Businesses know the value of social sciences. higher education policy needs to catch up

The social sciences are recognised for their role in evaluating policy and offering practice-based interventions about ‘what works’. However, they are less often justified in terms of their value to the private sector. Sharon Witherspoon outlines the finding of a report into eight case studies of UK businesses. The report covers a range of different sectors and finds that social scientists are in demand by businesses for what they know and the way that they approach knowledge and facts. Recommendations are offered for how higher education policy can better capitalise on this.