Senior Research Associate
School of Business, Leadership and Enterprise
Will has worked for UCS since its inception in 2007. He has been responsible for the delivery of a large number of high-profile commissioned research projects for the public sector focussing on the evaluation of public health projects, the development of multi-agency and inter-professional approaches to complex and ‘wicked’ social problems and the provision of social care support. These reports have contributed to the development and refinement of public policy within the region. Will also has a long-standing relationship with the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce and has advised them on policy issues for several years.
Will’s research interests are wide-ranging and include an interest in the application of moral theory in professional settings including in the operation of inter-professional teams and notions of care, responsibility and duty within the public sector. He also maintains an interest in the politics of research and in particular the use of qualitative research for policymaking. He has published on Higher Education policy and structure and on Research Methods.
Will has a BA(hons) Politics, MA Ethics, Politics and Public Policy and PhD Philosophy (all from the University of Essex). He currently contributes to Research Methods modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and to the postgraduate module ‘Operations and Functions of Management’
Publications:
Thomas W & S Hollinrake (2011) Policymakers, researchers and service users – resolving the tensions and dilemmas of working together, Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research (forthcoming)
Thomas W (2010) review of Challenging Boundaries: Managing the integration of post-secondary education by Garrod N & B Macfarlane, Higher Education Quarterly (forthcoming)
Southwell M & W Thomas (2010) “It’s not true” – learning to learn from rejection, International Journal of Data Analysis Techniques and Strategies, 2: 373-384
Bathmaker A & W Thomas (2009) Worlds of difference: “dual sector” institutions and higher education transitions in Field J (et al, eds) Researching Transitions in Lifelong Learning London: Routledge
Bathmaker A & W Thomas (2009) Positioning themselves: an exploration of the nature and meaning of transitions in the context of dual sector FE/HE institutions in England, Journal of Further and Higher Education 33:2:119-130