Small Grants

Small Grants Scheme 2025

Higher Education: (Re)Shaping the Future

The Society for Educational Studies is encouraging application for up to 6 small grant awards (x3 of up to £10,000 and x3 of up to £20,000) under the theme Higher Education: (Re)Shaping the Future with a deadline for submission of1700 on 15 February 2025.

Higher Education in the United Kingdom today, as elsewhere, is facing an existential moment. While the general aims and purposes of higher education have remained relatively consistent over the last 100 hundred years, the relative focus and emphasis of these aims have ebbed and flowed. Participation rates in higher education in the United Kingdom have increased significantly over the last fifty years. So too, the institutions and places within which higher education takes place have altered – not least through the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992. Higher education has become increasingly internationalised and, at the same time, greater attention – in research and practice – is paid to matters of teaching quality, student experience and civic contribution. The Secretary of State has signalled strongly that any future rises in student fees will be linked to expectations to reform.  

At the same time, some have spoke of higher education being in some form of ‘crisis’. University finances are now a common matter of concern, with the financial environment characterised as ‘increasingly challenging’ by the Office for Students with 40% of providers expected to be in deficit in 2024 and many providers operating some form of redundancy scheme for staff.  

In such a context, universities (and indeed other providers of higher education) seek to compete for resources – including income generated from home and overseas student fees and from research. Intertwined with these financial concerns and heightened competitive environment are core questions that bring into sharp focus the purpose and value of higher education for students, for the economy and for civic society. These questions include:

  • What constitutes quality in teaching and learning in higher education and how should this be evaluated?
  • What civic role do, and can, universities play today and how might that civic contribution be measured?
  • What does a positive student experience mean in terms of higher education?
  • How successful have widening participation and widening access agendas been, and what future directions might these agendas take?
  • How have processes of internationalisation impacted higher education today and how might these processes impact higher education in the future?
  • How do the challenges facing higher education today impact those who work in higher education, including their identity, their work and their precarity?

Up to 6 small grants will be awarded (x3 up to £10,000 and x3 up to £20,000). The deadline for applications to be received is 1700 on 15 February 2025. Decisions will be communicated to applicants before the end of February 2025, and projects are expected to start by 1 May 2025 (for a duration of 12 months).

Applications should be sent as .PDF or .DOCX files to Professor Andrew Peterson ([email protected]), Professor Tom Harrison ([email protected]), and Aidan Thompson ([email protected]) no later than 1700 on 15 February 2025.

Details about the application process are below.

Application Process

Application forms are available electronically below and here.

Applications failing to adhere to the submission guidelines will not be considered. Applicants should ensure that the bids have appropriate and clear research aims and objectives. These should be realistic given the size of the grants offered through the scheme. 

Please note that in relation to costings, the SES is not able to meet full economic costing on account of its charitable status. Non-FEC salary costs of up to a total of 50% of the total award will be considered in relation to an application. This may include payment for research-based activities which can be carried out by any person rather than a specific individual, e.g. when undertaking interviews or preparing transcriptions. The Society will not pay costs for open access publishing.

Applicants are required to provide:

  • the names of two academic referees; and
  • a letter of support from their educational institution. 

Applicants are required to acknowledge the support of the SES in any publications resulting from their research.  

Successful awards will be expected to begin on 1st May 2025 and submit an abstract to the Society 2025 Annual Colloquium.  Recipients are required to submit a progress report on their research within six months of the award being made. In addition, a final report should be submitted to the Secretary of SES no later than six months after completion. Appropriate publications in academic and / or professional journals will also be expected. 

Applications will first be considered by the Society’s Research and Development Sub-Committee, who will, then, make recommendations to the Executive Committee.  

Applications cannot be considered for the following expenses:  

  • Salary costs at full economic costing; 
  • Supply cover for teachers or other educational workers involved in the project;  
  • Any administrative overheads charged by educational institutions;  
  • Equipment such as computers, tape or video recorders;  
  • Conference fees or membership fees;  
  • Registration, tuition or examination fees for diplomas or degrees;  

Travel, subsistence and accommodation costs can only be considered for visits to educational institutions or settings directly connected with the research and should be clearly specified and costed. 

The decision of the Executive Committee is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding unsuccessful applications.

Previous Schemes

2024: Religion, Spirituality and Moral Education: informal and formal contexts in dialogue

The Society invested in 2 small grants, awarded to Birmingham City University and University of Warwick. Reports will be available to read below when projects are completed.

2023: Teachers, Teaching and Teacher Education: Trajectories, Threats and Transformations

The Society for Educational Studies invested in 5 small grants on the theme: Teachers, Teaching and Teacher Education: Trajectories, Threats and Transformations. Reports will be available to read below when projects are completed.

 

Details of previously awarded Small Grants are accessible below.

Final Report Downloads

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