Sonia Exley

Dr. Sonia Exley is a Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she has been since 2011. She serves as Deputy Director of the MSc in International Social and Public Policy and teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Her research focuses on education policy, particularly the marketisation and privatisation of education systems globally. She explores issues like school choice, governance structures, and the intersection of social disadvantage with educational access.

Her expertise includes analyzing how neoliberal policies impact education systems, with a focus on the UK, South Korea, and other nations. She supervises doctoral research on topics such as education governance, privatization dynamics, and historical social policy trends. Her work has been published in leading journals like the Journal of Education Policy, Social Policy and Administration, and Comparative Education.

Key themes in her recent publications include the irreversibility of private tutoring markets, cross-national privatization quantification, and pandemic impacts on technical education. She critiques policy narratives around 'levelling up' educational access and examines how policy networks shape decision-making in education. Her research bridges theoretical analysis with empirical case studies to inform equitable educational reform.

Exley’s advisory work includes supervising PhD candidates focusing on marketization, governance, and historical policy analysis. She collaborates with think tanks and policy networks, contributing to debates on democratic participation in education policymaking. Though no formal awards are listed, her extensive publication record reflects scholarly impact in education studies.