news 2024

Our researchers have studied wild monkeys problem-solving for food to better understand how social dynamics can influence behaviour and learning. The research team, led by our Department of Anthropology, and in collaboration with University of São Paulo, studied two groups of wild bearded capuchin monkeys in Brazil's Serra da Capivara National Park.

Two fifths of 32-year-olds in England want children - or more children, if they are already parents - but only one in four of them are actively trying to conceive. A new report, published today by the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, shows that more than half of this generation have already become parents, and half of those without children would like to start a family.

Economists from the University of Bath believe that end-of week-absenteeism could be linked to beating bank holiday traffic. Economists from the University of Bath have found a significantly lower school attendance rates on Fridays across England, with a 20% higher absence rate compared to other weekdays.

On average, social segregation of students has increased in neighbourhoods where mainstream primary free schools opened, and neighbouring schools have lost students, finds a report by UCL researchers. The association between primary free schools and social segregation was relating to ethnicity, in that pupils in some areas were less likely to meet peers from other ethnic backgrounds at school than before the primary free school opened.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has updated its popular "A School's Guide to Implementation" with new research from Cardiff University in collaboration with the University of Exeter and the University of Plymouth. The study provides recommendations to help ensure new approaches or practices introduced by schools have the biggest possible impact on children and young people's educational achievements.

Introducing more movement into lessons led to an 8% reduction in children's waist-to-height ratio, according to new research from UCL and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health (ISEH). The study, published in Obesity Facts , is the first scientific assessment of the impact that reducing sedentary behaviour in the classroom has on obesity in primary school children.