Prf Nicola Yeates

Professional biography

I am Chair of Social Policy in the Department of Social Policy and Criminology, School of Global Studies and Social Sciences. I gained my PhD at Bristol University under the supervision of Professor Peter Townsend. After working at University College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast, I joined The Open University.

Professional and Academic Affiliations include 

Chair, Sociology and Social Policy panel, The Undergraduate Awards 

UK Social Policy Association

International Sociological Association Research Committee 19 (poverty and welfare)

International advisory board, Journal of Global Social Policyhttps://journals.sagepub.com/home/gsp

Advisory Board, Global Dynamics of Social Policy Collaborative Research Centre (University of Bremen)

Member of the Quality Assurance Agency Social Policy Benchmark Review Group (2016)

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Research interests

My research centres on transnationalisation and globalisation as social processes, together with their impacts on, and implications for, social policy and welfare as a field of academic teaching and research and as a political practice of state and non-state actors. An on-going theme in my work is how social diversity, divisions and inequalities are constructed, manifested and contested through trans-border social processes.

• Blog: Will the world meet the Sustainable Development Goal 8 (full employment and decent work for all women and men, including young people) by 2030?

Areas of interest include globalisation(s) 'from above' and 'from below', including the development of global and world-regional governance and its relationship to national social systems; state and non-state strategies of internationalisation, including labour migration, family formation, health and social protection; and the development of transnational social, advocacy and policy networks. Many of my recent publications are on the relationship between international migration and social and health care ('global care chains'), global social policy, and regional social governance. I retain this interest and have extended my research to encompass global youth unemployment, in collaboration with Prof. Ross Fergusson, and to global funds as forms of global development financing and governance. 

• Blog: The need for more effective global social governance has never been more urgent or important 

My research publications can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online or on my publications profile on this site. 

Critical acclaim for Global youth unemployment: history, governance and policy (with Ross Fergusson)

‘Rarely has a study of global youth unemployment so adeptly combined an empirically-grounded scrutiny of its levels and trends, with a conceptually nuanced analysis of its political economy drivers at multiple scales. Fergusson and Yeates make a compelling case for seeing endemic youth unemployment as an issue of grave social injustice–one that supply-side palliative approaches have patently failed to address, and which is in urgent need of integrated employment, social protection and macroeconomic policies backed by a more cohesive system of social and economic governance at the global level.’ – Shahra Razavi, Director of the Social Protection Department, International Labour Organization, Switzerland

‘Fergusson and Yeates’ distinctive voice narrates a timely diagnosis of an acute but understudied phenomenon, as viewed through historical and contemporary lenses. This is a book of big ideas that will set the standard for future analyses of global youth unemployment.' - Heidi Gottfried, Professor of Sociology, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA 

 ‘A vital contribution to our understanding of the transnational structures contributing to the endemic problem of youth unemployment. The study draws attention to the necessity of dealing with this human tragedy through the lens of global social policy analysis. Its conclusions and recommendations are highly relevant for the post-Covid-19 era'. - Robert O'Brien, Professor of Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. 

___________________________________________________________________________________Critical acclaim for International health worker migration and recruitment: global governance, politics and policy (with Jane Pillinger) 

Nicola Yeates has always been at the cutting edge of analysis of the transfer of labor and resources from areas with inadequate health care to health richer zones. In similar fashion, her book with Jane Pillinger breaks new ground by raising the analytical lens from national policy formation to the need for 21^st century global governance of transnational health labor recruitment and migration. Emphasizing the dangers of continuing the historical patterns of health brain drain, Yeates and Pillinger call for more equitable world-level policy formation. (Wilma A. Dunaway, Professor Emerita, School of Public & International Affairs, Virginia Tech, US)

The authors of this pathbreaking study creatively amalgamate the literatures on migration, global social policy and healthcare worker recruitment. The facts they reveal are stark. For example, Africa has only three per cent of the world’s health workers, but many are lost to overseas recruitment. Yeates and Pillinger argue that considerations of power, justice and social development need to be given more weight in the conventions governing global labour recruitment. The authors’ long experience, deep knowledge and palpable commitment to social justice lend authority to their analysis and recommendations. (Robin Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Development Studies, University of Oxford, UK)

This important book offers the first historical account of efforts to advance collective action on international health worker migration over the past seventy years.  Using a social policy lens, the authors weave together original research on a broad array of policies, spanning multiple sectors and organizational mandates.  The result is a remarkable analysis which skillfully balances both the granular detail and normative complexity of this critical global governance challenge (Professor Kelley Lee, Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Canada)

Grants include: 

• UKRI (Emergency Fund for Time-Critical Covid-19 Research) Covid-19 deaths among migrant health care workers: risks and responses. Access the project website here.

• ESRC-Department for International Development Joint Fund on Poverty Alleviation. World-regionalism, health and poverty reduction examined Southern regionalisms in Africa and South America.

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Human Resources for Health Migration: global policy responses, initiatives, and emerging issues. Source Country Perspectives on the Migration of Highly Trained Health Personnel (SCoP-MOHP).

• European Science Foundation. A  caring Europe? Gender, migration and care. 

