Newsroom University of Swagֱ��

£7m investment in UK Data Service for social science skills training

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 10:26:36 +0000

Swagֱ�� is one of five partner organisations who together have been awarded £37.5 million from The Economic and Social Research Council . Of this award £7 million is to support our team at the Cathie Marsh Institute (CMI), now 13-strong, where Vanessa Higgins and Debora Price lead the national Training and User Support functions of the service.

Welcoming the award, , Director of Research, School of Social Science said:

The UK Data Service provides access to the largest collection of economic, social and population data in Europe. It hosts over 9,000 datasets including the UK Census, Understanding Society and the Labour Force Survey. There are 50,000 registered users, from 148 countries.

, Deputy Director of the Service and lead Investigator at the University of Swagֱ��, said:

The cross-site Training and User Support service led by the CMI team at Swagֱ�� has grown significantly in recent years with an outstanding track record of providing appropriate training programmes.

Last year, they ran over 100 live training events and there is a large and growing range of online materials, from interactive data skills modules, to written guides and how-to videos for all levels of user. Feedback from users is excellent with 97% of respondents last year saying they would recommend their training event to others.

, Co-Investigator at the University of Swagֱ��, and national Service Director for Training and User Support said:

Professor Jackie Carter named in the Disability Power 100

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Swagֱ��’s Professor Jackie Carter has been named as one of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK, working to break the stigma around disability to create a more accessible and inclusive world for all.

All about creating change, the celebrates ambition and achievement, and plays a role in changing society by recognising the strengths and talents of disabled people who are pioneers, changemakers and influencers.

A fifth of the UK’s population has a disability or impairment - however, there is very little recognition of successful and influential disabled people. Disabled people are more likely to be unemployed, and the gap is widening - until the public’s perception of disability is changed to recognise strong, successful, influential people who are leaders in their field, this gap will continue. According to figures the disability employment rate has increased by 9.2% over the last decade, from 43.4% in 2013 to 52.6% in 2022.

Since becoming disabled herself in 2017, Jackie has advocated for the voices of disabled people to be heard and their experiences to be better understood. The ‘Let’s Talk Disability’ series of recorded conversations which she has initiated will shine a light on the lived experiences, challenges and strengths of disabled staff and students at Swagֱ��. As EDI Disability Academic Lead, Jackie is using her role to influence the change we need to see, hear and experience to create a more disability-inclusive world.

Jackie is a self-confessed late bloomer. Starting out as a schoolteacher, and then becoming a professor of statistical literacy in her fifties, Jackie has gone on to become a role model in creating inclusive opportunities for her students in her award-winning Data Fellowship programme. She has received multiple accolades for this programme, which is tackling inequalities in the pipeline into careers in data roles.

She is now using this experience and building on it to ensure that Swagֱ�� delivers on its ambitious EDI strategy. As a person with invisible disabilities Jackie is determined to create a safe environment for conversations and data to be shared, to demystify what it means to have a disability.

“Not all disabilities are visible - mine aren’t,” said Jackie. “We need to talk about what it means to be disabled so we can help our non-disabled colleagues to understand our challenges, as well as our significant strengths. We also need to work together to ensure that disabilities become as talked about as other protected characteristics such as age, race and sex.”

The finalists were selected by an independent judging panel chaired by Andrew Miller MBE from more than 1,500 public nominations. Full details of this year’s finalists can be found on .

The top 10 and all-important top spot will be announced on 8 November from The Drum, Wembley. To receive updates please follow Shaw Trust on , or LinkedIn, or contact powerlist@shaw-trust.org.uk.

Children do better at school if their fathers read and play with them

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 17:08:43 +0100

Fathers can give their children an educational advantage at primary school by reading, drawing and playing with them, according to a new report published today.

Research including Professors Mark Elliot and Colette Fagan from Swagֱ�� found that children do better at primary school if their fathers regularly spend time with them on interactive engagement activities like reading, playing, telling stories, drawing and singing.

Analysing primary school test scores for five and seven year olds, the researchers used a representative sample of nearly 5,000 mother-father households in England from the Millennium Cohort Study, which collected data on children born from 2000-02 as they grew up.

According to the research - which was funded by the - fathers who regularly drew, played and read with their three-year-olds helped their children do better at school by age five. Dads being involved at age five also helped improve scores in Key Stage Assessments at age seven.

“Mothers still tend to assume the primary carer role and therefore tend to do the most childcare, but if fathers actively engage in childcare too, it significantly increases the likelihood of children getting better grades in primary school. This is why encouraging and supporting fathers to share childcare with the mother, from an early stage in the child’s life, is critical,” said Dr Helen Norman from The University of Leeds, who led the research.

Dads’ involvement impacted positively on their children’s school achievement regardless of the child’s gender, ethnicity, age in the school year and household income, according to the report.

There were different effects when mums and dads took part in the same activities – the data showed that mums had more of an impact on young children’s emotional and social behaviours than educational achievement.

The researchers recommend that dads carve out as much time as they can to engage in interactive activities with their children each week. For busy, working dads, even just ten minutes a day could potentially have educational benefits.

