Consortium plays host to British Election Study

PA 96/13 - The University of Nottingham has joined forces with the Universities of Manchester and Oxford to form a consortium which will study long-term political change in British politics. The Economic and Social Research Council has announced that the consortium will host the 2015 British Election Study (BES), which will be led by a scientific team including Professor Cees van der Eijk from The University of Nottingham, Professor Ed Fieldhouse, Dr Jane Green, Professor Hermann Schmitt, all from The University of Manchester and Professor Geoff Evans, from Nuffield College, Oxford. The BES has taken place at every general election since 1964, covering a sequence of 13 general elections and gathering data over a period of more than 45 years. This makes it one of the longest running election studies world-wide. Previous studies have received high public and academic recognition and have made a major contribution to the understanding of political attitudes and behaviour over 50 years. Long-term political change Nottingham's Professor Cees van der Eijk said: "Our design for the BES will link the study to other studies, within the UK and in other countries. That provides a larger scientific return on the investment, and a more considered perspective on British electoral politics.