Students tackle public policy challenges with support from GAD
Postgraduate students have presented research on health, social care and climate risks after completing projects supported by GAD industry supervisors.
Credit: Adobe Stock
Six Masters students have presented research projects exploring some of the biggest long-term challenges facing the public sector, with support from experts at the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD).
Industry supervisors
The students were from Bayes Business School at City St George’s, University of London, and the University of York, which hosts the Centre for Health Economics. The students worked on projects examining health, welfare, social care and climate-related risks.
GAD colleagues acted as industry supervisors, helping students develop their research and apply academic methods to real-world issues that could impact on future policy.
Demographic, health and environmental challenges
Projects covered a wide range of topics. Students investigated different approaches to measuring population health, including healthy life expectancy and quality-adjusted life years, and explored whether health metrics could help improve understanding of future welfare benefit uptake.
Other research explored health-economic evidence on adult social care, including comparisons with Sweden, while another project considered different ways that climate change could affect morbidity in the UK.
The projects explored how demographic change, population health and climate-related risks could inform future policy and decision-making.
Testimonials
“It’s been a great experience working with GAD and I know our students enjoyed the challenge. The outcomes exceeded all expectations, and we look forward to continuing the collaboration in future.”
Professor Les Mayhew, Bayes Business School - Faculty of Actuarial Science and Insurance
“Working with GAD gave our students an excellent opportunity to apply their actuarial training to real public-sector problems, under the guidance of experienced professionals and with joint academic supervision. They developed technical, communication and teamwork skills that go well beyond the classroom, and we are very grateful to GAD for their generous support and mentoring.”
Professor Ioannis Kyriakou, Bayes Business School - Faculty of Actuarial Science and Insurance
“We are grateful to the Government Actuary’s Department for offering three exciting placements to our students in the MSc in health economics at the University of York on topics at the forefront of policy discussions such as health, life expectancy, climate change, and social care.”
Professor Luigi Siciliani, University of York - Department of Economics and Related Studies
GAD’s role
Industry supervisor support forms part of GAD’s wider commitment to sharing expertise and helping develop the next generation of analysts and researchers. Collaborations with universities enable students to gain experience of public sector challenges while giving GAD the opportunity to explore emerging ideas and different approaches to research.