University education makes you a better citizen

Posted on 28 September 2017 by WISERD

We often think about what young people can expect to gain from university, or what universities contribute to society. But it’s not often that we talk about how higher education can change society beyond the shaping of individuals. As tuition fees rise, and universities are cast in increasingly intense competition for students and staff, their
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Patterns of participation

Posted on 28 April 2017 by WISERD

WISERD PhD student, Sian Evans, recently presented her PhD research as part of the WISERD Cardiff lunchtime seminar series. She explores whether the Omnivore Thesis can be found within the field of social participation.  The Omnivore Thesis was originally identified in the context of cultural participation – music tastes, attendance at the theatre, cinema, art
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Brexit dominates British politics – but the young are least likely to think it should

Posted on 10 April 2017 by WISERD

In recent blogs, we have explored the impact of Brexit, and the stances taken by the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties towards the triggering of Article 50, on the political support of young voters. Those blogs showed that while there have been some small changes, for the most part Brexit has had little impact:
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16 and 17 year-olds and the EU Referendum

Posted on 29 November 2016 by WISERD

‘Should 16- and 17-year-olds be given the right to vote’ is a topic that has been discussed a lot recently in the UK. The Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 was a case to the point as the 16- and 17-year-olds were given the opportunity to vote and the results indicated that 89% of all 16-
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An analysis of the effect of compulsory voting on youth political apathy

Posted on 15 November 2016 by WISERD

Recent findings by WISERD have found that Millennials are the most politically disinterested generation in the history of British survey research. WISERD research examining youth political engagement in Wales has found that while young people exhibit unremarkable levels of the attitudes most commonly associated with political alienation, they demonstrate a noticeably high level of apathy
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Youth engagement in Wales after the EU referendum: reflections on an engagement event

Posted on 27 October 2016 by WISERD

Following our event ‘Young People and Politics: the future direction of youth engagement in Wales’ on the 6th of this month, we are pleased to publish Jake Smith’s reflections on the day. Jake is a postgraduate student at the School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University and was involved in recording and writing-up discussion and
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Jeremy Corbyn’s Youth Appeal: His support risks becoming dominated by people who won’t vote for him

Posted on 27 January 2016 by WISERD

On 19th January both the Labour Party’s internal report into the reason for its defeat in the 2015 general election, as well as the British Polling Council’s interim report looking at why the opinion polls had so spectacularly failed to predict the result, were published. A common theme in both documents was the over-dependence of
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