Jake Anders spent over ten years as a Research and Policy Specialist at The Education Partnership, amassing great experience of our work with clients. Jake is now Professor of Quantitative Social Science at University College London, having also spent time as a Committee Specialist to the House of Commons Education Committee, and a Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. Jake continues to provide strategic advice to The Education Partnership.

Jake’s role at The Education Partnership included:

  • Creating, updating and tailoring policy and procedure documents, health and safety documentation, staff and boarding handbooks and risk assessments for clients. Jake has developed a familiarity with key regulations for and guidance to schools from the Department for Education (DfE), Ofsted, the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) and others.
  • Preparing submissions to the DfE on behalf of clients seeking to open new schools and on behalf of client schools regarding changes to their permissions to operate (so-called “material changes”) such as extending age ranges, setting up new schools etc.
  • Co-authoring works published in trade magazines, focusing on areas we have worked on. These have included several articles in Funding for Independent Schools magazine on compliance and best practice for Independent schools, advice to schools on choosing an Outdoor Education centre, applying to the DfE for a change to the details of a school’s registration with them, and applying to the DfE to open a new school.
  • Helping to prepare and run courses, including ‘Compliance without Complications’ aimed at members of schools’ Senior Leadership Teams who were unfamiliar with their many responsibilities in this area.
  • Assisting with a research project on the Business Management of Independent Schools. Particularly responsible for data collection (from sources including the Independent Schools Association (ISA), Edubase, and structured interviews with over sixty independent schools), advising on data cleaning, and quantitative data analysis.

Jake’s website may be found at jakeanders.uk and his LinkedIn profile may be found here.

EXPERIENCE

2019-Present: Professor of Quantitative Social Science, University College London
2019-2024: Associate Professor, University College London

Pursuing an ongoing programme of research and securing large-scale funding to support this work, including to support early-career researchers. Disseminating and securing impact from research findings, including through publishing in high-impact national and international peer-reviewed journals, along with engagement with stakeholders in policy and practice. Delivering teaching through contributions to and leadership of undergraduate and master’s-level courses and supervision of graduate research students.

2016-2018: Senior Research Fellow, UCL Institute of Education

Researcher responsible for development of, and participation in, funded research projects in line with departmental priorities, ensuring high-quality outputs and maximum impact from this research. Responsible for enhancing the department’s methodological expertise through knowledge of advanced quantitative methods and experimental research design. Report to the Head of Academic Department regarding these responsibilities.

2015-2016: Research Fellow, National Institute of Economic and Social Research
2014-2015: Research Officer, National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Researcher working primarily on projects involving education or labour market transitions. Contributed to the writing of reports aimed at both academic and policy-making audiences. Involved in projects commissioned by multiple government departments, including analysis of youth transitions into the labour market, evaluation of adult skills interventions, and analysis of patterns of education inequality. Led successful applications for research contracts and funding from government departments and charitable foundations, including a large randomised controlled trial-based evaluation of a school-based intervention.

Jan-Jul. 2013: Committee Specialist, House of Commons Education Committee, London

Fixed term secondment from PhD. Worked as an in-house specialist for this influential Select Committee:

  • Role included giving written and verbal briefings for Members of the Committee.
  • Role also involved acting as an Inquiry Manager with tasks including: researching possible areas of interest for the Committee; organising evidence sessions (including proposing, inviting and briefng potential witnesses); managing relationships with stakeholders (witnesses, external specialist advisers, civil servants, Members’ staff, and others); drafting Committee reports; assisting in the preparation of press notices; and briefing for relevant Parliamentary debates.
  • As the role involves strict deadlines, and frequently responsibility for more than one ongoing inquiry at a time, excellent time management skills were vital.
  • Also involved in improving Committee’s public engagement, through social media.

EDUCATION

2011-2014: University College London, PhD Economics of Education. “Socio-economic inequalities in access to Higher Education”

  • Researching various aspects of Higher Education Participation and Access. This work has included statistical/econometric analysis using a large longitudinal survey.
  • Supervisors: Prof. Lorraine Dearden (Institute for Fiscal Studies) & Prof. John Micklewright (Institute of Education, University of London). Advisory Panel: Dr. John Jerrim (Institute of Education, University of London)

2007-2010: New College, University of Oxford, BA Hons. Philosophy, Politics and Economics

  • Finals Papers: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Quantitative Economics, Public Economics, International Economics, Modern British Government, British Politics and Government since 1900, International Relations, Theory of Politics
  • First Year Papers: Introductory Economics, Introduction to Politics: The Theory and Practice of Democracy, Introduction to Philosophy. Awarded a Distinction/Scholarship.
  • Quantitative Economics included: descriptive statistics and regression through maximum likelihood estimation, including economic interpretation, statistical testing and robustness testing; analysing inequality and social welfare through social welfare functions and stochastic dominance criteria; programme evaluation through analysis of NSW experimental data; and empirical macroeconomics.

SKILLS

  • Extensive experience in a range of quantitative research methods — including experimental and quasi-experimental methods for causal inference, longitudinal survey data collection and analysis, etc.) — along with their implementation across a range of software packages (including Stata, R, and Python), with reproducible analysis and reporting methods (e.g., Quarto, Jupyter).
  • Outstanding record of scholarly output, including 37 articles in high-quality peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Oxford Review of Education, Journal of Educational Psychology, European Sociological Review, Education Economics) and 7 book chapters for renowned academic publishers. Work regularly featured by national media and proactively approached by journalists for comment on relevant issues.
  • Track record of leading research projects involving large teams across multiple organisations with multi-million-pound budgets, as well as taking on institutional leadership roles.
  • Experience providing consultancy services across all stages of the research lifecycle (spanning design, data collection, analysis, and reporting) to a range of clients including government departments, non-profit organisations, and private sector companies — includes professional review services for research commissioners (of, e.g., evaluation protocols, statistical analysis plans, final reports), and providing training and capacity building in quantitative methods.