About subject area content
About
About content
We are an international, research-focused community of social and public policy scholars concerned with all the things people and societies do, and don’t do, to look after each other; in Scotland, across the UK and Europe, and around the world.
We work on a broad range of pressing societal and policy challenges.
We research:
- social inequalities and the distribution of employment, income, and wealth across societies.
- major public services such as health, education and social security, how they have evolved historically and how they are performing today.
- gendered and racialised inequalities.
- governments and other policy organisations to better understand how they make important decisions that affect our lives.
Our teaching
Fourth in the UK by Subject Area (QS World Rankings 2025)
Our policy expertise and our rigorous approach to research shape the way we work with our students. We provide students with the theoretical tools, analytical skills, and substantive knowledge needed to tackle major domestic and global policy challenges. Our diverse student body reflects our international research interests.
Much of our undergraduate and postgraduate teaching is research-led. Students have opportunities to engage with policy-makers and practitioners. We have a broad range of assessments tailored to developing core academic research skills and applied policy analysis skills.
We offer a lively and rigorous intellectual environment in which to undertake postgraduate research, with a number of research groups and an active programme of seminars and events. We currently have a community of research students from around the world who contribute to the intellectual life of Social Policy, both as researchers and teachers.
Our research
Third in the UK for quality and breadth of research | Social Policy and Social Work (REF 2021)
We conduct independent, high quality research on issues including social security, public health, employment and labour markets, education, gender equality, race and inequality, families, government decision-making, and civic participation.
We have world-leading expertise in comparing social policy programmes and structures across countries and in the applied use of social science research. That expertise and commitment to real world impact are just two reasons why our work has been supported by funding from the European Research Council, the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and the Nuffield Foundation, amongst others.
We are proud to host colleagues working with the University’s Global Health Policy Unit, the Centre for Science, Knowledge and Policy (SKAPE), the Centre on Constitutional Change (CCC), the Europa Institute, the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR), and the Binks Hub.
Our people
We are an inter-disciplinary group of researchers with backgrounds in social policy, public health, economics, sociology, political science, and anthropology.
We have close relationships with governments at all levels, from city government here in Edinburgh to the European Union and the World Health Organization.
As a group, we are engaged in a range of policy communities — we give evidence to parliamentary committees, we work with think tanks to develop and translate research, we talk to journalists to shape public debates, and we work with charities, agencies, and NGOs to deliver policy change on the ground.