Sectors and Specialisms

We undertake projects in the UK and internationally across business, government, sector organisations, universities, schools, NGOs, funders and 3rd sector organisations.

Schools

We are passionate about education as the single most important lever for positive social change around the world. We work across the state and independent school and college sectors to provide insight, understanding and evaluation. We help individual schools/colleges, governments and representative bodies to understand the communities which institutions serve and the complex needs and motivations driving the choices of parents, children and young adults. We believe that through this enhanced understanding we can support more efficient resource allocation and better learning outcomes for children and young people.

Higher Education and International Student Mobility (ISM)

We work across the Higher Education and Vocational education sectors. Our clients include governments, sector bodies, private and state institutions, agents, intermediaries, Financial Services companies and student accommodation providers.
We provide insight into the perspectives, motivations and decision-making of all educational stakeholders including policy-makers, institutional leaders, academics, students and their families.

 

Our work reflects the 21st century reality of Higher Education as a global marketplace; a marketplace undergoing profound change through increased marketisation, the rise of online learning and the advent of AI.

 

 

We have a particular interest and expertise in International Student Mobility. We work across the world to understand, measure and predict the trans-national flows of international students and to support governments and institutions in increasing their attractiveness to Internationally Mobile Students.

Examples of our work in Higher Education and International Student Mobility (ISM):

International Student Insight (ISI) service
The Value of International Student Mobility

Arts and Culture

Our work in arts and culture includes project and programme evaluation, market profiling, audience development, branding research, loyalty improvement and thought leadership.

We develop insight based on research among funding organisations, policy-makers, institutional leaders, local and central government stakeholders, creative professionals and members of the public.

Arts and culture organisations increasingly work on a global basis. Their direct, creative work is often supported by wide-ranging outreach and education programmes which require insight and evaluation to ensure they remain targeted, effective and resource efficient.
We have particular experience in insight and evaluation around international cultural seasons, around complex, multi-project programme portfolios and around wrap-around outreach and education.

Leisure and Tourism

Our work in leisure and tourism covers visitor research and tourism strategy. We undertake market segmentation and market forecasting for governments, sector bodies and tourism and leisure operators. We have a particular expertise in sustainable tourism, especially around the development of tourism trails, and tourism as a lever for social and economic development. We have contributed to strategic tourism development plans in various countries. Our work has included market analysis, demand assessment and forecasting.

Social Impact 

Creating social impact is an increasingly important objective of many programmes in the arts, culture and education sectors. This social impact is in turn often linked to wider economic growth through, for example, improved skills, increased institutional access or increased opportunities for inward investment and sustainable tourism.

Our work includes research and evaluation of national, international and local programmes designed to foster social impact and support economic development.

We help institutions and brands to develop their understanding of what Social Impact means for them and their work. We create frameworks for understanding and communicating Social Impact and for measuring Social Impact against organisational and programme KPIs.

We also undertake research about specific aspects of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and EDI issues are an increasingly important consideration in all our research and evaluation in the education, arts and culture sectors.

Examples of our work in Social Impact

Evaluation of Ambition for Excellence (AfE)

International Development

We undertake research, analysis and evaluation of projects and programmes which contribute to development in countries which qualify for Official Development Assistance (ODA). Much of our work in this area stems from insight and evaluation of projects and programmes designed to lever education, arts, culture or tourism as tools for creating sustainable economic and social development aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Soft Power

Soft Power is a now highly influential idea in International Relations closely associated with the thinking of American academic Joseph Nye. (See, for example, Nye, J. (2004), “Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics”. New York: Public Affairs)

Nye’s contention was that Soft Power sits in opposition to Hard Power as the power of co-option rather than coercion. It emerges through a country’s possession of assets – its culture, its values and its policies – which are attractive to people internationally.

Our research and analysis for government and arms-length agencies has contributed to thought leadership about both the conceptualisation and measurement of Soft Power.

We have undertaken extensive research and analysis around the nature of the UK’s soft power assets, especially in internationally-oriented education, and supported the deployment and measurement of those assets through work with the UK’s GREAT Campaign and the British Council among others.

Cultural Relations and Intercultural Dialogue

We work with governments and cultural agencies around the world to understand, operationalise and evaluate programmes designed around the principles and practice of Cultural Relations and Intercultural Dialogue.

 

We have undertaken extensive research and thought leadership exploring the theory and practice of Cultural Relations and Intercultural Dialogue. We are often commissioned to evaluate programmes built on the principles of Cultural Relations and to evidence impact and benefits framed around these ideas and approaches.

 

We have worked collaboratively with the British Council to develop a number of evidence-based publications in the field and contributed to several systematic evidence reviews of what works?

Examples of our work in Cultural Relations and Intercultural Dialogue

Trust Pays
Cultural Relations and International Development

Contact us

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