Please click here to view the Access and Participation Regulation, EORR and the new Data Dashboard document from our April Special Edition Newsletter.
SEER’s response to the consultation on constructing student outcome and experience indicators for use in OfS regulation
Specialist Evidence, Evaluation & Research (SEER) network submitted the following response to the OfS consultation.
This response has been endorsed by our HEP members: Writtle University College; London School of Architecture; SAE Institute; New College of the Humanities (NCH); Northern School of Contemporary Dance; Central School of Ballet; The Place (London Contemporary Dance School); ICMP; London School of Management Education; Point Blank Music School; Falmouth University; Academy of Contemporary Music.
You can review our response via the link below:
SEER to collaborate on the Many Hands Project to improve mental health solutions for students in small-setting higher education providers
Student Mental Health to be supported by the Many Hands of independent providers
Independent Higher Education (IHE) is pleased to announce that a collaborative bid by seven IHE members has won Office for Students (OfS) funding to support student mental health.
The funding competition aims to find new ways to tackle mental health challenges in higher education and has an overall budget of £3 million, provided by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education via the OfS. The Many Hands Project has been awarded £153,900 with matched in-kind funding from each of the project partners.
The project will be led by IHE member the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM), in collaboration with SAE Education, Futureworks, Point Blank Music School, Matrix College of Counselling and Psychotherapy, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and Regent College London, with specialist and technical expertise provided The Ambassador Platform (TAP) and Applied Inspiration’s SEER (Specialist Evidence, Evaluation and Research) service.
The Many Hands Project will support undergraduate mental health in smaller or specialist providers by creating a digital hub for students. It will allow students from multiple institutions across the UK to easily access a peer-to-peer mental health mentoring service. Focusing on early intervention it aims to support mature, Black, Asian and minority ethnic students and those studying creative subjects.
TAP, the market leader in Experience Communication Management, will provide the technology and the project will be evaluated and monitored by global access and participation specialists Applied Inspiration.
Peer-to-peer mentoring is a proven effective intervention, offering students in difficulty a mentor who has faced similar challenges and experiences. This project will offer a discreet and remote way to intervene early to support student mental health. The collaborative approach will address the barriers to developing and accessing these services in smaller providers.
Kainne Clements, the Executive Chairman of ACM, said:
“We are delighted to be leading the Many Hands Project, working with an innovative group of small and specialist providers. The last 18 months has clearly illustrated how important it is to support student mental health and ACM are relishing the opportunity to further enhance our award-winning student services provision through this project.”
Alex Proudfoot, Chief Executive of IHE, said:
“This is a milestone for independent providers as they win a highly prized OfS funding bid for the first time. We are excited to see the results of this innovative project which will harness the agility, drive and commitment to students that are common to independent providers, as well as provide an important case study for future collaboration between our members.”
Sophie McCarthy, Student representative on the IHE Board said:
“Active student engagement in developing mental health initiatives is very important. I’m pleased to lead the student advisory group to this project and reporting to the IHE Board on its progress and its real impact on students at these providers.”
Chris Millward, director for fair access and participation at the Office for Students, said:
“Having a mental health condition should not be a barrier to success in higher education, but for many students this is still the case. Data shows that students reporting a mental health condition are more likely to drop out, less likely to graduate with a first or 2:1, and progress into skilled work or further study – compared to students without a declared condition. We also know that students come to university or college from a range of backgrounds and that their individual journey, and the kind of support they require, is likely to be influenced by their specific circumstances.
“That’s why this funding of targeted interventions for student mental health is so important. By paying attention to the diverse needs of students; universities and colleges can fine-tune the support they offer and ensure that all students, regardless of where they are from, have the best chance possible to succeed.
“Working with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education, we are pleased to be able to fund projects across a range universities and colleges targeting a number of priority groups. We look forward to working with these projects to develop and evaluate innovative and collaborative approaches to targeted support for student mental health, and to support the take-up of this learning for the benefit of students in all parts of the sector.”
Emma Thomas, Managing Director at Applied Inspiration, said,
‘Our team are really pleased to be a partner in this collaborative project. It is a great opportunity not only to provide essential support for mental health, but also to evidence the power of collaboration amongst smaller, specialist providers. We are delighted to be evaluating the project for the partner institutions, evidencing what works for the project and contributing to sector knowledge.’
NOTES
1. IHE is a UK membership organisation and formal representative body which exists to support, develop and promote independent providers of higher education, professional training and pathways.
2. IHE’s members include household names such as the Royal Academy and Le Cordon Bleu, long established independent colleges Spurgeon’s College and City & Guilds of London Art School, industry leading technical institutes Futureworks and Met Film School and global education pathway providers Kaplan and Study Group.
3. For further information please contact Marie Clark marie@independenthe.com
December Digest with Professor Sir Les Ebdon: “All in it Together?” Big reflections for the sector in the wake of Covid-19
It seems that every card that drops on to our doormat at home and every seasonal greeting that pops up on my work screen makes mention of the strange year we have been experiencing. Many of us will ruefully regard 2020 like a panto where we can eventually shout out: ‘it’s behind you'.
Well, it is not behind us yet, even if there are reasons for optimism as a vaccination programme is rolled out. For the first time since my retirement as a Vice Chancellor, I have been grateful that I am no longer doing the job. Covid-19 has brought sickness and loss to our families, communities and campuses; and, in order to protect the health of our students, staff and their friends and family, great changes to teaching and learning have been necessary. Guidance has been issued and reissued and almost daily reports sent to regulators. A great uncertainty has entered our stable world.
While in some senses we are all in this together, some are quite clearly more in it than others. The virus is more problematic in some age groups and ethnicities. Younger students often make a speedy and full recovery from Covid-19, in comparison to their grandparents. On the other hand, first year students have suffered from the A-Level fiasco in August and severe curtailment of their social life. The result has been to exacerbate existing challenges to the mental well-being of students. Counselling services and student support in higher education are reporting being overwhelmed and sensible providers are turning to third parties for help. In terms of student health, there has to be a balance between isolation to contain the virus and socialisation to protect mental health.
