Introduction

The Education Research Group, formerly the Centre for Educational Research, was established at the London School of Economics and Political Science on 1 April 1990, following the abolition of the Inner London Education Authority. Professor Anne West is the Director of the Group, which undertakes a wide variety of research and consultancy work mostly funded by external bodies.

The current objectives of the Group are:

To conduct a programme of research on education policy and practice in England, with a particular focus on current policy, government reforms and their impact on equity and quality.
To continue researching the impact of the introduction of market principles into education and training systems in UK, European and international contexts.
To consolidate the work already undertaken on the financing of education and work collaboratively with others (within the LSE and elsewhere) to seek to develop ways of measuring the impact and cost-effectiveness of specific initiatives.
To consolidate the work undertaken by the Education Research Group on education policies in a European and international context with particular reference to issues of equity and social justice.
To act as a focus for research students and staff within the LSE conducting research into educational issues from different disciplinary perspectives.