The aim of this website is to disseminate educational and sociological research. I hope that it will encourage others to participate in research and publication.

For a detailed answer please read my doctoral thesis (available as a PDF through an email request):

Hope, T (2004)The Effectiveness of the Discretionary Financial Award, the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), in a Tertiary College in the South West of England. Oxon, Oxford Brookes University.

or paper in the Social Science Teacher journal:

Hope, T. (2005) ‘Building Success in Post-Compulsory Education: The Effectiveness of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA)’. Social Science Teacher, Vol. 34, No.3, pp 6-9.


More generally the EMA is the Education Maintenance Allowance, which is a discretionary financial award given to full-time students in post-compulsory education in England aged between 16 and 18 years old.