Interestingly, student surveys suggest that students have come to value learning online. They miss the social interaction with peers that happens in face-to-face lectures and seminars but appreciate the flexibility of online learning. It is clear that online learning is here to stay and we will move not into an ‘either/or’ world but into an ‘and/both world. Clearly students will not readily forgo the flexibility of current arrangements – institutions and staff need to prepare for this.
Despite dire predictions, recruitment was up (perhaps because rising youth unemployment and curtailed gap year experiences meant that there were no alternatives) and retention is also better than in previous years. The latter is a tribute to the quality of online learning that has been introduced. Where student dissatisfaction has emerged, it has been largely directed to accommodation providers which are seen as offering poor value for money if you are, or could be, studying in the parental home.
One of my greatest concerns is for Years 12 and 13 in schools and colleges. Their education has been significantly disrupted at a crucial time and they still do not know with any certainty what the examination arrangements will be in England this summer. School pupils have been significantly impacted by the digital divide of unequal access to devices and online learning. Remedial tutoring arrangements promised by the Government have been slow to roll out and traditional outreach programmes from universities and others have not been able to go into schools and colleges. This is another severe blow for non-traditional students. We know that students who are the first from their family to enter higher education often lack basic information about finance and entry routes. Frequently they are pigeon-holed as not higher education material and without encouragement, information, and role models they do not proceed to higher education. Good outreach activity can supply this, thus supporting aspiration and achievement. Ideally such activities need to start in primary school and in this context there is a chance to catch up with such long-term activity post-pandemic. But no or limited chance for those already in the final years of school.
Several universities have tried to bridge the gap with online activity but this is a significant investment for a smaller institution. To be effective such activity has to be interactive and available to those pupils on the wrong side of the ‘digital divide.’ As I have noted before, there is value in smaller and specialist institutions coming together in this type of activity, to produce a shared model that is of quality, efficient, cost-effective and can benefit all – indeed the success of SEER is a great demonstration of the power of such collaborative service in the data, evaluation and research space.
I look back on a year of disappointments and turmoil, taken over in large part by a pandemic we had not expected, with both sadness and hope. There is indeed a sense of achievement at what has been created in such a rapid transformation to online teaching. Our focus in these difficult days has rightly been on the health and safety of our students and staff, yet as the pandemic begins to recede we need to focus on the most disadvantaged students and potential students who are in danger of losing their opportunities: to get into higher education; to succeed in their studies; and to progress into the careers of their choice. If we are truly ‘all in it together’ then these students need to be our special concern in the coming year.
Les Ebdon
Digest with Sir Les: The Student Voice - the Importance of Engaging as well as Listening
Academia has come a long way in the past 53 years, since I was one of the first student members of the newly formed ‘staff-student consultative committee’ at Imperial College. The staff seemed a little bemused as to what the meeting was all about and we struggled to get any meaningful listening, let alone engagement. Nowadays we recognise the importance not just of listening to the student voice and acting upon it but also how students, as co-creators of their learning, are vital influences on pedagogy, curriculum and assessment.
Of course, this transition from neglected audience to active participants has coincided with massive changes in the nature of being a student. I had all my fees paid for me and a grant big enough to live in London without difficulty. Today’s student is encouraged to see themselves as a consumer taking out a massive loan to fund both their studies and living costs in a competitive and crowded marketplace. High student satisfaction scores in the National Student Survey are thought to provide institutions with a competitive edge in this market, so why wouldn’t you listen to your students and offer longer library opening hours or change the catering arrangements. While such changes and a general responsiveness to students is good, it is missing much of the value of engagement with students.
All those years ago, we student scientists wanted more interdisciplinarity on our courses and even suggested ways of achieving it. We were dismissed as dangerous radicals. How could we possibly be expected to have a say in curriculum and know what was right for us. It was bad enough that we had pointed out that one of our eminent lecturers gave unintelligible lectures, we were told it was all in books and we were lucky to have him on our course. Actually, we were correct about the curriculum as time has proved. Or take a more modern example from one of our most prestigious universities. Black students on the English course, albeit only a small minority in this particular university, realised that all the recommended books were by white authors and suggested some written by black authors. They were dismissed out of hand and a female black student was vilified in the right wing press for having the temerity to suggest what might be included in her course, as if the students could know better than the professors. Yet statistics show significant discrimination in that university against black students who consistently gained lower grades than white students with the same entry qualifications. Again the students had pointed out something that was hidden in plain sight, the biased curriculum was part of the problem.
Students are investing their future in higher education, as well as large sums of money, time and effort. They have chosen to study subjects they love and often are passionate about. No wonder they have strong views and special insights. Any sensible business listens to its customers, or it soon has no customers. In higher education the need is even greater because without the active engagement of students the main business, learning, cannot happen. Students are not burdened by the baggage of the battle to get an agreed curriculum. Their contemporary experience means that they are often better placed to understand changes in what skills and learning may be important in the future than late career staff. They are uniquely placed to comment on pedagogic issues and ‘what works’ in teaching. For these and many other reasons we should seek not just to listen to our students but to actively engage them.
It was once said to me by a motor company executive ‘ you are so lucky in higher education, it is so easy for you to get customer feedback, they are queueing up to tell you, you have no idea how hard it is for us to get any customer feedback. We have to feed them, supply fine wine and great locations and even then we don’t get the same quality feedback as you get everyday.’ I had to agree even if it is sometimes challenging. So then if it is so easy and so valuable why are we still so reluctant to do it?
Data about Graduates
Graduate Outcomes
Data collected through the DLHE and Graduate Outcomes surveys are used to assess performance of providers for both access and participation and the TEF (subject to current review of the TEF). All providers can currently see data up to the 2016/17 academic year on the Office for Students dashboard relating to the progression of their students into highly skilled employment. This is calculated from the DLHE data, as the survey finished that year and has been replaced by the Graduate Outcomes survey, the key change for which is that graduates are contacted 18 months after completing their course instead of the previous period of 6 months for DLHE.
