Client: European Commission - DG for Justice and Consumers 
Team: Sarah Harrison, Elisabet Vives, Giulia Gentile and Michael Bruter

This report explores the use of e-voting in voter-facing processes – notably the use of Electronic Voting Machines and internet voting – in electoral processes across EU Member States. The report focuses on both existing practice and the potential for future use in the context of European Parliament, national, and local elections. The scope of the report includes the regulatory framework, current use, a focus on the specific case study of France, potential security issues, and the impact on citizens’ experience, ergonomics, and behaviour.

The report concludes with several recommendations for public institutions considering the implementation and/or expansion of the use of e-voting, which are outlined below.

Recommendations for the use of electronic voting machines:

• Independent scientific advice should systematically be sought when it comes to the choice of options and settings that are fit for a specific polity (in particular, advice on the most desirable options should not come from the agents or companies which will be providing the technology to avoid conflict of interest);
• Ensure the existence of a protocol where a citizen suspect an error that fully protects the secrecy of the vote;
• Ensure that the use of electronic voting machines includes specific mitigation or separate paper alternatives for citizens living with disabilities, notably learning disabilities;
• Ensure that no state, region or municipality is in a situation of long term electoral dependency towards a specific private provider.

Recommendations for the use of internet voting:

• Ensure that internet voting is never the sole compulsory mode of voting (i.e. that polling stations continue to be offered as an alternative for citizens who wish to vote in person);
• Ensure that internet voting is part of broader secure digital identity systems;
• Ensure that early internet voting is paired with a right to regret one’s vote on election day.

In all cases, the report recommends ensuring that the use of any form of remote voting in voter-facing elements of elections is accompanied by elements of monitoring including the assessment of accessibility for citizens living with disabilities and models ensuring equality between citizens using electronic voting and those who are not.

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Client: European Commission - DG for Justice and Consumers
Team: Sandra Obradovic, Giulia Gentile and Michael Bruter

This report considers best practices aimed at supporting the participation of citizens with disabilities in elections in the European Union (EU) with a particular focus on France and Italy as case studies. It discusses the existing practices based on an extensive literature review of existing research. More specifically, by drawing on existing research, it addresses the potential attitudinal and environmental barriers that shape the interactions that citizens with disabilities have with the electoral environment. It focuses explicitly on how citizens’ interactions with the physical and social environment can either have a positive or negative impact on the interactions of citizens with disabilities in the electoral environment.

The report concludes with a series of recommendations, including (but not limited to):

• Consider invisible disabilities.
• Where possible, reasonable adjustments that safeguard the independence and secrecy of voting should be favoured such as providing Braille templates that can be placed over the ballot paper to cast the vote, rather than enable a blind voter to be assisted by another person in casting their vote.
• Extend flexible voting arrangements to citizens with mental health-related disabilities, as Ireland has done through its Electoral Reform Act (2022).
• A common standard of measures should be adopted which will be used to assess both the extent to which inequalities exist in citizens’ access to the vote and the effectiveness of any solutions taken in order to reduce those inequalities.
• A key recommendation is to consider ways of co-creating or developing bottom-up approaches to research.

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Client: British Council South Africa
Team: Will Bartlett, Lucy Kanya, Marina Cino Pagliarello, Elisabet Vives, Candice Morkel and Wanjiru Nderitu

Description: Working with its partners the Kenyan Ministry of Education, the South African Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the UK’s Micro:bit Foundation, the British Council is currently implementing the Learning to Code Programme, which employs a systemic approach to developing and understanding, skills, and competencies to prepare young Kenyans and South Africans for the future world of work.

Given the successful evaluation in the Western Balkans (see description above), LSE Consulting has been tasked to undertake an evaluation of the Programme on the participating schools to determine the impact of the project, e.g., on learner's confidence and their attitude towards coding, as well as on their intent to pursue a career in the IT industry, as well as the capacities of teachers and school leaders to modify the curriculum and teach coding skills. In order to do so, LSE Consulting is implementing a difference-in-difference evaluation and conducting large-scale surveys and interviews with the programme stakeholders, including young learners, teachers, school principles and education officials in South Africa and Kenya. The results of the evaluation are expected to be publicly available at the end of 2023.

Client: Advance HE
Team: Manmit Bhambra, Francisca Torres Cortés and Elisabet Vives 

Description: LSE Consulting has been commissioned to review a set of cases for race equality and other forms of business cases. The objective es it identify best practices and learn from past experience to identify the drivers and benefits associated with addressing racial inequalities.

The final product will be a brief report summarising the findings and a set of resources that higher education providers and practitioners can employ to develop their own cases for race equality in their institutions.

Client: British Council
Team: Marina Cino Pagliarello, Alejandro Plaza Reveco and Francisca Torres Cortés

Description: LSE Consulting has been commissioned to develop a report that will guide the design and implementation of a longitudinal survey based on the British Council’s programme, Alumni UK. The team at LSE will map the existing capacity and identify constraints regarding the collection of longitudinal data, and will then develop alternative approaches considering the following aspects: measurement and questionnaire design, sampling and follow-up, workflow for data management. The final output will be a report presenting feasible implementation scenarios and recommendations of how the British Council can take advantage of running a longitudinal study to assess impact and improve the programme.

