Women in Politics and IR: What three years of HESA data reveals
Women in Politics and IR: What three years of HESA data reveals Understanding the overall health of the discipline is a core part of PSA’s mission, and we are grateful to the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) for sharing the latest HESA data. This dataset will enable us identify areas where progress has been made and where challenges persist. In this analysis, we review the 2021-2024 HESA data with a focus on female representation across academic staff and students within Politics and International Relations (PIR) departments in the UK, highlighting emerging trends and significant shifts. Women are strongly represented in academic roles but remain underrepresented at senior levels Across all three years, females account for majority of academic staff in […]
Rise of Indy Parties Alarms the “United” Kingdom
The upcoming Holyrood and Cardiff elections may result in the largest parties across the three nations all centred on independence. How can Westminster display its commitment to the union and the people of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales? Current polling for the May elections predicts that the SNP is likely to continue leading the Scottish Government and that Plaid Cymru may soon take over the reins in Cardiff. If these trends hold, the largest parties across the three devolved nations would all be nationalist, including Sinn Féin in Stormont. What does this mean for the future of the United Kingdom? […]
Turkey’s Venezuela Test: Solidarity Talk and Power Politics
By Dr Begum Zorlu, City St George’s, University of London and Co-convener and chair of the PSA Turkish Politics Specialist Group The capture of Nicolás Maduro has exposed the limits of Ankara’s performative alliances and the constraints facing middle powers in an increasingly volatile international order. On January 3, 2026, US special forces carried out a dramatic military operation in Caracas, capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and transporting them to the United States, where they now face federal charges. Dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve,” the raid represented a US intervention in Latin America on a scale […]
Has the Green Moment Finally Arrived in the UK?
The tectonic plates of British party politics appear to be shifting at an ever-increasing rate. Long suppressed public frustrations are being vented by a new breed of populist insurgent parties. But even this label risks under-playing the extent of change. With five MPs, 677 local councillors and a mass membership that apparently outstrips the dwindling ranks of both the Conservative Party and Labour Party combined, Reform appears to have mutated to the mainstream. The election of Zack Polanski as the new leader of the Green Party may well signal a distinctive Green moment for British politics, not least as his […]
Post-16 Results 2025: A-Level Politics bucks the trend with potential for growth overall
It was wonderful celebrating the success of our young people (and their teachers) over the last few weeks as the Scottish Highers, International Baccalaureate and A level results rolled in. It’s thrilling to see so many take up their long-desired places at university and start their higher education journeys. It was interesting to see that our friends at the British Academy have refreshed their SHAPE Observatory with a new School Indicators dashboard. This dashboard includes over twenty years’ of data on: GCSE and A level in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications in Scotland. Looking specifically at […]
Is Citizenship Education the Key to Unlocking Young People’s Political Engagement?
The Government has now formally announced its intention to bring legislation to Parliament that would extend voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds for all UK elections. But how will this work? Are these young people ready to vote? Can a more extensive citizenship curriculum help to provide them with the knowledge and skills to participate confidently in future elections? In a research report recently published with the Association for Citizenship Teaching, we considered young people’s views and experiences of citizenship education. We found them to be keen supporters of the principles of democracy – despite considerable scepticism of how it operates. In […]
The MAHA report, GenAI, the Official Record and Democracy
Dr. Pete Finn, Senior Lecturer, SFHEA, Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, Kingston University 15 July 2025 Many in education are becoming increasingly used to encountering writing that may initially seem sound, but, on further inspection, appears to be the output of undeclared requests (prompts) for some kind of content put into one of an increasing array of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools. However, the concern around the misuse of GenAI tools goes beyond education. On May 22nd, the White House’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) commission – headed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr […]
The Different Facets of Pride Politics in Times of ‘anti-LGBTQIA+’ Backlashes
The law passed on 18th March 2025 by the Hungarian Parliament banning Pride Events in the country and allowing the use of facial recognition to identify organisers and participants has sent shockwaves across the European continent and beyond. In Russia or Turkey bans on Pride Events have been a reality for a few years already, a situation that has attracted widespread condemnation from LGBTQIA+ activists, political actors, and civil society more in general. The ban enacted by the Hungarian Parliament, however, is seen by many as opening a new fault line at the heart of the European Union. Whilst Hungary […]
We need to talk about disability in the political science profession
Who is working in political science, and is represented in the profession, is increasingly recognised to influence how we study and teach political science – what is prioritised and the value that is assigned to it (Ayoub 2022). In my article ‘Disability Within Political Science: Representation and Position in the UK Profession’, I considered the place of disability in the political science profession, and the impact of underrepresentation. While 28% of the UK population are estimated to have a disability (Kelly et al 2023), only 6% of academics disclose a disability in HESA reporting. PSA and BISA in their joint […]
Crisis or Renewal for Democracy? Reading the 2025 UK Local Council Elections
This research blog article focuses on understanding the political message emerging from the ground realities of the UK local council elections in 2025. It critically examines political party institutions to consider how they can ensure and sustain democracy in the country. The Westminster model of electoral democracy, though historically shaped by masculinist and ethno-nationalist politics, still presents itself as a space for rights, liberty, equality, and fraternity. To unpack and explore the core message of these elections, this blog article is divided into three sections. The first section provides an overview of the UK local government results and examines how […]