Performance Measures
The first experimental statistics for the 2017/18 cohort in Graduate Outcomes was released on Thursday 18th June. It “includes high level findings and characteristics of graduate outcomes at a national level. It provides an overview of the survey results with information about graduates’ activities, employment, salaries and their own assessments of success.” A more detailed set of statistics that includes some tables broken down by provider were released on the 23rd June, this is a more useful release as it will allow some comparison between providers.
Performance indicators will also be released but this has been delayed to Autumn 2020, and there are currently no details on what these performance indicators will be due to delays caused by COVID-19 measures. Although HESA will be publishing the numbers of graduates in highly skilled employment, they are not anticipating that there will be a performance indicator associated with this metric from them. However, the metric is likely to be published initially on Discover Uni, and the OfS are working with relevant groups to define how this will be defined.
The OfS has sector wide targets for Access and Participation, but none of these currently relate to progression (i.e. highly skilled employment). Some are expected to be published in winter 2020, and are likely to relate to:
· Graduates in highly skilled or professional roles
· Employers that think graduates are equipped with the right skills and knowledge
· Graduate wellbeing
Concerns with Graduate Outcomes Data
Over the course of the first Graduate Outcomes survey there were a number of concerns regarding the effectiveness of the collection methods and the coding of the graduates’ Standard Occupational Codes (SOC). Providers have had access to their Graduate Outcomes data since the end of March, with an update in May that had some changes to SOC codes after feedback from providers was considered. This data was provided in a spreadsheet that could be downloaded from the HESA portal, but is quite a large file containing a lot of different codes and detail. It is possible that some providers have not yet fully engaged with this dataset.
HESA have published guidelines on the acceptable usage of Graduate Outcomes data, including a piece about how the data should not be directly compared to the DLHE dataset, stating clearing that “one must not compare, for example, the proportion of graduates in employment or further study at the two reference points”. How this will change the access & participation dashboard is not yet clear, as adding in the data to the same charts as DLHE data would do just this.
Longitudinal Education Outcomes Data (LEO)
The longitudinal education outcomes (LEO) data brings together information from the Department for Education with employment, benefits and earnings information. This dataset is experimental as although there are some interesting aspects of it, there are concerns about the validity of the findings. The data does not include whether a graduate is working full-time or part-time, or the details of job they are doing, as these are not required by HMRC. The tax data for part-time workers, for example, does not indicate that they are working part-time. This means certain types of workers may have a lower income recorded in LEO. Additionally, it can be difficult to take into account differences in salaries that are caused by region, the background of the student or career aspirations. In particular, there are concerns that the dataset could be used to put pressure on providers to get rid of what some call low value degrees.
Teaching ExcellenCE and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF)
In the last TEF assessment, DLHE data was used to provide metrics for graduates in employment or further study, and those in highly skilled employment or further study. These were part of the core metrics (along with NSS data) that determined the initial award assessment. LEO data was provided as a supplementary metric, but many small providers may not have had this data available as they would need sufficient eligible graduates who graduated at least 5 years prior.
Splits of the data were available based on age, POLAR, IMD, Ethnicity, Disability, and Sex. These were provided not as raw data, but as a calculated indicator to show how far above or below they are to the benchmark. It was expected that differences from the whole provider population would be addressed in the submission. The data for subject level TEF was similar, but with problems for smaller providers if they did not have enough students in a subject to warrant much analysis.
The review of TEF conducted last year is still pending release, so we do not yet know how it will change in future, or even if it will run at all. If it does, there are unlikely to be many changes to the underlying datasets as they already use what is available, but the calculations of the metrics and indicators may change.
SEER's Access, Participation & Covid-19 Research is Launching!
See our Research Briefing for more details, including how non-members can get involved.
Access, Participation and Covid-19: Exploring provider responses to Covid-19 and the impact on students
The Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing measures have thrown the higher education sector into a new world, being underpinned predominantly by online learning and engagement. The challenges faced by HE providers cover all aspects of business – from teaching and learning, student experience and professional services, and institutional business models and operations. Thinking about access and participation is very much a part of every aspect, in the “embedded”, “whole institution” approach we have developed and nurtured under the guidance of OFFA and the OfS.
The likely disproportionate effect of this new landscape on disadvantaged communities and students is a challenge providers will need to address over the immediate to longer term. Social mobility experts warn that the shift to online learning could hold back some students, including those from poorer backgrounds, care leavers, students with caring responsibilities and those with disabilities. The recent NUS survey suggested that one fifth of students struggle with access, while over half of students who rely on assistive technology felt they lacked the support needed to continue learning.
Understanding, evidencing and then articulating responses to Covid-19 and the impact on target students, particularly in respect of institutional access and participation outcomes and under-represented groups, is therefore a critical part of what is required. Not least, it is significant given the OfS position that access and participation must remain a priority, and their expectation that providers show a clear and robust rationale for the ‘reasonable alternatives’ that they have explored in order to meet the outcomes committed to in their APPs.
Applied Inspiration, a leading consultancy in the education sector specialising in fair access and participation, has addressed this need and developed a rapid research toolkit. The research is already launching with Applied Inspiration’s SEER service partners, and is now being offered to the broader sector.
SEER’s Access, Participation and Covid-19 research explores impact on students and provider responses, in respect of institutional access and participation outcomes and under-represented groups.
The key benefits of participating in the research include:
Understanding the experiences and challenges of your students (current and prospective) during this crisis, and implications for current and longer-term performance.
Understanding what practice is working and what is not, to direct current and future practice in relation to effectiveness (performance) and efficiency (return on investment) outcomes.
Building the evidence base required for monitoring from the OfS.
We invite providers to explore the attached research scope, which provides further details and an offer to participate in the research and get the toolkit.
If you would like to find out more about participating in the Covid-19 Research, about becoming a SEER partner, or the broader work of Applied Inspiration, please contact Jess Woodsford - Director for SEER, or Emma Thomas - Managing Director of Applied Inspiration, for further details or an informal conversation.