They also recommend that schools and early years education providers routinely take both parents' contact details (where possible) and develop strategies to engage fathers – and that Ofsted take explicit account of father-engagement in their inspections.

“This study shows that even small changes in what fathers do, and in how schools and early years settings engage with parents, can have a lasting impact on children's learning,” said Andrew Gwynne MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood. “It's absolutely crucial that that fathers aren't treated as an afterthought.”

Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research assembles first Data Carpentry Curriculum for Social Sciences researchers

Wed, 30 May 2018 09:43:00 +0100

The CMI has taken a lead role in the development of the first Data Carpentry Curriculum for researchers outside of the life sciences.

The initial content for these lessons has been developed by CMI's Peter Smyth with the guidance of Rachel Gibson, Director of the Cathie Marsh Institute at Swagֱ��.

The initial content was polished during the April 2018 Bug BBQ event and finished by the lesson Maintainers in coordination with Carpentries staff.

The curriculum is focused on best practices for working with rectangular and tidy data and covers data organisation in spreadsheets, data cleansing using OpenRefine as well as data maniupation and visualisation with R.

Although not part of the initial release, lessons on SQL and Python are also available.

As with other materials for Data Carpentry, the same dataset is used across all the lessons. For this curriculum a simplified version of research datasets generated by the Studying African Farmer-led Irrigation research project has been used and is available on Figshare.

The dataset comprises survey data relating to households and agriculture in Tanzania and Mozambique. The survey data was collected through interviews conducted between November 2016 and June 2017 and covered such things as household features (e.g., construction materials used, number of household members), agricultural practices (e.g., water usage), assets (e.g., number and types of livestock) and details about the household members.

Call for abstracts opened for Advances in Data Science Conference 2018

Fri, 09 Feb 2018 09:45:00 +0000

A call for abstracts for Advances in Data Science 2018 has opened. The two-day international conference is co-sponsored and co-organised by the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research.

This year's Advances in Data Science Conference takes place from 21-22 May 2018 at Swagֱ��'s Science and Industry Museum. .

This year's invited speakers include:

, Microsoft Research and Imperial College London
, University College London
, UN Global Pulse, Uganda
, Office for National Statistics Data Science Campus
, University of Swagֱ��
, ISI Foundation, Italy
, University College London
, New York University, USA
, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Kenya
, University of Southampton
, University of Edinburgh
, University of Cardiff

Advances in Data Science is organised by , , , , and .

Advances in Data Sciences takes place from Monday 21 May until Tuesday 22 May at the Museum of Science and Industry, Swagֱ��.

Registration for the event is currently open at the . The registration fee is £100 and the cost of the optional workshop dinner on Monday evening is £50.

Abstracts and presentations

To be considered for a short oral presentation or poster please submit an abstract through the meeting's . Abstracts should be prepared on one side of A4 (pdf format) and should describe new or recently published data science research. We will consider submissions which demonstrate advances in data science methodology and/or applications of data science supporting societal wellbeing.

We will keep a small number of spaces available until after decisions on submissions are released to ensure that speakers for accepted contributed presentations can register. However, due to space limitations at the venue and the popularity of last summer's conference, we encourage people to register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

If you have any queries please contact dsi.enquiries@manchester.ac.uk.

methods@manchester offering methods-related training bursaries

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 09:47:00 +0000

methods@manchester have announced a scheme to offer bursaries for post-graduate research students in the Faculty of Humanities at Swagֱ�� to attend methods-related training courses or related events at the University.

The bursaries offer up to £150 (or £300 matched funding) for postgraduate research (PGR) students in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Swagֱ�� to attend methods-related training courses or related events at the University of Swagֱ�� run by:

methods@manchester (excluding methods@manchester Summer School)
The Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research
UK Data Service
Digital Humanities
The National Centre for Research Methods

Funds are being made available to cover course or conference fees with applications considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

For further details and an application form, contact: methods@manchester.ac.uk

Advances in Data Science 2018 coming to Swagֱ��

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 09:49:00 +0000

The Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research and University of Swagֱ�� Data Science Institute are co-sponsoring and co-organising Advances in Data Science 2018.

This year's Advances in Data Science meeting takes place from 21-22 May 2018 at Swagֱ��'s Science and Industry Museum and is jointly organised by Swagֱ��'s Data Science Institute and the Cathie Marsh Centre for Social Research.

The event will explore some of the ways that data science can support societal wellbeing with invited speakers including leading data scientists from industry and academia. There will also be the opportunity to submit abstracts for talks and posters.

Talks will range from application-focussed to advanced data science methodologies.

This year's invited speakers include:

, Microsoft Research and Imperial College London, University College London , ISI Foundation, Italy , University College London , UN Global Pulse, Uganda , Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Kenya , University of Southampton , New York University, USA , Office for National Statistics Data Science Campus, University of Swagֱ��

Advances in Data Science is organised by , , , , and .

Advances in Data Sciences takes place from Monday 21 May until Tuesday 22 May at the Museum of Science and Industry, Swagֱ��.

Registration for the event is currently open at the .