The Institute of Applied Social Studies is part of the School of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham. The Institute's research and teaching interests range widely across the fields of social policy, social care and health and professional practice. We maintain close links with the other main disciplines in the Social Sciences and have well established links with social care and health agencies in the Midlands and with community, user and voluntary organisations regionally, nationally and internationally.

The Institute's geographical location is characterised by ethnic diversity and both rural and urban settings. Our core research concerns are the experiences and perspectives of poor and socially excluded citizens and people whose quality of life is substantially affected by the nature of welfare services and policies.

We have been providing social work education since 1908, when one of the first Diplomas in Social Studies in the UK was established at the University, and will be celebrating our Centenary in 2008. The Institute has developed a reputation for delivering high quality teaching and learning which enables students to develop into reflective and research informed professionals. We now have over 300 HEFCE funded places on our undergraduate and postgraduate qualifying social work programmes.

RAE SUCCESS

The School of Social Policy is rightly proud of its recent recognition as an internationally leading centre for research in social policy and social work.  In the latest Research Assessment Exercise, for 2008, some 95% of its research is internationally recognised.  This includes 15% regarded as world-leading, and a further 45% as internationally excellent.  This is a significant advance on its research quality since 2001, since when new appointments have been made and there have been significant increases in PhD completions and externally-funded research.  This achievement is all the more impressive as the School is a major provider of social work and social policy education and training, which draws on our research.

David Stephenson, Head of the School of Social Policy commented “This is a marvellous outcome and provides formal acknowledgement of the excellent research and scholarship that we do in the School.  There have been a number of exciting new developments across all our areas of research in the twelve months since evidence for the RAE was submitted, and  Social Work and Social Policy and Administration research at Birmingham continues to go from strength to strength. We will continue to conduct intellectually rigorous research applied to real world problems”.

Read more about our RAE success and current developments in our research