Using Theory of Change to Evaluate COVID-19 Response Activities
The current COVID19 pandemic and social distancing measures are having a huge impact on our access and participation activity. Campus closures have forced student learning, support and experience online and onto telecommunication channels. In this reactionary response to the rapid arrival of the pandemic, institutions and students alike are grappling with quality, inclusion, engagement and wellbeing as we try to continue, and succeed, in education. In the access area, our outreach activities which in the main traditionally rely on face-to-face encounters with students – either opening our campuses up to school and college students, or reaching out to engage with students in classrooms and other settings – are no longer possible .
Such challenges are likely to be more acutely felt by, and have negative impact on, students from underrepresented backgrounds. For example, IT equipment or study space at home is likely to be less available to these groups of students; financial pressure may arise as the ability to go to work is now curtailed or jobs are lost; and offer holders and prospective students are likely to be disproportionately affected by interruptions to schooling and the outreach activity that supports the journey to and transition into higher education.
As we seek to address the challenges in supporting our students and continuing to deliver access and participation activity, such are our considerations. Understanding the demographics of our student body and prospective student pipeline can help to tailor our approach and activity. However, in this crisis where rapid, reactionary innovation and change is inevitable, it is also important to remember the value of the Theory of Change (TOC) framework and evaluation practice.
A TOC approach can help us focus on the key outcomes that we want to achieve and work out the best way of delivering these. It can be applied in the development phase of mitigation activity, or as a reflective tool to help to unpack, check and validate whether what you have put in place is likely to produce the intended outcomes. A TOC framework also helps to develop effective evaluation practice that can inform and direct activity improvement. Even in this current context, evaluation is incredibly important. Three critical benefits are:
Understanding the experiences and challenges of your students (current and prospective) during this crisis and how they are engaging with their study and university experience. This will inform current ongoing mitigation activities, but also provide essential data for the mid-to-longer term, which can direct your practice into 2020-21 onwards to ensure support and resource is provided where it is needed and can be effective in minimising longer-term disadvantage and/or disruption.
Understanding what practice is working (value) and what is not (waste) is important for short-term impact, allowing you to determine how effective mitigation activity is and implement required changes to improve activity. Evaluation here can also capture the potential longer-term value of mitigation activity, if for example it is more efficient to deliver than the ‘normal’ alternative and is having the desired impact; or, if students feedback that they prefer certain activity and it generates better outcomes for them. These findings can be applied to longer-term, evidence-based practice improvements that generate efficiency measures or improve performance trajectories.
Building the evidence base required for monitoring from the OfS. In their recent letter to providers, the OfS maintains its expectation that access and participation commitments should be delivered, or that “reasonable alternatives” are put in place. Monitoring of practice during 2019-20 will take into account these alternative measures, the evidence base for changes and evaluation of impact.
At its heart, a Theory of Change is a structured way of thinking about activities and evaluation by chunking them down into a chain of thinking and focusing in detail on each part of this chain. To make things administratively light for our members, our resident TOC expert at SEER has provided the TOC model below. This is a reduced version of a more complex approach, which the SEER team will use when developing your mainstream evaluation approaches with you.
Mini TOC logic chain
Worked example – Campus visit - online campus exploration (access domain)
We know that COVID19 mitigation activities will often inevitably be less complex than normal delivery and will normally require an online approach. Using the TOC above we can focus on key outcomes for our activity and determine how these will be achieved from the mitigation activity, determining it a “reasonable alternative” (OfS).
For example, a mainstream campus visit may have a number of intended outcomes; introducing potential students to the physical space of the university, showing them what student life is like, encouraging them to imagine themselves studying there in future, introducing them to student ambassadors who can make HE study seem realistic and possible to them. Ideally each of these outcomes will be evaluated separately. COVID19 mitigation activities, however, are likely to have to be more targeted and focused.
Thinking through the mini TOC questions and focusing on one or two priority themes that you want to evaluate, will help clarify the most important parts of your activity and therefore the aspects that you need to focus on when creating your evaluation.
TOC Question
Example answers – Online Campus Visit
1. What is the problem that your mitigation activity is designed to solve?
Students can’t get onto campus to visit. This means they can’t physically look around and see what student life is like here. This means that they won’t be able to visualise themselves studying here in future and may not consider applying.
The key problem we need to solve is to raise awareness of the benefits of our campus and encourage students to develop the kind of emotional relationship with our university that might previously have been formed through face to face interactions with friendly and welcoming staff and student ambassadors.
2. How will the mitigation activity solve this problem?
An online campus tour, using videos, in a free-form format the enables users to click through and focus on the aspects that most interest them will make best use of their time and attention.
We provide videos showing key buildings and facilities, a ‘walk through’ of the Students Union, talking head videos of a diverse range of students talking about their experience here. We have laid these video links out on campus map to give an open structure to the user experience.
3. How does this solve the problem identified in question 1? What is the ‘active ingredient that makes this happen?
By giving website users a free-form experience and allowing them to focus on the areas that are most important to them, we can encourage them to feel that they are in control and not just being given a linear marketing message. They are also likely to focus on the aspects that are most important to them.
Many of our videos are presented in an informal way by actual students. This helps to make the experience feel ‘real’ and that our virtual tour visitors have engaged with real people. We hope that this will help them feel a positive emotional connection to our university.
We have clearly labelled points of contact and encourage users to follow up with questions or comments.
4. How do we know if our solution has worked? What does this look like?
We want users to come away with a sense of connection with us.
We want them to have a more developed idea of who we are, and, hopefully, to see how they would fit in here.
This might increase the likelihood of their applying in future.
5. How do we measure this?
This is a relatively light touch intervention, so we need a light-weight evaluation.
At the end of their visit, we ask users to respond to a small number of ranked answer questions:
How much did they enjoy their virtual visit?
How much could they see themselves studying here in future?
[Follow up text question – why or why not?]
How confident do they feel that they now know what student life is like here?
It may well be that your answers are more complicated or more numerous than the examples given above. It is important to record everything. Once you have all your thoughts down, we recommend going through and prioritising the two or three aspects that are most important to your overall goal. These should form the focus of your evaluation. The more focused and targeted your evaluation is, the more likely it is to produce clear usable outcomes to measure the impact of your activity and how effective it has been.