Client: Office for Students
Authors: Marina Cino Pagliarello, Ignacio Franco Vega, Francisca Torres Cortés and Claudine Provencher

Description: LSE Consulting evaluated the submissions received from OfS Call for Evidence conducted in 2022 regarding initiatives to support international students’ experience and well-being in higher education in England. The analysis of the submissions was supported by a literature review of relevant academic and policy literature; a survey targeted at international students and alumni from across England; and qualitative evidence from staff and international students at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The report provided recommendations to better assess and understand international students’ experiences and needs (e.g., driving bottom-up approaches for programme design), and identified gaps in provision of services from arrival until after graduation (e.g., visas and accommodation, academic support and career advice).

Client: British Council, Serbia
Authors: Will Bartlett, Marina Cino Pagliarello, Vasilis Monastiriotis and Ivana Prica

Description: The British Council 21st Century Schools Programme is a three-year programme to provide training to school leaders and teachers in the skills needed to improve the teaching practice using critical thinking and problem solving (CTPS) teaching methods and the application of IT skills, primarily coding and programming within the classroom using micro:bit hardware donated by the UK government. LSE Consulting developed the full impact evaluation of this project, including a Baseline Study and the full Impact Evaluation. 

LSE Consulting’s Baseline Report analysed the primary education systems in the Western Balkans prior to programme implementation to establish the initial measurement of the evaluation indicators, outcomes and outputs as set out in the Programme Evaluation Plan.

The report also examined the basic assumptions of the Theory of Change (Logic Model) of the programme, identifying how programme interventions were expected to bring about the various outputs and outcomes. In the Impact Evaluation, LSE Consulting reported the changes measured throughout programme implementation and analysed the delivery of the different outcomes and outputs comparing with the baseline scenario and assessing it against the programme’s theory of change. The report focused on the roles of policymakers, school leaders, teaches and pupils, across four evaluation dimensions: Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency and Sustainability.

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Client: British Council Northern Ireland
Authors: Marina Cino Pagliarello, Karise Hutchinson, Francisca Torres Cortés and Elisabet Vives

Description: The report involved a comprehensive analysis of Northern Ireland’s Higher Education sector and the wider context in which Higher Education is delivered in Northern Ireland. The piece aimed to inform the British Council’s global network of colleagues of the Northern Ireland Higher Education sector, its strengths, and the broader assets of Northern Ireland as a Higher Education study destination and area for research collaboration. The final product was tailored to international stakeholders and governments who may wish to understand Northern Ireland’s Higher Education sector and its operating context.

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Client: British Council
Authors: Max Fras, Amy White, Matt Cresswell and Elisabet Vives

Description: LSE Consulting developed three ‘What We Know’ briefs, with a synthesis of recent reports developed under the British Council’s Next Generation programme. Respectively, each brief examines the global attitudes that young people have on Education and Skills, Local and Global Challenges, and Youth Voice (Political and Civic Engagement). Specifically, the briefs included desk research/literature review on the current global youth policy and strategy context relevant to the three identified Next Generation topics above; case studies of British Council and external policy and programming relevant to the three core Next Generation areas (understanding youth attitudes and aspirations, amplifying youth voice and supporting better youth policy-making); and reflections from three What We Know workshops that were carried out in March 2022 with a range of young people, youth organisations and policymakers to discuss the findings, current practices and opportunities for action.

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Client: British Council
Authors: Manmit Bhambra, Caroline Addai-Bempah, Francisca Torres Cortés and Elisabet Vives

Description: The study involved:

• a review of the existing materials within the British Council on anti-racism and decolonisation, including ongoing work;
• an evidence review of current global literature on anti-racism and decolonisation; and
• a review of existing policy priorities and approaches summarising strengths/weaknesses, and recommendations on how to embed anti-racism approaches into the BC’s current work.

The team interviewed internal and external stakeholders focusing on four countries (UK, India, Brazil and Malaysia) to understand current approaches and identify best practices. Moreover, the team delivered four workshops to discuss the findings with participants and enable global teams to analyse their current approach to anti-racism and decolonisation, identify existing initiatives and define potential new actions. 

Client: British Council
Authors: Max Fras, Amy White and Elisabet Vives

Description: The review conducted by LSE Consulting assessed the Next Generation design and delivery process, the value (actual or potential) of Next Generation research to strategy development and achievement of impact. It did so through a series of interviews and focus groups with relevant British Council teams and other stakeholders, and a thorough document review. The team combined inductive and deductive methods, including a literature-informed framework of key topics and thematic analysis. The outputs of the project included specific and tailored recommendations.

Client: British Council Saudi Arabia
Authors: Steffen Hertog, Courtney Freer, Sarah Al-Otaibi and Elsa Bedos

Description: This study explored and provided recommendations on the following: future trends, priority areas, academic and research opportunities, risks and challenges and potential for academic partnerships with the UK in the Higher Education sector in Saudi.