Shivani Sickotra

Shivani is a final year PhD candidate at the Data Analytics and Society Centre for Doctoral Training. Her research is funded by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council and the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SY MCA). She is based at the University of Sheffield with postgraduate research and training also extending across the University of Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.

Her PhD project is situated within the context of the UK Levelling Up economic strategy and aims to advance economic development in the South Yorkshire region, utilising a data analytics approach to develop an evidence base for policy intervention. This project was developed in collaboration with the SY MCA and is supervised by Professor Philip McCann, Professor Gwilym Pryce and Professor Andy Dickerson. The primary focus of her research revolves around the skills and educational landscape of South Yorkshire, considering socio-economic factors, and how improvement can facilitate levelling up of the region. She is particularly interested in investigating post-16 education and labour market trajectories using sequence and cluster analysis.

She has been awarded an MSc in Data Analytics and Society from the University of Sheffield in 2022 and has a background in mathematics, graduating with a 2:1 in BSc (Hons) Mathematical Sciences from the University of Leeds in 2020.