Digest with Sir Les: Light at a time of darkness
All higher education providers will have been focussed on their response to the threat of the Coronavirus and little else for the past several days. The impact on human life is already severe in many places and the Chancellor of the Exchequer has had to introduce a series of measures unprecedented in peacetime. Obviously higher education has been massively affected with virtually all face to face contact curtailed. Those providers who rely heavily on international students will be particularly worried as the travel bans introduced will greatly reduce fee income. Yet another argument for always seeking to diversify income sources. But it would be foolish to think that the emergency measures so many have introduced will not have a lasting impact on students. Many who have experienced on- line learning will ask ‘why can’t I always have my lectures in the comfort of my own home and when I want?’ So in many ways things may never be the same again.
The seriousness of the situation has had at least one more positive outcome. A letter from Susan Lapworth at the Office for Students (OfS) sent to Accountable Officers on March 17th, outlines how the OfS will ‘avoid placing any unnecessary burdens’ on providers at a time of mounting pressures and uncertainties. In a marked change of tone, the OfS say they will not operate the regulatory system as they would in normal times. They are going to allow providers to take their own approaches through their better understanding of their context. In a notably sensible passage Susan Lapworth says there will be ‘a reduced requirement for reportable events.’ To the relief of many hard-pressed Registrars there is also a pause on any new consultations or information requests.
To be fair it is not just the Covid-19 crisis that has caused such a dramatic shift in the tone of OfS communications. There were already signs that the balance was shifting. Following the widely derided circular on reportable events, remember the one that said you could be punished for not reporting a reportable event if an event was reportable or you could be punished for reporting an event which was not reportable and in any case no one could help you decide if an event was reportable, it was clear that OfS Chief Executive Nicola Dandridge had got the message. She gave a noticeably more conciliatory talk to the Association of Colleges and followed this up with a blog published by WONKHE. In this she recognises the need to get ‘the tone right in our communications in a way that reflects both distance and respect.’ There will be a review of the impact of OfS regulatory burden on individual providers which will doubtless show how disproportionate it has been on small and specialist providers. Nicola Dandridge particularly accepted that new and clear guidance was needed on ‘reportable events’. Further moves promised will make communications less ’impersonal’ and ‘bureaucratic’.
So while you battle the coronavirus and all that it entails there is some light in the darkness. Maybe your cries to the OfS for mercy have been heard and life will get a little less burdensome. Just remember Applied Inspiration is here to help you whether it be to climb the mountain of regulation or indeed to supply some ready made answers to the need to take all interaction with students and prospective students into the virtual world immediately.
Why is there so little concern about the catastrophic decline in part-time adult learners in England?
There has been a significant decline in mature learners studying part-time across the sector. This is a priority area for OfS, which was highlighted in both their recent annual review, and features in their Equality and diversity objectives (2018 to 2022).
As recent article published in THE highlights that the sector must look at how we address the decline in mature learners, which can represent some of the most disadvantaged members of our society.
“They are more likely than full-time students to be on low household incomes, to declare a disability, to possess low or alternative prior entry qualifications and to be the first in their family to engage with higher education. Most part-timers will be limited to provision local to where they live and work, so are the group potentially most aligned with a university’s role in civic engagement.”
There is an assumption by some HE providers that potential learners are all young, and want to study full-time. Therefore provision is not designed to fit the needs of the diverse potential mature part-time learner market. They often need to balance studying with a number of other commitments such as work and childcare.
"This is an indictment of policies that all too often assume that potential students are all young and all crave full-time study, and that it is enough to raise attainment in schools so that a few more rough diamonds qualify to enter selective universities."
To attract mature part-time learners, we need to think about different approaches to outreach activities, as these learners will not be reached through traditional partnerships with schools.
“Personal doubts were very common among my interviewees, reflecting both impostor syndrome and feeling like “fish out of water”… The poor learning experience of part-time students also emerged in their interviews, with inflexible institutions reported as imposing systems designed for full-time students.”
What SEER has seen from many of its members, and other new and smaller providers, is greater flexibility in how higher education can be delivered and different approaches which appeal to mature learners. Your provision is designed to meet their needs, and the intimate settings can offer a more supportive environment for those students that may lack confidence or feel they won’t ‘fit in’ in other settings.
As part of our work in SEER, we will be looking to better capture the effective practice taking place within our member institutions on flexible provision and supporting mature learners, so we can help to inform and develop the policy debate in this area.
The evaluation challenge
Earlier this month the OfS published two new reports and an accompanying blog about evaluating access and participation activities.
Richard Shiner’s blog, highlights the challenge faced by providers in evaluating access and participation, particularly new and smaller providers. The blog mentions looking to develop new resources. SEER will look to engage with and where possible to help shape this work.
Data use for access and participation in higher education
This report looks at the different data types and systems used by providers for targeting, monitoring and evaluation. It highlights that access to data for targeting stands out as a major barrier for many providers. Even when data should be readily available, such as internal data, the report suggests that almost two-fifths of providers surveyed had problems accessing data from within the their internal systems, impacting the targeting of student success and attainment activities.
SEER has started to help its members to look at how they develop their internal systems to ensure that data is easy to understand and access.
The report recognised the inherent weaknesses that come with any single dataset, and recomments using “a bundle of measures” to overcome the inherent limitations of a single data source.
“This was the recommendation of the Social Mobility Advisory Group to support the expansion of the data available to enable universities to assess their work on social mobility and was included in guidance for the use of data for targeting in contextualised admissions”
The report also recognises that pulling together multiple indicators takes a substantial amount of time and “high-level technical skills are needed to manipulate and analyse the information”.
SEER has recently developed the first stage of our schools targeting database that brings together multiple measures of disadvantage to support members in their targeting.
The introduction of the A&P dataset by the Ofs has afforded higher-education providers a rich source of data, as well as focused attention on the whole student lifecycle. Providers surveyed expressed concerns about the availability of support to interpret the data gaps and/or to recognise where progress is being made. Some would like simpler data based on a narrower set of measures, because complex data systems present challenges to providers with more limited data capacity. At SEER, we can help you to interpret the data from the A&P dataset, and we will be looking at how to can make this data more accessible and user friendly for you.
