Matt Henn

Role

Research role

Dr Matt Henn is Emeritus Professor of Social Research at the Department of Social and Political Sciences (SPS) at Nottingham Trent University.

In 2024 he was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences for his contributions to the field of young people and democracy.

Matt was formerly Research Director from 2012 until 2023, and although he retired in 2024, as Emeritus Professor he remains part of NTU SPS as an active researcher.  He was coordinator for the Politics and International Studies unit for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014 and again in 2021. Matt is an active member of the Citizenship, Democracy and Transformation Research Group within the Department, as well as the School of Social Sciences’ Centre for Policy, Citizenship and Society.

Matt is also an active researcher, leading several NTU research projects over the years.  He is currently looking at the impact of studying formal qualifications in citizenship studies on young people's levels of civic and political engagement.  Recently, he completed a project co-designed with Nottingham City Council: Citizens, environmental sustainability and local democracy: Putting people’s voices at the centre of Nottingham’s Carbon Neutral 2028 Action Plan.

His most recent book (co-authored with James Sloam, 2019) is Youthquake 2017: The Rise of Young Cosmopolitans in Britain.  This book is free to download (from: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-97469-9), and has over 63,000 online downloads and 67 citations. He is currently  working on a similar book based on the 2024 UK general Election that is planned for publication in spring 2025.  Previous books include Opinion Polls and Volatile Electorates (1998), and A Critical Introduction to Social Research (with Mark Weinstein and Nick Foard, second addition 2009)

He has published numerous academic journal articles on youth and political participation, opinion polling in Eastern Europe, and political campaigning – most recently for: Journal of Youth Studies; Policy & Politics; Social Indicators Research; Educational Review; Comparative European Politics; British Journal of Sociology; International Political Science Review; Political Insight; Societies; Education, Citizenship and Social Justice; International Politics Reviews; Political Studies; Policy and Politics; Social Policy and Society; Parliamentary Affairs; Aloma - Journal of Psychology, Education and Sports Science; Sociology Review; Teaching Citizenship.

Matt has recently been awarded funding to work on several research projects:

• Association for Citizenship Teaching:  "Young people and citizenship education: The impact of studying for the GCSE Citizenship Studies on young people’s democratic engagement and participation";
• AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council): “Scoping the Future Law and Social Justice - Listening & Hearing from the Frontline”;
• British Academy: “Youth, Sustainability and Democracy: How Young People Can Shape Environmental Policy in Urban Spaces”;
• Nottingham Contemporary: “Re-creating the future through arts: evaluating innovative modes of engaging young people with social and political issues”;
• ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council): “Young people and politics in Britain: How do young people participate in politics and what can be done to strengthen their political connection?”;
• ESRC: “UK in a Changing Europe: Co-producing an e-tool to increase youth involvement in the UK referendum on EU membership”;
• ESRC: “The 2017 General Election, Brexit and young people's futures: enabling UK youth to understand, speak out and influence Brexit in a changing Europe”.

Teaching and learning

Matt has a long history as Director of PhD programmes in the former College of Business, Law and Social Sciences (1996 - 2012) and more recently the School of Social Sciences (2012 until 2020). In those roles, Matt was responsible for over 140 PhD research students.

He has also supervised 19 PhD research candidates to successful completion.

His general teaching field is in the broad areas of citizenship and political participation and in research methods, and most recently he contributed teaching to a number of academic courses, such as the MA Politics and the MSc Politics and Public Policy.

Career overview

Matt worked in the Higher Education sector for over 36 years, starting in1988. He began his career as a researcher in the Department of Economics and Politics at Nottingham Trent University (when it was called Nottingham Polytechnic), and in 1992 he joined the University of North London as a Lecturer in Social Science Research Methods.

He returned to NTU in 1994 and was appointed Course Leader for the MSc Research Methods - a course that became an integral part of NTU's PhD research degrees programme. He became a member of the Faculty Research Degrees Committee the following year (subsequently chairing that committee from 2002-2004).

In 2004 he joined the Nottingham Trent University Graduate School and became Head of Research Degrees and Research Training for the College of Business, Law and Social Sciences; in 2012 he moved to the School of Social Sciences.

At the latter part of his career at NTU, Matt was active in developing teaching and learning opportunities internationally. For instance, he presented invited key-note speeches and talks at several international events to inform and enhance curriculum development and educational policy for doctoral programmes, in countries such as Macedonia, Croatia, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Spain and Morocco. He also set up a number of ERASMUS staff and doctoral mobility agreements with strategically selected partner universities in several countries. He was also a Visiting Professor for the 'Doctoral Research Methods Programme' at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona from 2010 until 2017.

In 2010 Matt was promoted to Professor of Social Research as recognition of his contributions to Nottingham Trent University and internationally through his research and also his leadership of postgraduate programmes of study.

In 2024 he was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences for his contributions to the field of young people and democracy.

External activity

Matt is serving as the co-editor for a number of leading international journals for the discipline, including: "Societies", "Youth" and also "Frontiers in Political Science".

He is a long-standing member of the UK Political Studies Association (UK PSA), and of the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, and Young People and Politics specialist groups of the UK PSA, and of the American Political Studies Association (APSA).

He has previously been a member of, and advisor to, the Nottinghamshire County Council Elections group, and advises political parties and citizenship groups about issues concerning young peoples' political participation in Britain.

He has previously been a member of the steering group of the Nottingham Speakers' Corner Trust.

Matt regularly contributes to the broadcast and printed media on matters concerning elections, political parties, voting behaviour, and voting disengagement.

Internationally, he is widely sought as an adviser on doctoral research programmes.  Examples include:

• Adviser to the Macedonian Ministry of Education for the Macedonian Education Modernization Project (Skopie)
• Keynote speech to Rectors and Vice-Rectors at the UNICA Masterclass (Dubrovnik)
• Keynote speech at King Saud University (Riyadh)
• Invited speaker at fora in Barcelona, Rome and Angers
• Invited speaker at Conference on 'Structuring Doctoral education in Europe: Appraisal and Good Practices', at University of Tetouan
• Visiting Professor for the 'Doctoral Research Methods Programme' at the University Autonoma Barcelona (2010 - 2017)

Sponsors and collaborators

The funders for Matt's research work have been:

• The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• The British Academy
• The Association of Citizenship Teaching
• The Nottingham Contemporary
• The Nuffield Foundation
• The Nottinghamshire County Council

Through his work, Matt has connected with a variety of different external organisations and groups, including:

• Nottingham City Council
• The Local Area Research and Intelligence Association (LARIA)
• Citizenship Foundation
• National Union of Students
• Institute of Citizenship
• British Youth Council
• Association for Citizenship Teaching
• The Electoral Commission
• IPPR North

He is interested in exploring possibilities for developing projects with external organisations and groups advocating people’s civic and political participation.