Teaching interests

PhD supervision and examining

Working with doctoral students and researchers on cutting-edge topics in social policy is one of the best parts of my job. I warmly welcome enquiries and proposals from prospective students who are motivated and enthusiastic about doing original and high-quality research into any aspect of social policy at advanced level. I would be happy to supervise research projects on a wide range of topics, such as: global governance; social citizenship; welfare state dynamics and change; international organisations; international migration; international social development; social and health care; social protection; work, employment, and care; poverty, social exclusion and social inequality. I have a successful track record of supervising MPhil and Phd students to completion, many of whom are in leading jobs in academia, government and international organisations. PhD students include:

• Alois Nyanhete: The role of international mobile remittances in promoting financial inclusion and development: a Zimbabwean case study

• Janice Knox-Goba: Judicial interpretation of sexual violence against women in Sierra Leone

• Sarah Hadfield: Young women, employment insecurity and financial autonomy in England

• Sam Toolan:  To what extent, and in what ways, has migration to and settlement in the United Kingdom shaped the mental health of older women of African Caribbean and of South Asian East African heritage? 

• Freda Owusu: Critical money transfer linkages: transnational livelihoods and prospects for private remitters of funds from the UK to Ghana and Nigeria

• Mike Zapp: The Globalization of Education Policy: the Diffusion of Lifelong Learning Models and the Role of International Organizations in Non-OECD Countries

I am an experienced supervisor and examiner of doctoral theses, and have been External Assessor and External Examiner for PhD students registered at universities in the UK, Germany, Ireland and Australia and beyond. 

I receive a large number of enquiries from people who want to conduct a doctoral thesis under my supervision. To make it easier for you to find the answers to commonly-asked questions, clicking this link will take you to our departmental FAQs for intending postgraduate researchers. To apply, you will need to agree a research topic with me. Therefore, before you contact me, think about some a particular problem or issue you would like to work on and why, and write your ideas up into a draft research proposal (see here for advice on how to do this). It is also useful if you can demonstrate you are capable of conducting social research, so also send me your CV, links to previous papers or reports (if you have any) and projects you have worked on (stating your role in it and what it involved). 

Undergraduate and taught Masters courses 

Global Development (D870, D871, D872; D229, D329). Social Research methods (DD215). Welfare, Crime and Society (DD208)

Welfare, Crime and Society series co-editorship (with S Neal) of three interlinked course books - Social Justice (Newman and Yeates), Security (Cochrane and Talbot) and Community (Neal and Mooney) (McGraw Hill)

Beyond the Open University, I convene and write leading research-based student textbooks on various aspects of social policy, welfare and development in global and international contexts. My popular Understanding Global Social Policy textbook is into its third edition (2022, The Policy Press/Bristol University Press). I am a regular contributor to the leading student-focused social policy texts, such as The Student’s Companion to Social Policy (6th edition, 2022; Wiley), Social Policy (4^th edition, 2014, Oxford University Press), the Understanding Welfare series (The Policy Press/Bristol University Press), and Handbook on Social Policy and Development (Edward Elgar 2019).

I am an experienced External Examiner and curriculum reviewer. I have advised several universities in the UK and overseas regarding their undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programmes. I have also advised on curriculum development in global, international and comparative social policy for UK universities and on various courses on social policy, transnationalism, and migrations for UK and overseas universities.

Impact and engagement

My research brings me into regular contact with a wide range of state and non-state organisations, especially at global level. I have worked with the World Health Organisation, International Labour Organisation, World Bank, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, amongst others, as well as with a range of African, Latin American and Asian world-regional organisations' secretariats and their stakeholders. I am proud to lead The Open University's research partnership with Public Services International, a global union federation of more than 700 trade unions representing 30 million public services workers in 154 countries worldwide.  I enjoy exchanging ideas with partners outside of academia and working with them to help bring about greater global social equity, responsibility and justice. I welcome being contacted about potential projects with people and organisations who place the highest value on these priorities.  

Will the world meet Sustainable Development Goal 8 (full and productive work for all women and men, including young people) by 2030? 

A series of Factsheets using key findings of research into the experiences of migrant health workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, co-produced with Public Services International. 

What we know about their situation  

Trade union responses  

Building the trade union agenda  

What risks did migrant health care workers face during the Covid-19 pandemic? What were the responses of governments and other stakeholders?

Blogs and Policy Briefs:

• Building Resilience Across Borders: A Policy Brief on Health Worker Migration Policy Brief (with Jane Pillinger, for Public Services International, December 2020)
• Partnering for Success: regional monitoring for social equity and inclusive development in the Southern African Development Community (OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation 2019)
• Regional social policy: an idea whose time has come (UK Social Policy Association 2018)
• Beyond the Nation State: how can regional social policy contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals?, UNRISD Issue Brief no. 5. November 2017, 4pp. Geneva: UNRISD (UNRISD 2017)
• Southern regionalisms, Global agendas: Innovating inclusive access to health, medicines and social protection in a context of social inequity (ESRC-DfID 'PRARI' 2017)
• Regionalismos de los países del hemisferio sur, agendas Globales: Modernizar el acceso inclusivo a salud, medicamentos y protección social en un contexto de inequidad social (ESRC-DfID 'PRARI 2017)
• Ghana Beyond Aid: calling on the diaspora (with Freda Owusu)
• Global poverty eradication and the post-2015 agenda (International Council for Social Welfare 2016)
• Come together, right now: countries are working with neighbours like never before (The Conversation 2014)
• Ebola regional fund shows growing solidarity in West Africa (The Conversation 2015)
• Global poverty reduction: What can regional organisations do? (ESRC-DfID 'PRARI' 2014)