Co-Founders

Professor Vikki Boliver is a sociologist with expertise in researching access to and achievement in higher education. She is an experienced analyst of complex education and social science datasets including UCAS data on UK university applications and admissions, NPD data relating to the attainment of school pupils in England, and HESA data on students and graduates of UK universities. She has utilised a range of statistical analysis methods including regression analysis, cluster analysis, propensity score matching techniques and social network analysis. Professor Boliver’s research focuses on understanding and addressing social inequalities in patterns of application and admission to UK universities, especially the UK’s most prestigious and academically selective institutions. She is an expert on the use of contextual data to widen participation in higher education and recently completed several research projects on this topic funded by and the Economic and Social Research Council SDAI award, the Scottish Funding Council, the Sutton Trust and the Nuffield Foundation. Professor Boliver’s research has been published widely in academic journals and through co-publication with a range of third sector organisations including Runnymede, the Sutton Trust, and the Higher Education Policy Institute. Professor Boliver’s ESRC SDAI funded research into contextualised admissions has been used extensively by the Office for Students to formulate policies designed to bring about much more rapid progress on widening access to UK universities.

Dr Charlotte Branchu is an expert in embodied inequalities and resistance to the dominant symbolic order. Through the study of cultural and political practices, her research looks at the practical and symbolic constraints that come to shape individuals’ horizons of possibility. She has demonstrated expertise in the fields of sociology of the body, of gender, cultural sociology, sociology of social movements, and of education. After finishing her PhD, her research interests have extended to the sociologies of work and education. During her time at Durham, these interests have grown stronger within the Higher Education and Social Inequalities research group.