Dr Gavan Conlon is a Partner at London Economics and co-head of the Education and Labour Markets practice and an expert in education and labour market economics. In the education arena, this research work has been successfully delivered to (the majority of) central government departments (e.g. Department for Education, Department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy), non-departmental public bodies (e.g. Social Mobility Commission and  Health Education England), university mission groups (e.g. Universities UK, the Russell Group, Guild HE, million+, Group of Eight (Australia)), higher education institutions (e.g. University of Birmingham, University of York, University of Leeds, Cardiff University, University of Warwick, Anglia Ruskin University, London South Bank University, Queen’s University Belfast, The Open University, University of Queensland), unions and representative bodies (e.g. UCU, UNISON, NUS, Royal College of Nursing), charities (e.g. Gatsby Foundation, British Council, Sutton Trust), think-tanks (e.g. Higher Education Policy Institute, IPPR), regulators (e.g. Office for Students, Ofqual) and private sector organisations (e.g. Pearson).

In terms of wider experience, responsibilities and engagement activities have included:

• Leading one of the four research strands within the Department for Education funded Centre for Vocational Education Research – responsible for the evaluation of the Apprenticeship Levy using Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO) data
• Providing expert evidence
  • to the Department for Education Select Committee enquiries (twice) into higher education fees and funding and the impact of Brexit, and
  • the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee on student loan arrangements.
• Named Research Associate at the Department for Education
• Technical advisor to the HM Treasury on the valuation of the student loan book
• Provided advice to the Department of Education on methodological issues relating to data matching across the public sector
• Advisor to the OECD/Statistics Canada on the calculation of the graduate premium.
• Expert Panel member on Diamond Review of Higher Education Fees and Funding in Wales
• Undertaken keynotes and addressed conferences on higher education fees and funding to organisations including Universities UK, Wonkhe, HEPI etc), and been interviewed for TV and radio on same issues (BBC News, Radio 4, France 24 etc).