Anne West is Professor of Education Policy. She joined the LSE in 1990 as a part-time research officer having previously worked in the Research and Statistics Branch of the former Inner London Education Authority. She was appointed professor in 2002 and has been Head of Department (2003-06; 2019-20), Deputy Head of Department (2006-13), and Doctoral Programme Director (2010-19). She currently holds a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship to carry out a project on “School admissions and school choice in comparative perspective”.
Anne has carried out a range of different types of research, focusing in particular on education policy and early childhood education, in England (past and present), and in comparative perspective.
Her research has been published in a wide range of journals in the fields of education policy, social policy, and sociology, including the Journal of Social Policy, Social Policy and Administration, British Journal of Educational Studies, Journal of School Choice, London Review of Education, Journal of Family Issues, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and the Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres. She has published several books including “‘Helicopter parenting’ and ‘boomerang children’: How parents support and relate to their student and co-resident graduate children” with Emeritus Professor Jane Lewis.
Anne has carried out research funded by a range of different organisations including the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, the European Commission (most recently the EU Horizon 2020 project ‘PERISCOPE’), the French Ministry of Education and UK government departments. She has been called as an expert witness to UK parliamentary select committees for inquiries into academies, school admissions and faith schools. She was a member of the former Conseil national d'évaluation du système scolaire (Cnesco) established in 2014 by the French Ministry of Education and held the Fritz-Karsen-Chair at the Humboldt University of Berlin, in Germany in 2015. She is currently a member of the Conseil Scientifique of the Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres (published by France Éducation International).
Anne supervises doctoral studies in areas including:
Education policy; comparative education policy; early childhood education and care.