Author: Elisabeth Barratt Hacking
I am delighted to share that the Department of Education at the University of Bath is supporting a new partnership with the Mayor of Bath’s Office and Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), centred on the Mayor’s 2025–26 theme: Education is Empowerment.
This new initiative, which we launched on campus at the start of the month, takes the form of a three-month South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) placement, which will see two Bath PhD researchers - Gopika Gopakumar Moothedath and Yusuf Olaniyan - appointed as Researchers in Residence in the Mayoral Office.
Their role is to support the Mayor’s ambition by developing robust, locally grounded evidence on how education can empower individuals, families and communities across BaNES.
From conversation to collaboration
The idea for this partnership emerged shortly after Professor Pankhania took up the role of Mayor, during early conversations with University colleagues. Given the deep commitment across the University, and particularly within the Department of Education, to the transformative power of education (arguably our raison d’être), we asked a simple but important question: what more could we do to support this vision with evidence, insight and action?
From that conversation, the idea of a PhD placement was born. Over the following six months, colleagues in the Mayor’s Office, BaNES and the University worked together to make it happen. The placement was advertised to SWDTP scholars across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and I am immensely proud that two education researchers were appointed — such was the strength of the applications, in fact, that the Mayor decided to appoint both.
Congratulations to Yusuf and Gopika.
Putting research to work, locally
This initiative builds directly on the Department of Education’s strong track record of research that addresses educational inequality and social change. For example:
- Professor Michael Donnelly’s £1.5m UKRI–ESRC project, From the centre to the periphery, examines how area-based education initiatives can reduce England’s regional gaps in education and skills.
- Professor Gail Forey’s £970k UKRI–ESRC BAWESS project explores the role of language in learning, with a focus on supporting students’ disciplinary writing in high-stakes secondary education contexts.
Alongside this research excellence, our teaching reflects equally high aspirations. The Department recently climbed to second place in The Guardian University Guide for Education departments in the UK.
Through the Mayor’s initiative, we now have a valuable opportunity to bring this research and expertise to bear locally, working in partnership with academics from across disciplines, policymakers, education professionals and community leaders.
Why this matters for BaNES
Across BaNES, there are many outstanding education providers and organisations doing vital work with children, young people and families. Yet persistent educational inequalities remain. In particular, the attainment gap between children from more and less affluent backgrounds continues to shape life chances.
BaNES has undertaken extensive work to understand and address these disparities, with varied success. There is still more to do to ensure that all children are genuinely empowered by their educational experiences.
Gopika’s and Yusuf’s research will build on BaNES’s existing work and local examples of effective practice to develop evidence-based recommendations for addressing the attainment gap and wider educational inequalities. Their work will examine specific interventions, challenges and successes, with a strong emphasis on children’s and families’ voices and lived experiences, and on how different partners can best work together to reduce inequalities.
Learning together
This partnership is not only an opportunity to contribute — it is also a chance for the University to learn. As Gopika and Yusuf work closely with the Mayor, BaNES, education and community providers, and families themselves, their insights will help shape how we think about civic engagement, impact and collaboration going forward.
We hope this initiative will act as a stepping stone to deeper and more sustained local partnerships, and I warmly invite colleagues from across the University and BaNES to consider how they might get involved.
If education is empowerment, then empowering education is a collective endeavour.
Extending my thanks
The Mayor’s Researcher in Residence initiative would not have been possible without the support of Andy Dunne (Head of Public Affairs), Emily Richards (Head of Strategic Engagement, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences), and our SWDTP colleagues, Ana Bullock, Jackson Paterson and Shyeni Paul.
I would also like to thank colleagues in the Department of Education, including Shona McIntosh (PhD Director of Studies), and Rita Chawla Duggan, Andrea Abbas, Mike Donnelly and Aline Courtois (PhD supervisors), who have supported Gopika and Yusuf to become outstanding researchers.
Please leave a comment below or contact us at education@bath.ac.uk with questions, suggestions, or to offer your support.
Elisabeth Barratt Hacking is Head of the Department of Education, University of Bath.
Respond
