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British Academy Review
Issue 19 (Jan 2012)
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The British Academy is inviting feedback on the impact of the UK's new immigration policies.
The British Academy is implementing a programme to support Languages and Quantitative Skills in the humanities and social sciences.
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Find out how you can support Humanities and Social Sciences research through the British Academy.
Audio Recording
by Professor John Carey in conversation with Dr Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Media library home page The British Academy welcomed the publication of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee report into the Role of Departmental Science Advisers, which calls for the Government to appoint a Chief Social Scientist. This is one of the peers’ key recommendations, and was urged by the Academy when it gave evidence to the Committee.
The report says: “Given the all-pervasive importance of social science advice to policy making in all departments, we remain of the view that at the earliest opportunity the Government should appoint a Chief Social Scientist, to ensure the provision of robust and independent social scientific advice.”
The Strengthening the role of Chief Scientific Advisers report, was published on 29 February 2012.
2 March 2012
The British Academy hosted today’s announcement of the largest humanities endowment in Oxford University’s 900 year history. A donation which will ultimately amount to over £25m will establish The Mica and Ahmet Ertegun Graduate Programme in the Humanities, enabling up to 35 leading humanities students from throughout the world to study subjects including archaeology, literature, history, music and Middle Eastern studies.
Applauding the announcement, British Academy President Sir Adam Roberts said: 'This extraordinarily generous gift is exactly what is needed in our difficult times. The Academy has for a long time been pointing to the urgent need for stronger support for postgraduate studies -- a need which has been largely neglected in the long-running debate about student fees. In the coming weeks and months the Academy will be actively pressing the case for better funding of postgraduate studies in humanities and social sciences at universities throughout the UK.'
Speaking at the launch, held at the Academy, Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton said the endowment’s timing was perfect. 'Funding for graduate studies is one of the most intense challenges faced by research-intensive universities – and it is especially tough in the field of the Humanities.' Chancellor Lord Patten added, 'The crisis that is just down the road for British Higher Education is what happens to graduate funding.'
29 February 2012
At the launch of the Foundations for the Future report at the British Academy, Dr John Kirkland (Deputy Secretary General, ACU), suggested that for the past 30-40 years we've been asking the wrong questions about Africa.
Instead of asking whether or not African academics return to Africa, our focus should be on their experience when they return and the way they are supported by research cultures and environments in their home countries. Though the report demonstrates that a great deal of activity in this area is taking place in UK universities, the system of support is disjointed. Dr Kirkland called for greater co-ordination across the UK.
The Foundations for the Future report examines the challenges facing early career researchers in Africa and suggests ways these challenges might be addressed in order to ensure the future of African research.
Read more.
27 February 2012
The British Academy Policy Centre launches its latest report, Raising Household Saving, today (22 February 2012). The report, prepared by researchers from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, examines different policy options designed to encourage people to save. The report’s authors, Thomas F Crossley, Carl Emmerson and Andrew Leicester, examine the effectiveness of four types of policies that have been implemented or found favour in recent years, providing an invaluable guide to the available evidence from the UK and abroad.
Press release and the IFS observation piece.
22 February 2012
The Coalition's Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) need far greater resources if they are to help drive forward the Government's growth agenda, says a leading expert in local businesses.
At a British Academy panel discussion tonight (15 February 2012), Professor Bob Bennett FBA - author of a major new study of chambers of commerce - argues that far more than the current £2 billion needs to be invested in LEPs and Enterprise Zones in order to stimulate growth and jobs around the UK. Press release or more about the event.
15 February 2012
The author of a new report , Post-immigration 'difference' and integration, launched by the British Academy today (9 February 2012) will suggest that models of integration need to be tailored to different migrant groups at the first of the Dialogue Society’s HardTALK series.
At the event, 'Multiculturalism: has it a future?’, Professor Tariq Modood will argue that the challenge of integrating the growing Muslim population of Western Europe, has to include multiculturalism alongside other modes of integration. He will be interviewed by David Goodhart, Founder of Prospect Magazine and Director of think tank Demos, at the Dialogue Society’s headquarters in London.
Press release
9 February 2012
Oxford University Press is delighted to make the prestigious publications of the British Academy available online. At launch, British Academy Publications Online (BAPO) will offer readers access to the full text of 100 print titles comprising both of monographs and collections of essays. Among those included are Vernon Bogdanor’s The British Constitution in the Twentieth Century and Georgina Herrmann’s After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam. The titles included on British Academy Publications Online cover a wide range of subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, including classics, archaeology, history, politics and philosophy.
Read more
7 February 2012
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