Rolf Strietholt

My name is Rolf Strietholt, and I am joining the Department of Educational Sociology as Associate Professor in October 2026. I am delighted to become part of DPU.

I come to Aarhus from IEA in Hamburg, where I co-headed the Research and Analysis Unit. My work sits at the intersection of international large-scale assessments — studies such as TIMSS, PISA and ICCS — and quantitative methods for understanding educational inequality. I combine psychometrics with causal and multilevel approaches to ask how school systems shape opportunity, and for whom. Another methodological strand of my research relates to issues such as inclusive assessments, mode effects in surveys, and the integration of different data.

I have been awarded the AUFF recruitment grant Linking International Assessments and National Register Data for Educational Research (LINK-ED), which brings together national register data from Denmark, Sweden, England and France. I will soon be looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join this work.

My approach is interdisciplinary, and I learn most from the exchange of diverse perspectives — the normative accounts that underlie our research questions, dialogue across disciplines, and the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. I also enjoy editorial work: I am co-editor of the journal Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, and I regularly initiate special issues as a guest editor.

Above all, my research grows out of collaboration, and I would like to build my network here at DPU. My door is always open for a coffee, I am happy to meet for a drink in the evening, or you can simply drop me a mail. I look forward to meeting you.