Nuffield Research Placements Longitudinal Study

The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors. Nuffield’s aim is to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation in education and social policy and building research capacity in science and social science. The Nuffield Research Placement (NRP) is a flagship programme which seeks to deepen young people’s understanding of STEM subjects and research and to encourage students to pursue further studies and careers in STEM. CFE working in partnership with Frontier Economics is to provide robust evidence on the impact of the placements and identify ways in which the scheme might be improved. The quantitative element of the study led by Frontier will analyse large-scale linked administrative datasets to identify which types of students are likely to participate, particularly whether those from disadvantaged backgrounds are equally likely to take up the opportunity. It will also assess the impacts that participation has on choices about post-school study and career paths in STEM. The qualitative element, led by CFE, will seek to understand how well the scheme works for placement providers, participating schools and students and to provide deeper understanding on how the placements influence student choices. This qualitative element will involve 12 case studies and a longitudinal survey with NRP applicants. Findings from both elements will be available in reports from 2017, but the study will continue until 2022 in order to track the current cohort of placement participants through to their initial career destinations at age 21.