Role
Dr Yu-Ling Liu-Smith is a Research Fellow in the Policy, Place and Public Service Research Group within the Centre for Economics, Policy and Place at Nottingham Business School. She holds a PhD in Education at the University of Nottingham.
Her role focuses on supporting projects regarding management in health and social care, integrated care system, carers’ project, staff wellbeing in women’s aid organisation and employee engagement. She is also interested in developing an education related research project within the research themes of business school. She is leading on an on-going research project with local authorities on the topic of ‘Children Missing Education’.
Yu-Ling holds a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and is a member of the Research Staff Network and the Impact Network at NBS.
Career overview
Before joining Nottingham Business School, she was a Senior Instructor and the Assistant Director Research in the Institute for Educational Development and the Examination Board, Aga Khan University, Pakistan from 2014 to 2019. She taught courses at post-graduate level for Master, MPhil and PhD students as well as open market Continuing Professional Education courses and Certificate courses in the areas of Early Childhood Education. She taught Quantitative Research Methods and supervised postgraduate dissertations. She was also responsible for the development of research activities in the Examination Board and led several research proposals as a principal investigator.
Prior to joining the Aga Khan University, she had also worked more than 10 years at two local authorities: Bristol City Council and Nottingham City Council as a research assistant and Insight Analyst conducting research projects in the areas of education, early years and family services including children and adult social care.
Research areas
Yu-Ling’s research interests include: Health and Social Care, Education in Local Government, Employee Engagement, Early Years Education, Needs Assessment, Children’s Creativity and Quantitative Research.
Yu-Ling has published in various peer-reviewed international journals, including:
- Public Money and Management
- Social Indicators Research
- Social Policy and Administration
- International Journal of Workplace Health Management
- Journal of South Asian Studies
- Education Sciences
External activity
Yu-Ling has held consultancy with the Children Missing from Education Team Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire Healthwatch.
Yu-Ling has ongoing academic collaboration with Prof. Peter Murphy, Prof. Will Rossiter, Dr Sarah Pass, Dr Zara Whysall, Dr David Candon, Dr Katarzyna Lakoma, Dr Louise Oldridge, and Dr Caitriona Logue from NTU and Prof. Maria Karanika-Murray from the University of Leicester.
Publications
Journal article:
LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., CANDON, D., LOGUE, C., MURPHY, P., MACLEAN, J. and SMITH, W., 2025. New development: too many absences—an empirical study of children missing from education in Nottingham. Public Money and Management. ISSN 0954-0962
CANDON, D., HEWITT, M., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L. and MURPHY, P., 2025. How important are carer tasks in determining carer quality of life? Evidence from a Shapley decomposition approach. Social Indicators Research, 177 (1), pp. 379-410. ISSN 0303-8300
CANDON, D., HEWITT, M., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L. and MURPHY, P., 2024. Do carer tasks predict carer employment? Evidence from the Survey of Adult Carers in England. Social Policy and Administration, 58 (1), 122`-140. ISSN 0144-5596
LAKOMA, K. and LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., 2024. Debate: lessons learned from the emergency services' response to the Covid 19 pandemic. Public Money and Management, 44 (2), pp. 98-99. ISSN 0954-0962
KARANIKA-MURRAY, M., WHYSALL, Z., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., FELTBOWER, C. and CHALLANS, E., 2023. Understanding organizational learning in a healthcare organization during sudden and disruptive change. International Journal of Workplace Health Management. ISSN 1753-8351
PASHA, A., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L. and JEEVA, S., 2019. Teacher's in-service professional development needs assessment–the Pakistani context. Journal of South Asian Studies, 7 (1), pp. 1-8. ISSN 2308-7846
SELLARS, M., FAKIRMOHAMMAD, R., BUI, L., FISHETTI, J., NIYOZOV, S., REYNOLDS, R., THAPLIYAL, N., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L. and ALI, N., 2018. Conversations on critical thinking: can critical thinking find its way forward as the skill set and mindset of the century? Education Sciences, 8 (4): 205. ISSN 2227
Chapter in book:
PASS, S., KOUGIANNOU, N., RIDGWAY, M. and LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., 2023. Exploring employees’ lived experiences at NHS England during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of meaningful work. In: CIPD Applied Research Conference 2023. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, pp. 3-5.
Professional or trade journal contribution:
PASS, S., COURT-SMITH, J., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., RIDGWAY, M. and KOUGIANNOU, N., 2024. Sustaining workplace success through employee engagement. NBS Explore (1), pp. 6-8.
Research report for external body:
ROSSITER, W., HUNTER, J., LOGUE, C., LAKOMA, K., MURPHY, P., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L. and BUTTERFIELD, T., 2025. Community engagement & workforce diversity at NFRS. UNSPECIFIED. (Forthcoming)
PASS, S., COURT-SMITH, J., CLARKE, N., MACLEOD, D., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L. and POPESCU, S., 2025. Engage for Success: UK employee engagement survey 2025: why employee engagement is central to Keeping Britain Working. London: Engage for Success.
LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., CANDON, D., LOGUE, C. and MURPHY, P., 2024. Children missing from education in Nottingham: the follow-up report. December 2024. Nottingham: Nottingham Trent University.
PASS, S., COURT-SMITH, J., CLARKE, N., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L. and POPESCU, S., 2024. Engage for Success UK employee engagement survey 2023: exploring the current state of employee engagement in the UK. London: Engage for Success.
PASS, S., COURT-SMITH, J., LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., POPESCU, S., RIDGWAY, M. and KOUGIANNOU, N., 2023. Engage for Success: UK employee engagement survey 2022: exploring the impact of COVID-19 on employee engagement in the UK. London: Engage for Success.
LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., CANDON, D. and MURPHY, P., 2022. Children missing from education in Nottingham. Nottingham: Nottingham Trent University.
LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., CANDON, D., HEWITT, M. and MURPHY, P., 2022. Patients’ experiences: Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Stage 1 report. Nottingham: Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University.
Working paper:
LIU-SMITH, Y.-L., CANDON, D. and MURPHY, P., 2023. Children missing from education in Nottingham. Nottingham: Nottingham Trent University.