Sonia Ilie
Biographic Data
| ID | 6154689 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sonia Ilie |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sonia |
| FAMILY NAME | Ilie |
| SIGNATURE | ILIE S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9893-0086 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 32 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
From learning to earning? Analysing participation in job-related education and training and its impact on wages in the UK
The UK labour market is subject to ongoing pressures, from large-scale economic and industry shifts to changing labour force demographics, generating enduring skills gaps and emphasising the need for individuals to reskill or upskill to remain competitive. Job-related training is one way to close the skills gap – but are those most in need of training able to participate? And, if they do, does the market recognise and value such training? Using U…
Mastering uncertainty
The Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruptions to higher education and labour markets. This study examines full-time master’s students in the UK during 2020/21, the first cohort to both begin and complete their degrees amid the pandemic. Using administrative data and the Graduate Outcomes survey from the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency, this article examines whether the 2020/21 cohort exhibited different behaviours around the choi…
Understanding Europe’s skills shortage
Technological advancements, environmental commitments and demographic shifts are rapidly reshaping Europe’s labour markets, and thus the skills needed to succeed within them. These changes are driving growth in some industries while leading to contractions in others. Adult learning, both in formal and non-formal contexts, provides pathways for reskilling and upskilling, which are critical for adapting to these shifts. Recognising the importance o…
Assessing the person or the project? How disciplinary ontological and epistemological assumptions shape doctoral admissions in elite UK institutions
Research suggests there are notable differences in approaches to doctoral admissions and the criteria employed to select doctoral candidates. Through interviews with 65 academic staff involved in doctoral admissions at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, this paper examines how these different approaches to admissions play out in different disciplines, driving the disciplinary divergence in conceptualisations of the PhD and, in turn, admiss…
Toward 2030
The Sustainable Development Goals have galvanized efforts to improve access to higher education globally. While higher education has expanded over the last decade, access inequities endure, with economic deprivation, gender, and other dimensions of marginalization shaping individual opportunities to engage with higher education. Regional differences have also emerged, with some higher education systems growing at a rapid pace, driven by a variety…
A Theory-Led Evaluation of a Scalable Intervention to Promote Evidence-Based, Research-Informed Practice in Schools to Address Attainment Gaps
Evidence-based practice is a salient solution that has been presented to address the persistent educational attainment gap linked to economic disadvantage. However, most schools do not engage with research, and we know little about facilitating school-led research use at scale. Linking different approaches to studying educational effectiveness, equity and change, and drawing on cultural-historical activity theory, this study develops intermediate…
No Budge for any Nudge
Despite increasing efforts to improve their access, students facing socio-economic disadvantages are still underrepresented in UK higher education. In this paper, we study whether behavioural nudging with information provision through text messages, embedded within a larger programme of widening participation activities, can be effective at increasing higher education application rates. We conducted two randomised control trials in which final ye…
Understanding higher education access
Globally, access to higher education has increased, but inequalities by socio‐economic background remain. This article explores the relationship between early schooling opportunities (and learning) and progression into higher education in four low and middle‐income countries. We analyse data from the Young Lives longitudinal study, following cohorts of young people from age 5 to 22 in four country settings: Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India. We r…
Who benefits from public spending on higher education in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
Most countries are far from achieving the new sustainable development target of equal access to higher education by 2030, with those in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa furthest behind. This raises questions about the allocation of public resources across the education system to promote equity. We use data from Demographic and Health Surveys and UNESCO Institute for Statistics in 31 countries in these regions to assess who benefits from public s…
A research-informed dialogic-teaching approach to early secondary school mathematics and science
The Effecting Principled Improvement in STEM Education [epiSTEMe] project undertook pedagogical research aimed at improving pupil engagement and learning in early secondary school physical science and mathematics. Using principles identified as effective in the research literature and drawing on a range of existing pedagogical resources, the project designed and trialled a classroom intervention, with associated professional development, in a for…
Revisiting free school meal eligibility as a proxy for pupil socio‐economic deprivation
Whether someone has ever had free school meal ( FSM ) eligibility over a six‐year period is the measure of socio‐economic disadvantage currently used in the English school system. It is used to monitor the socio‐economic gap in achievement in the education system, to identify particular children at risk of low achievement and to direct funding to particular children and schools. In this paper we assess how well this measure predicts pupil attainm…
Revisiting free school meal eligibility as a proxy for pupil socio‐economic deprivation
Whether someone has ever had free school meal ( FSM ) eligibility over a six‐year period is the measure of socio‐economic disadvantage currently used in the English school system. It is used to monitor the socio‐economic gap in achievement in the education system, to identify particular children at risk of low achievement and to direct funding to particular children and schools. In this paper we assess how well this measure predicts pupil attainm…
Understanding higher education access
Globally, access to higher education has increased, but inequalities by socio‐economic background remain. This article explores the relationship between early schooling opportunities (and learning) and progression into higher education in four low and middle‐income countries. We analyse data from the Young Lives longitudinal study, following cohorts of young people from age 5 to 22 in four country settings: Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India. We r…