Understanding the impact of the financial support evaluation toolkit: Analysis and findings
The second report looks at the impact of the financial support evaluation toolkit which was made available by OFFA in 2017. The report found that the toolkit has been successful in helping to improve the quality of the evaluation taking place in relation to financial support, and that providers are now able to demonstrate the positive impact of their investment, rather than just capturing the opinions and reactions from students. Providers have used the evaluation findings from the tool to develop and improve their financial support provision.
If you are not using the OfS financial toolkit already, then we recommend you have a look and see what parts of it might be useful for your institution. The SEER team can support you with this.
One of the recommendations from the report is that the OfS should “consider how it can support smaller and newer providers in the take-up of the evaluation tools. Small providers could be supported by establishing a specialised network to aid financial support evaluation collaboration”. At SEER we think this would be an interesting opportunity to explore, and can facilitate this if there is interest from members.
Senior Office for Students Fair Access and Participation Manager joins Applied Inspiration as Director for the new collaborative service, SEER.
Applied Inspiration is delighted to welcome Jess Woodsford to the new role of Director for SEER, the Specialist Evidence, Evaluation and Research service.
In 2019 SEER was developed collaboratively with small, specialist and newly registering higher education providers and Independent Higher Education (IHE) to address key challenges in effectively meeting regulatory requirements for data, evaluation, monitoring and research in fair access and participation.
Jess joins SEER from her role at the Office for Students (OfS) where she led the review of how the OfS regulate fair access and participation. As part of this process she actively engaged with providers to understand how they could have a greater impact on addressing inequality of opportunity through regulatory processes.
Jess said: “I am delighted to be joining the Applied Inspiration team, leading and developing the important work of SEER. Having worked in the area of fair access and participation, holding positions in the offices of the regulator and working with higher education institutions, I am bringing to the role a wealth of experience and expertise, and a dedicated passion for the agenda. This critically includes making it work for institutions and for students.”
Jess previously held the role of Head of Programmes at the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) (predecessor of the Office for Students), where she led on regulatory processes under the Directorship of Professor Sir Les Ebdon. She also oversaw the assessment and monitoring of Access Agreements (now Access and Participation Plans).
Applied Inspiration’s Managing Director, Emma Thomas, noted that while the OfS have a mandate to reduce the barriers to entry to the higher education market, the challenges for micro, small, specialist and newly registering higher education providers remain. “It is an interesting reflection that, just like the students we target in the fair access and participation agenda, these institutions are similarly disadvantaged by their characteristics with a one-size-fits-all approach to regulation. Applied Inspiration will continue to champion and support these institutions and we have built SEER as a model that offers effective and efficient practice in the area of data, evaluation and research.”
Jess comments, “I have seen first-hand the passion for access and participation, which is evident across the sector. We need to find effective ways of capturing and evidencing the excellent work taking place across the diverse range of providers that make up our higher education sector, where in many cases that provision has been designed to meet the needs of under-represented groups. I realise this is not an easy task particularly for smaller, specialist and newly registering providers and appreciate the complexities and structural challenges many providers face.”
Jess went on to say; “As Director, my vision for SEER is to support and enable members to thrive in the regulatory environment, establishing the infrastructures and analyses required for effective data capture, monitoring, evaluation and research. We will use these insights to inform practice in a continuous improvement cycle, and to make key decisions. Through SEER we will develop our understanding and evidence the impact on progressing equality of opportunity to higher education. We will share this good practice with the rest of the sector and ensure the micro, small and specialist provider voice is heard and further, influences future policy and practice.”
Social Mobility Barometer - Public attitudes to social mobility in the UK, 2019-20
The Social Mobility Barometer (SMB) is an annual survey of around 5,000 people from across the nation.
At SEER we’ve been reflecting on the 2019-20 Social Mobility Barometer results and what these could mean for our members’ practice. We’ve provided a range of key points and some of our thoughts to inform the access (outreach) agenda.
“A deep pessimism”
Last year the SMB exposed deep pessimism among young people (18-24) about their futures and a feeling that it was becoming harder for those from working class backgrounds to get on in life.
Younger generations continue to feel more acutely that your background shapes where you end up. Only a third (30%) of 18-24 year olds feel that everyone in Britain today has a fair chance to go far, compared to almost half (48%) of those 65 and over.
SEER says…
“Hope”, “high expectations” and “resilience” are key indicators of progression (to HE). A “deep pessimism” in our market is therefore a huge concern for HE providers – and particularly those with access targets, as disadvantaged students are most affected. Think about how your outreach programmes help to build hope and high expectations (as opposed to aspirations). This includes capacity building that identifies the formative steps pupils can take to achieve their goals. It also includes facilitating and making clear a ‘line of sight’ to those goals and destinations. Destinations must feel achievable, along the education journey. Who are the role models you can draw on to demonstrate success by people “just like me”. Seek to measure these indicators as part of good evaluation practice in outreach, to assess your progress. Benchmark attitudes of pupils you engage with against the SMB.
“Opportunities for progression and social mobility depend on your background”
The Report suggests that the focus on improving educational opportunities may have started to pay off but much more attention is needed on training, jobs, and pay levels.
44 per cent say that where you end up in society is largely determined by your background, while twice as many people feel it is becoming harder rather than easier to move up in society.
The majority of people continue to feel there are less opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, this included going to a top university (77%), and leaving school with good qualifications (60%).
Overall, people think apprenticeships are the best opportunity for progression. Thirty-two percent felt that taking an apprenticeship offer young people the best chance to progress, followed by higher education (26%) and going into further education (14%).
However, younger people continued to feel that higher education offered the best opportunity to progress their life and career. 18-24 year olds feel that going into higher education offers the best opportunities (35%) compared to apprenticeships (18%).
SEER says…
The ‘deep pessimism’ reflected in perceptions of opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds perhaps suggests a continuing lack of awareness of pathways and opportunities in HE amongst these target groups – particularly when considered in light of the national investment and effort in access and participation from the HE sector. Some individuals may feel like higher education is ‘not for people like them’ because of their background. A smaller, more intimate, person-centred setting might be more appealing to certain students. We therefore need to ensure that students have access to information on the range and diversity of different HE options available to them. This allows potential students to make informed decisions, which will lead to the best outcomes for them.
