The Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences (WGSSS) was launched at a special event at Senedd Cymru with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Vikki Howells MS, strategic partners and academic leaders.
Led by Cardiff University, WGSSS is one 15 Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) within the Economic and Social Research Council’s UK network.
WGSSS represents an investment of £40 million in social science research across Wales, including £18.5 million from the Economic and Social Research Council, matched by universities, and £1.5 million from partners, including Welsh Government, Medr (formerly HEFCW), Office for National Statistics, Cardiff Capital Region, Learned Society of Wales, Welsh Council for Voluntary Action, Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, and the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.
Over the next five years WGSSS will support 360 new, fully-funded doctoral students across 15 disciplinary pathways in the social sciences at the following universities: Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Bangor, Swansea, Gloucestershire, Cardiff Metropolitan and South Wales.
Further investment by ESRC and Medr in WGSSS’s shared training platform will open up advanced research methods courses to students across Wales. Support from ESRC will also enable each WGSSS student to take up a placement with industry, government or third sector partners.
Speaking at the Senedd launch, Professor John Harrington (Cardiff University, Founding Director of WGSSS) noted that ESRC rated WGSSS’s plans for a new DTP as ‘outstanding’, praising its approach to widening participation, through ringfenced studentships, contextual offers, and other steps, as ‘ambitious and visionary’.
Melissa Martin (Cardiff University) spoke on her own research, as a current WGSSS student, on justice and accessibility, and on her key contribution to the development of WGSSS’s EDI strategy.
WGSSS’ role in spreading best practice and opportunity was highlighted by Professor Palash Kamruzzaman (University of South Wales), who pioneered USW’s involvement in the partnership.
Professor Claire Gorrara (Cardiff University, Dean of Research for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) shared her positive experience in developing the collaboration between Cardiff and other institutions, noting how WGSSS has provided a model for a similar cross-Wales bid to the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The launch was also marked by an exhibition of posters in the Senedd. These showcased the research projects of 18 current WGSSS students, who were on hand to discuss their work.
