Institute of Education London

Professor Dick Wiggins

• Qualifications and position:
  • BA (Hons) Accounting (Kent), Dip.Stats (LSE), MSc Statistics (LSE), PhD
  • Professor in Quantitative Social Science
  • Head of Department
• Faculty:
  • Faculty of Policy and Society
• Department:
  • Department of Quantitative Social Science
• Summary:
  • Dick Wiggins joined the Institute of Education, University of London as Head and Chair of Quantitative Social Science in 2007. His methodological interests include the longitudinal analysis of secondary data, mixed methods, survey design, attitude measurement and sampling methodology, evaluation research and policy analysis. His current research covers the exploration of structure and agency in the context of ageing, poverty, physical and mental health and well-being, cross national differences in health, multilingual capital, ethnicity and socio-economic aspects of education.
• Teaching:
  • In addition to teaching applied multivariate methods on the MA/MSc in Policy Evaluation and Analysis, Dick is running two new courses for The Doctoral School in 'Deciphering Quantitative Analysis' and 'An introduction to Structural Equation Modelling with AMOS'. He is also contributing to a new module on Lifecourse Development: theories and methods.
• Research Projects:
  • Transitions, choices and health in later life. New Dynamics of Ageing Programme, Co-investigator with Blane, D., et al., Imperial College, University of London, £157k, 2007-09.
    Population, language, ethnicity and socio-economic aspects of educational attainment., ESRC UPTAP User Fellowship, 2008-09, £39k.
• Professional Activities:
  • • Professor of Social Statistics, Department of Sociology, City University, London and Director of the Social Research Methodology Centre, City University (2001-2007).
    • Reader in Social Statistics, City University (1997-2001), Director of Graduate Studies, Social Statistics Research Unit, City University (1991-1997).
    • Deputy Director of the Census Validation Survey, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, UK, 1991.
    • Member of the ESRC's College of Experts and their Advanced Quantitative Methods Panel.
    • Chair of Research Committee for the ESRC 'International Centre for Life Course Studies in Society and Health', UCL and a member of the Advisory Board for the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA).
    • Expert advisor to ipsos-mori with James Brown (also, DoQSS) on a feasibility study of migrants for the UK Borders Agency (Home Office).
    • Academic consultant and adviser to research project on 'The social aspects of ageing in Cyprus' funded by Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation at the University of Nicosia.
    • Held positions as Lecturer in Statistics at the London School of Economics as well as lectureships in Medical Statistics, at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and the Institute of Psychiatry.
    
• Conferences/presentations:
  • • The development and assessment of a Quality of Life measure (CASP-19) in the context of ageing', The School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of Exeter (invited), 2009.
    • Quality of Life and the Third Age: the importance of theory and method. The Institute of Education's Summer Doctoral School. A keynote speaker, 2009.
    • Transitions, choices and health at older ages: life course analysis of longitudinal data policy seminar: Employment and health around State Pension Age. Wiggins, R.D, Akinwale, B., Lycnh, K., Bartley, M. and Blane, D. The International Centre for Life Course Studies, University College , London, 2009.
    • The Migrant Survey Expert Workshop II. Wiggins, R.D., Brown, J. (both IOE), Cleary, A. and Smith, P. (both ipsos-mori). Hosted by the UK Border Agency (Home Office), 2010.
• Personal Country Knowledge:
  • UK, USA, Canada & Cyprus.
• Languages Spoken:
  • English, French.
• Languages Written:
  • English.
• Research Students:
  • Nicola Bailey (joint with Chris Husbands, Faculty of Culture and Pedadgogy), 'An evaluation of extended school provision'.
    Amelia Hempel-Jorgensen (joint with Hugh Lauder, University of Bath), 'Pupil identity and perfomativity'.