The perception that there are lower opportunities to achieve good qualifications at school is a concerning issue – and reflected in the OfS’s focus on raising attainment in schools. Schools in disadvantaged areas are more likely to receive poorer Ofsted ratings and may have more difficulties in attracting and retaining the best teaching and leadership talent. As part of a comprehensive, impactful outreach offer, providers may therefore wish to reflect on messaging and awareness-raising campaigns: What are the “signs and symbols” you can present in schools and communities that indicate opportunities and support for target learners? How are these embedded and ‘normalised’ in students’ daily lived experiences? Also think about how to support school improvement measures to help raise attainment. The Education Development Trust’s Effective School Improvement study (2016), identified 8 elements for effective school practice and improvement, which are also aligned to DfE guidance. A quick win is to participate in school governance as a member of the governing body, contributing to leadership and getting the HE access/ destinations agenda on the table, coupled with the concepts of “hope”, “cultural capital” and opportunities for all”. These are agendas schools will be very familiar with through the new Ofsted framework – which is a key driver.
Respondents aged 65+ selected apprenticeships around twice (43%) as much as the next highest category (higher education, 21%).
It is interesting that amongst older people (25 years old and above). Apprenticeships are considered the best progression opportunity; while 18-24-year-olds consider this to be university pathways. In terms of provider considerations, there are a few interesting thoughts here:
While there may be “opportunity pessimism”, there is nevertheless a clear awareness and belief amongst young people that HE routes offer the best life chances. This perhaps reflects aspiration and confirms that we need to work on the expectation / hope part of the equation. The belief needs to change from, “I know HE gives me the best possible opportunity but I can’t get there [because of my background]”; to, “I know HE gives me the best possible opportunity and I understand, from my current position, the routes available, which one is right for me, the steps I need to take to get there, and that I can get there”. Outreach programmes need to nurture the aspiration/ belief; and facilitate the pathways.
We need to work with schools, and organisations providing IAG to ensure that students receiving impartial information about the variety of HE options available; including what small and specialists providers can offer and how the experience may differ from other types of providers.
In relation to apprenticeships, this route may appeal more to mature learners, and those from low-income backgrounds, as research has shown that these groups of potential students can be more debt adverse. Mature learners are more likely to work during their studies, and so an option where you can earn while gaining your qualification is likely to appeal. When considering the needs of mature learners, whether in relation to apprenticeships or other HE routes, we need to consider how we can accommodate commitments outside of study such as childcare arrangements, and the need to work, and what this might mean for things like timetabling.
Knowing your Place
This year it reveals stark regional differences in attitudes to social mobility – as those in the North, the Midlands and the South West feel more left out.
There is a growing trend for people to feel there are large differences in opportunity across the country. The majority of people (76%) feel there are large differences in opportunity across the country in 2019, compared to 73% in 2018 and 71% in 2017.
There are stark and persistent regional differences in perceived opportunity, with the greatest difference between London and the North East. 78% of respondents in London felt there were good opportunities for people to progress in their region, compared to 31% in the North East, 37 per cent in Wales, and 47 per cent in the South West.
This reveals a worrying divide between opportunities in education and what follows – work, income and job security.
SEER says…
Areas where more pessimistic attitudes are identified correspond generally to areas with higher levels of POLAR4 Quintiles 1 and 2; and IMD Quintiles 1 & 2 and also with Opportunity Areas. The perception of the level of “opportunity to progress” is complex and involves inter-generational and systemic disadvantage. While these are “hard basket” issues, we consider that these are areas where there could absolutely be latent or “unstimulated” market. In our competitive environment, and in respect of APP targets, these are not areas to be overlooked in a recruitment / outreach plan. In these areas, it will be critically important to work with schools and organisations on the ground, for local networks, influence and context. It will also be important to ensure the link between HE and good career outcomes is made, including information and awareness raising about local labour market information as well as national or your institutional opportunities. Working with local employers, LEPs and Chambers to better understand the skills gaps/ shortages and whether these resonate with your objectives and offer, would be a good strategy.
The recent OfS Local Graduates challenge competition will be funding activity in this area. Members should explore the emerging good practice as it becomes available.
Reflection on the OfS Annual Review
'The area where, above all, the OfS wants to see the most rapid and radical improvement is in securing greater equity in the access and participation of students. We have seen in this year’s access and participation plans a welcome shift in ambition and commitment. But this laudable commitment will need to translate quickly into results. The challenge now is to change the facts on the ground.” Sir Michael Barber, Chair of the Office for Students
In December the OfS released its first annual review setting out the current state of English higher education and reflecting on its progress in implementing a new regulatory approach. We have reflected on the key points raised in the review and considered what they mean for our partners.
The registration process
The report recognised that the registration process took longer than expected, citing missing or weak evidence and identifying weaknesses in how applications were presented and explained as causes of the delays. The majority of interventions imposed by the OfS relate to Condition One, on Access and Participation Plans (APPs). The OfS have published additional guidance on how they will monitor providers, explaining in greater detail the processes and expectations.
Advice to our members
As well as being familiar with the new monitoring guidance, providers should pay particular attention to their Registration letters, which may include further notes on OfS considerations in relation to their submitted APPs. These notes provide an indication on where OfS will more likely check and monitor into the future, and there may be additional explicit requirements / areas of interest cited.
Providers should also reflect on any queries that they were asked to address during the APP assessment process, as these are also likely areas to which OfS will pay attention in ongoing monitoring.
The SEER service will support members to understand what these expectations are likely to mean, and will help its members best respond to the ongoing monitoring requirements.
Fair access and participation
As we are aware there are still significant gaps in equality of opportunity for some groups in relation to accessing and succeeding in higher education. The review highlighted the important role that raising school attainment plays in starting to address these issues. There is an expectation that providers show continuous improvement in both practice and outcomes.
