Peter is Professor of Education Policy Research at the University of Birmingham. He also leads the Centre for Higher Education Equity and Access and programme lead for the Masters in School Improvement and Educational Leadership.
His main research interests are multidisciplinary analysis of participation, choice and engagement in secondary and higher education.
Private and public finance of education.
Conceptual change with particular reference to understanding in economics.
Relationships between different theoretical perspectives on conceptual change, particularly Variation Theory and Threshold Concepts.
Development of teachers’ thinking and practice through ‘Learning Study’
Experience
2010–present
Professor, Centre for Higher Education Equity and Access, University of Birmingham
Education
1999
University of Manchester, Ph.D. (Education)
1978
University of Manchester, PGCE (Secondary)
1977
University of Manchester, MA Economics
1976
University of Liverpool, BA Economics, first, GLS Shackle prize
Publications
2014
Cultural and Human Capital, Information and Higher Education Choices, Journal of Education Policy
2014
Paying for Quality? Associations between private school fees, performance and use of resources, British Educational Research Journal
2013
Defining and assessing enterprise capability, Journal of Education and Work
2013
Swedish upper secondary school students’ conceptions of negative environmental impact and pricing, Sustainability
2013
A response to Entwistle and Nisbet, Psychology of Education Review
2013
Labour market motivation and undergraduates’ choice of degree subject. , British Educational Research Journal
2012
‘Hot’, ‘cold’ and ‘warm’ information and higher education decision-making, British Journal of Sociology of Education
2012
Attracting Mature Students into Higher Education: The Impact of Approaches to Learning and Social Identity, Journal of Further and Higher Education
2012
Can governments improve Higher Education through ‘informing choice’? , British Journal of Educational Studies
2012
Young people’s understanding of socio-economic phenomena: conceptions about the free provision of goods and services. , Journal of Economic Psychology
2012
Variation in the length of an undergraduate degree: participation and outcomes, Studies in Higher Education
Grants and Contracts
2012
Labour Market Expectations, Relative Performance and Subject Choice