For an overview of CERD's work from 2003 - 2009 please see A Celebration by Professor David Bridges.
The Cambridge International Conference on Open and Distance Learning 2009 'Supporting learning in the digital age: rethinking inclusion, pedagogy and quality' took place from Tuesday 22 - Friday 25 September 2009 at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. This conference is run by the Von Hugel Institute, St Edmund's College in association with The Open University and The Commonwealth of Learning.
See http://www2.open.ac.uk/r06/conference/ for Conference papers and proceedings.
Seminars take place during term times and some of these are open to all. Please check the site regularly for forthcoming seminars.
Included amongst the Associates are an international team of leading researchers in the field of open and distance learning: these include Bridges, Gaskell, Mills, Morpeth, Perraton and Tait. Consultants include Dodds, Graham and Rumble. See Cambridge Distance Education Consultancy (CDEC) for further information.
Research at the centre focusses on issues of social exclusion, justice and poverty in local, national and international educational settings.
Recent and current work includes research on:
Another theme is that of the role of higher education in regional and national development.
This is the particular focus of the work of:
CERD's work links with the Centre for the Study of Faith in Society (FiS) via work on religious and spiritual education (McLaughlin and Elliott) and through that Centre's work on Catholic Schools (O'Keeffe). It links to the Centre for Sustainability and Capability (CSC) through its joint engagement in the national network on Education and Capability and through its shared interest in educational, social and economic development in the South (Perraton, Fentiman, Cullen) and the philosophical issues which underpin different approaches to this development and assessment of development itself (Elliott, Bridges and Watts).
The research within the Centre draws on a wide repertoire of social science methodologies: from ethnography, sociology and narrative research to history and philosophy.