The Academy of Social Sciences, Britain’s national academy of academics, learned societies and practitioners representing nearly 90,000 social scientists has honoured the achievements of Professor Hugh Lauder from our Department of Education as its latest Fellow.

Fellowships are recognition by the Academy for academic excellence and impact. Professor Lauder joins a growing number of social scientists from the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences to have been recognised by peers in this way.

Professor Lauder, whose work focuses on the relationship between education and the economy, joined the University in 1996.

During this time he has headed the Globalisation, International Education, Policy and Organisation Group within the Department in among visiting professorships at the Institute of Education (London), the University of Turka (Finland) and the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa).

Most recently, from 2014-16, Professor Lauder was Director of the University’s Institute for Policy Research.

Previously he studied at The Institute of Education (London) and gained his Doctorate at the University of Canterbury (NZ). He was formerly the Inaugural Dean of Education at Victoria University of Wellington.

In 2011, in recognition for his supervision of 33 successful Doctoral theses, he was awarded The Excellence in Doctoral Supervision by the University.

Commenting on his fellowship he said: “I am honoured to have been elected a Fellow of the Academy. My work has focused on the relationship between education and the economy, as many policy makers have assumed there is a clear relationship between the two.

“My recent book with Phillip Brown and David Ashton, The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs and Income, challenged this notion of the knowledge economy. My current work raises fundamental questions about the dominant theory of the education- economy relationship, human capital theory.

“I am hopeful that the outcome of this work might be that the role of education is seen by policy makers as more than an instrument for the economy.”

Dean of the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, Professor Ian Butler added: “Being recognised by your peers and invited to be a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences is a fantastic achievement for Professor Lauder. For the University this speaks volumes in terms of the calibre of our social scientists and is further recognition of the excellent research being carried out across the Faculty.”

For a full list of University academics to have been recognised by the Academy see https://www.acss.org.uk/fellows/fellows-institution/.

Read coverage of the latest fellowships to have been awarded by the Academy in the THE https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/leading-social-scientists-honoured .