Who benefits from public spending on higher education in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
Most countries are far from achieving the new sustainable development target of equal access to higher education by 2030, with those in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa furthest behind. This raises questions about the allocation of public resources across the education system to promote equity. We use data from Demographic and Health Surveys and UNESCO Institute for Statistics in 31 countries in these regions to assess who benefits from public s…
A research-informed dialogic-teaching approach to early secondary school mathematics and science
The Effecting Principled Improvement in STEM Education [epiSTEMe] project undertook pedagogical research aimed at improving pupil engagement and learning in early secondary school physical science and mathematics. Using principles identified as effective in the research literature and drawing on a range of existing pedagogical resources, the project designed and trialled a classroom intervention, with associated professional development, in a for…
Who benefits from public spending on higher education in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
Most countries are far from achieving the new sustainable development target of equal access to higher education by 2030, with those in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa furthest behind. This raises questions about the allocation of public resources across the education system to promote equity. We use data from Demographic and Health Surveys and UNESCO Institute for Statistics in 31 countries in these regions to assess who benefits from public s…
A research-informed dialogic-teaching approach to early secondary school mathematics and science
The Effecting Principled Improvement in STEM Education [epiSTEMe] project undertook pedagogical research aimed at improving pupil engagement and learning in early secondary school physical science and mathematics. Using principles identified as effective in the research literature and drawing on a range of existing pedagogical resources, the project designed and trialled a classroom intervention, with associated professional development, in a for…
Revisiting free school meal eligibility as a proxy for pupil socio‐economic deprivation
Whether someone has ever had free school meal ( FSM ) eligibility over a six‐year period is the measure of socio‐economic disadvantage currently used in the English school system. It is used to monitor the socio‐economic gap in achievement in the education system, to identify particular children at risk of low achievement and to direct funding to particular children and schools. In this paper we assess how well this measure predicts pupil attainm…
Understanding higher education access
Globally, access to higher education has increased, but inequalities by socio‐economic background remain. This article explores the relationship between early schooling opportunities (and learning) and progression into higher education in four low and middle‐income countries. We analyse data from the Young Lives longitudinal study, following cohorts of young people from age 5 to 22 in four country settings: Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India. We r…
A Theory-Led Evaluation of a Scalable Intervention to Promote Evidence-Based, Research-Informed Practice in Schools to Address Attainment Gaps
Evidence-based practice is a salient solution that has been presented to address the persistent educational attainment gap linked to economic disadvantage. However, most schools do not engage with research, and we know little about facilitating school-led research use at scale. Linking different approaches to studying educational effectiveness, equity and change, and drawing on cultural-historical activity theory, this study develops intermediate…
No Budge for any Nudge
Despite increasing efforts to improve their access, students facing socio-economic disadvantages are still underrepresented in UK higher education. In this paper, we study whether behavioural nudging with information provision through text messages, embedded within a larger programme of widening participation activities, can be effective at increasing higher education application rates. We conducted two randomised control trials in which final ye…
Toward 2030
The Sustainable Development Goals have galvanized efforts to improve access to higher education globally. While higher education has expanded over the last decade, access inequities endure, with economic deprivation, gender, and other dimensions of marginalization shaping individual opportunities to engage with higher education. Regional differences have also emerged, with some higher education systems growing at a rapid pace, driven by a variety…
From learning to earning? Analysing participation in job-related education and training and its impact on wages in the UK
The UK labour market is subject to ongoing pressures, from large-scale economic and industry shifts to changing labour force demographics, generating enduring skills gaps and emphasising the need for individuals to reskill or upskill to remain competitive. Job-related training is one way to close the skills gap – but are those most in need of training able to participate? And, if they do, does the market recognise and value such training? Using U…
Mastering uncertainty
The Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruptions to higher education and labour markets. This study examines full-time master’s students in the UK during 2020/21, the first cohort to both begin and complete their degrees amid the pandemic. Using administrative data and the Graduate Outcomes survey from the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency, this article examines whether the 2020/21 cohort exhibited different behaviours around the choi…
Understanding Europe’s skills shortage
Technological advancements, environmental commitments and demographic shifts are rapidly reshaping Europe’s labour markets, and thus the skills needed to succeed within them. These changes are driving growth in some industries while leading to contractions in others. Adult learning, both in formal and non-formal contexts, provides pathways for reskilling and upskilling, which are critical for adapting to these shifts. Recognising the importance o…
Assessing the person or the project? How disciplinary ontological and epistemological assumptions shape doctoral admissions in elite UK institutions
Research suggests there are notable differences in approaches to doctoral admissions and the criteria employed to select doctoral candidates. Through interviews with 65 academic staff involved in doctoral admissions at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, this paper examines how these different approaches to admissions play out in different disciplines, driving the disciplinary divergence in conceptualisations of the PhD and, in turn, admiss…
Higher education (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Economic growth (4 works) · Economics (4 works) · Demographic economics (3 works) · Higher Education and Employability (3 works) · Pedagogy (3 works) · Adult education (2 works)