Paul is Professor of Education and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Ulster University. He is internationally known for his research on early childhood, diversity and inclusion. He is author of a number of books including: Racism, Gender Identities and Young Children (1998, Routledge); Researching Racism in Education (1998, Open University); Boys and Schooling in the Early Years (2004, Routledge); Quantitative Data Analysis in Education (Routledge, 2007); and Using Randomised Controlled Trials in Education (Sage, 2017).

He has an extensive track record of research and publications spanning over 25 years and has been successful in attracting over £18.5m of external research grants from over 60 projects during his career to date. He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, was a member of the REF2014 Sub-Panel on Education and served for a number of years on the ESRC Grants Assessment Panel.