SCHOOL OF LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCES STRATEGY

Our Purpose  

To add to social wellbeing by advancing knowledge and learning amongst our staff and students and generating positive change in the wider community. Our work addresses social inequalities, democracy, justice, human rights and economic development.

1. How we will achieve our purpose 

Supporting our subjects by focussing on teaching and research quality and our working environment, by championing social sciences, and by promoting interdisciplinarity and real world research impact – a ‘scholarship of engagement’. Our vision is to advance first rate research with global and national impact, excellent teaching and civic engagement and be comparable in each to the best institutions in related fields internationally.

2. Our Focus  

A community of staff and students working together on allied and mutually reinforcing research, education and student experience, underpinned by effective external engagement and sustainability.  

2.1 Research  

The School’s purpose is to deliver cutting‐edge research and to be influential in informing policy and public debates on topics of societal importance. We will grow our research focussing on quality and collaborative efforts. Our principal research aims are to spearhead social science research within the University; to enhance research performance; to strengthen our research profile through our research centres and research groups and improved knowledge exchange; and to extend the impact of social research at Royal Holloway through appropriate activities and external engagement with international organisations, government bodies, civil society and the public. 

We will build on existing strengths, represented through the School’s research clusters and centres. These will have an important role in fostering research collaborations, research leadership and grant capture activities. Existing strengths are, for example, in the future of work, economic growth and development, prisons, families, public policy – especially in health and care, elections and electoral process, and micro-economic theory.  There are also clear opportunities to build in security studies, human rights, gender studies, household economics, migration, domestic abuse, analytical philosophy and social care.

We have provided the framework for research and impact that cuts across the School’s disciplines through the two University partnering themes that we host: Democracy and Elections, and Crime and Violence; and across the University through our key role in the two catalyst themes “Sustainable places, thriving societies” and “Transformative technologies for a sustainable digital society”. We also support large challenge-led bids coming out of our centres.

2.2 Education

The School will provide high quality education to students. Our priorities in the curriculum emphasise the value of teaching, innovation and improving student experience and progression metrics to achieve a robust and stable position compared with our comparator groups. We will also focus on enhancing our research-enriched curriculum through initiatives in quantitative skills, significant development of our PGT provision, initiatives to diversify the curriculum, and a range of interdisciplinary modules.   

The School is the largest student body in the University and will continue to grow. We will continue to develop new interdisciplinary programmes and keep innovating and improving our existing portfolio. PGT initiatives to be developed include Disinformation Studies, Social Inquiry and Justice, Migration Studies, Gender Studies, International Relations and Human Rights, Peace Studies and law and economics combinations. We will also diversify the PGT offer with alternative delivery, for example through online and blended formats. We will enhance our existing programmes and will champion data skills, the Student Legal Advice Centre and employability.  

The School will promote and embody pedagogic scholarship that impacts on our teaching practices and on any disparities in student outcome by formally supporting its increasing numbers of teaching-focussed and professional practice staff. 

2.3 Student experience and employability 

The School will promote the use of experiential learning and a wrap around education focussing on learning outcomes and enhanced transferable skills through, for example, the integration of placement schemes into the curriculum.

The School will maintain the currency and relevance of the programme offer, and will promote student voice and engagement across all areas of research and education, including with particular groups of students to address social inequalities and provide a safe and supportive learning environment. We will work with our Advisory Board to support career development strategy and the embedding of skills within programmes. The School will also establish initiatives to widen the options students consider and prepare for in relation to their future careers, including developing our offer of PGT programmes with a professional practice focus.  

3. External Engagement and Impact 

We will develop collaborative engagement with our local place, public and partners building on our concern for universal rights and social, political and economic systems.  In this context we will be the home and champion for social sciences within the University and well connected with research funders, local and national public authority bodies, and academic networks. We will be well positioned in our benchmark group for research, impact and student employability. The Advisory Board and other external partners and supporters will support, challenge and inform our work.

4. Culture and values 

The School prioritises the cultural environment for staff and students both online and on campus, through developing our community and shared values. The focus will be a supportive environment where diversity is celebrated, differences are respected and with a common purpose around research and programme delivery priorities. Interdisciplinarity and social justice will underpin our values, and we will actively promote civic engagement amongst our students and staff. We will embed equality, diversity and inclusivity, and obtain an award under the Athena Swan charter and develop a Race Equality Action plan.  

The School will support academic leadership across the School and in our subjects and Departments. We will focus, initially, on fostering new leadership talent both in developing staff and in new appointments. We will collectively support Directors and Leads in developing and implementing the School strategy.  

5. Sustainability  

The School will prioritise the continued development and viability of its subjects. Financially, our aim is a stable 50% contribution rate to the University, with robust and proportionate management of resources within the School. For our subjects, research and innovation in the curriculum are key to their sustainability. We will increase the staff resource base as programmes grow and benchmark staff student ratios to ensure they are competitive.  

We will recruit and retain staff with the capacity to undertake internationally excellent research and scholarship. We will also recruit staff to contribute to engagement with professional practice. The importance of research bidding, and citizenship and leadership contributions will be strongly reflected in the promotion process. The professional development of all staff will be encouraged, including support for early career researchers, a culture of mentoring for all, and support for the development of pedagogic and practitioner-focused scholarship.

6. Our priorities for 2020-2021

Our priorities for 2020-2021 take forward the strategy in a time of great change. School committees and Departments to frame decision-making and objectives for staff.

6.1 Context
Our priorities for 2020-2021 reflect the following:

1. 1. The changed environment
   2. The impact of the changed environmental on the University’s financial position and the need to sustain programmes that can deliver student numbers
   3. Any revision to the School strategy
   4. The need for clarity for staff in individual priorities and objective setting, and to frame staff development

6.2 Our priorities
Our priorities are: 
a. A focus on education and teaching, with goals in

1. 1. 1. Innovation
      2. Quality provision of blended learning
      3. Prioritising the student experience, recognising the diverse student group and promoting equality and inclusion for all students
      4. Supporting the transition to HE for new entrants and the transition to the Flexible Learning environment for all.

b. Research, with goals in:

1. 1. 1. External funding and the submission of bids targeted at success (rather than for each individual)
      2. Preparing for future bidding and collaboration by developing contacts/partnerships/ideas for future research
      3. Demonstrable impact

c. Collegiality and citizenship, with goals in

1. 1. 1. Effective sharing of expertise and ideas
      2. Effective delivery or roles and engagement with cross-Department collaboration and School roles as appropriate
      3. Equality of burden sharing

d. A secure culture, with goals in:

1. 1. 1. Maintaining and improving our culture of experimentation and creativity, especially in pedagogy.
      2. Senior staff supporting and protecting junior staff
      3. Communication, externally and internally