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Politics - Campus - 18.08.2021

Greater scientific expertise needed in Parliament to improve decision-making
A new academic study finds that an over-representation of MPs with social sciences backgrounds limits debate on STEM topics. Last updated on Wednesday 1 September 2021 Political parties need to put more effort into recruiting candidates with scientific backgrounds in order to increase 'cognitive diversity' among MPs, say the authors of a new academic study.

Pedagogy - Campus - 28.05.2021

Extra classroom time may do little to help pupils recover lost learning after COVID-19
Adding extra classroom time to the school day may only result in marginal gains for pupils who have lost learning during the COVID pandemic, a study says. Simply keeping all students in school for longer, in order to do more maths or more English, probably won't improve results much Vaughan Connolly The University of Cambridge analysis used five years of Government data, collected from more than 2,800 schools in England, to estimate the likely impact of additional classroom instruction on academic progress, as measured at GCSE.

Social Sciences - Campus - 20.05.2021

Physical activity may help to close the wealth gap in school attainment by improving self-control
Guaranteeing every child the opportunity to participate in certain types of physical activity could support their academic attainment and help to close the achievement gap between wealthy and less-advantaged pupils, new research indicates. In the context of COVID in particular, there may be a real temptation to encourage schools to maximise classroom time to stop children falling behind.

Campus - Psychology - 02.04.2021

Hand signals improve video meeting success
Using a simple set of hand signals can improve the experience of online meetings, make groups feel closer to each other and that they are learning and communicating better, finds a new study by UCL researchers. The research team trained students to use a set of signals in seminars, such as waving to take a turn to speak, and raising a hand to show empathy, and found evidence that they improved the experience of video meetings during lockdown.

Social Sciences - Campus - 21.09.2020

Homicides near schools affect students’ educational outcomes says new study
Homicides near schools negatively impact on the educational attainment of children, a new study in the Journal of Labor Economics reports. During this unique study, researchers from the University of Birmingham and University of Surrey investigated if exposure to homicides had an impact on the educational outcomes of children in schools close by.

Campus - Health - 14.09.2020

Stopping the spread of coronavirus in universities
As universities prepare to welcome students back, infectious disease modelling experts at the University of Bristol have conducted a rapid review and developed a new epidemic model which contributed to evidence considered by SAGE to assess the effectiveness of different interventions that could stop the spread of Sars-CoV-2 in a university setting.