Professor Anne West


Professor of Education Policy in the Department of Social Policy

Anne West

Anne West is Professor of Education Policy and also Director of the Education Research Group. She is responsible for the BSc course ‘Education Policy’ and teaches on other courses in the Department of Social Policy.

Anne has carried out a range of different types of research, focusing on education policy and politics and early childhood education and care, in England (past and present), and in comparative perspective; and on the financing of education, in particular the  role played by parents. She has also carried out research in the area of health policy.

Anne’s research has been published in a wide range of journals in the fields of education policy, social policy, and sociology, including: Journal of Social Policy, Social Policy and Administration, British Journal of Educational Studies, London Review of Education, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis,  Journal of Family Issues and the Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres. She has published several books including most recently ‘Helicopter parenting’ and ‘boomerang children’: How parents support and relate to their student and co-resident graduate children, with Emeritus Professor Jane Lewis.


Expertise: early years education and care policies; school-based education policy and reforms; education and early years policy in comparative perspective; families and children