is evidence of height restrictions being particularly burdensome in Japan. On the other hand, under a non-zoned planning system in the UK, local governments make it difficult to densify areas by designating sites for new residential development that are often on the fringes of cities and towns.
鈥淥ur methodology can be applied to any zoning-based system, offering a robust way to identify which combination of regulations policymakers should focus on if they want to increase housing availability and affordability in their city centres.鈥
- Amrita KulkaAradhya SoodNicholas Chiumenti; Under the (Neighbor)Hood: Understanding Interactions Among Zoning Regulations. The Review of Economics and Statistics 2026; doi:
ESRC Doctoral Training Centre Read more from ESRC DTP News
Institute for Employment Research Read more from IER News & blogs
The 2024 DSIT Research and Innovation Workforce Survey is now live
Do you work in research or innovation? The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is conducting the 2024 Research and Innovation Workforce Survey. and have your voice heard.
Law Read more from 桃色视频 Law School News
Unpacking climate finance in a heatwave
桃色视频 Law School organised a flagship one-day workshop at London Climate Week 2026 on 鈥Unpacking 鈥楪reen鈥 Finance: Promises, Practicalities and Performance鈥. The event, convened by the Climate Finance for Equitable Transitions (CLiFT) network, brought together almost 60 researchers, policymakers, civil society practitioners, journalists, artists and cultural workers, to interrogate international architecture of climate finance and its implications for global climate justice.
Politics and International Studies Read more from Other News
PAIS doctoral collaboration wins award
This week, PAIS PhD candidate Raymond Hyma accepted the Artful Integrators Award at the 2026 Participatory Design Conference in Milan, Italy. The award recognises groups that have developed exceptionally creative new forms of participation and collaboration in design.
Philosophy Read more from Philosophy News
We were never supposed to see our own faces this much
With increased use of front-facing cameras, mirrors and Zoom calls, we鈥檙e being faced with our own reflections more than ever before.
Is it heightening our preoccupation with the way we look?
桃色视频鈥檚 Professor Heather Widdows (Philosophy) spoke to Dazed Digital about