“We are still a long way from equality of opportunity in higher education, but we have a great opportunity to make a real difference that will deliver immeasurable dividends not just to students but also to universities and colleges, and beyond them to communities and society.”
There will be a focus on mature learners, and the need to address the significant decline in participation. The review suggests the OfS may launch a challenge competition later this year aimed at supporting and encouraging greater diversity of provision, including flexible and part-time learning. This will run alongside a focus on disability, ethnicity and socioeconomic background and a continued focus on the BAME attainment gap.
As part of APPs the OfS require a systematic analysis of characteristics of your student body, and an honest and rigorous self-assessment backed up by national data. The OfS want to see effective, evidence-based interventions with proven outcomes.
The OfS will be updating the A&P data dashboard to improve transparency for non-technical users. Hopefully this will make it more accessible. As part of this upgrade, a new experimental measure, ‘Associations between characteristics’, will be introduced, which combines data on different student characteristics.
The establishment of TASO will also support the sector to access information on effective practice.
Advice to our members
Raising attainment in schools
While not all providers have explicit targets relating to raising attainment in schools, this is clearly an ongoing area of focus for the OfS. In conducting more general outreach work, members should therefore explore how they can contribute to and evidence the ‘raising attainment’ ambition in the future. We predict that this will be a question for all providers in future years – so early preparation is recommended.
Here are a some efficient ways to take some initial steps:
Explore attainment raising as part of your general school engagement and partnership work, using the expertise of engaged teachers and principals to inform how best to contribute to the schools’ own attainment (teaching, learning and curriculum) agenda. Determine how you can add value to existing school priorities rather than invent your own practice. Understand what evidence/ outcomes and evaluation the school has in place; align your practice to this.
Explore other organisations and projects with third parties/ partners which have a focus on raising attainment, and seek to leverage existing activity and outcomes through contributing to existing, or creating collaborative, provision.
Use best practice case studies and examples upon which you can model your projects. Many providers have been undertaking projects to raise attainment over the last 5 years and there are focused examples for different subject areas as well as provision type (e.g. master classes to homework hubs to academic mentoring). Make sure you explore these examples and learn from them in developing your approach.
There are a great array of free resources online provided by various bodies, organisations and employers that support school learning based on subject/ career area. Explore what is available beyond the sector – and consider these for partnership work too, where you consider your missions are aligned.
Keep it as simple as possible and understand that you are very unlikely to prove causality – only correlation. Therefore qualitative case studies and testimonials are an important part of the evaluation and evidence required.
The SEER service is part of a suite of “Collaborative HE” activity, through which collaborative outreach has been developed in 2019-20. The first collaborative outreach programme, “FutureFIT”, is embedded in school curriculum and aligned to pupil outcomes across attainment, progression and destinations (careers and education information, advice and guidance). This project is set to grow nationally, incorporating target schools and multi academy trusts in areas of disadvantage across the country. You can ask the SEER team for further information on collaboration into this project, which is launching with a committed 25 initial schools from 2020-21.
Mature learners
The OfS has signalled in a number of places their increased focus on addressing the decline in mature learners. With some of our members attracting high volumes of mature learners, this is an area where members have an opportunity to share good practice and showcase some of the innovative approaches taken to delivering higher education.
For those members with high proportions of mature learners, you might want to consider capturing why your model of provision appeals to mature learners, and what factors were taken into consideration when designing it. Working with your mature students to capture this will give it more authenticity.
For those members that have seen a decline in mature learners enrolling in courses, you may want to consider why, and what steps could be taken to support access for mature learners. This could be related to practical aspects like timetabling, or lack of flexibility in how provision is delivered. Speak to your students to find out what the barriers could be.
We also know that mature learners can be a difficult cohort of students to reach, so if members have had success in engaging mature learners in outreach activities, you should look to capture this information too.
SEER will be looking to collate such information from members so we can produce a coherent picture across our members and share good practice across the sector.
With the suggestion of a challenge competition in this area later in this year, engaging with this topic now may put members in a good position to respond to the competition when it is launched. The SEER team will keep members up to date with developments in this area, and will help to facilitate members to explore the potential for a collaborative bid in the challenge competition, and can support with bid writing.
Improvements and ongoing focus on data, evidence and evaluation
The updated dashboard and underlying data/ methodology will continue to be the source of ‘truth’ for the OfS. Providers dealing with internal data, for example where datasets are too small to report on the dashboard, should as far as possible seek to align their own data analyses with OfS methodology. A consistent approach from the outset will best allow for alignment in the future and minimise administrative burden.
As part of our work in SEER we will remain cognisant as to how we can most effectively use this database and integrate additional member data. SEER is providing and supporting its members with analyses of characteristics of their student bodies, and self-assessment. SEER will bring national data to these analyses to evidence and compare performance and contexts.
In relation to evaluation, the initial suite of evaluation tools provided by SEER will be released to members within the next few months. These will allow members to build evidence-based interventions and demonstrate commitment to evaluation and impact.
As part of the collective voice to the sector and contributions to TASO, members should be ready to work with the SEER team to provide a range of rigorous case studies and qualitative evidence to support and add value to quantitative data, and to fill the ‘gaps’ left by quantitative analyses – particularly where datasets are small. This will be an important aspect of contributing to the TASO and sector evidence base on ‘what works’ in the micro, small and specialist HE provider context.
Admission
This year the OfS will be conducting a review of provider admissions, including the merits of post-qualification applications. This will consider the important role that contextual admissions can play in widening participation. It is widely understood that the use of contextual admissions has increased across the sector, and there are some innovative and radical examples of its use.
There is a challenge here for many providers not having access to appropriate data at the time of admissions to be able to make contextual offers. OfS are exploring how to make more data available including working with UCAS to make free school meals data available.
Advice to our members
Members should keep updated with the admissions review as it is released. The SEER team will provide notifications.
More broadly, members should reflect on their own admissions processes, including the types of data collected that would inform contextual admissions processes. Conversely, consideration of gaps in data would point to areas for improvement more broadly, regardless of whether you have a contextual admissions policy in place.
Given OfS’s emphasis on contextual admissions as a driver for positive change in fair access, it is worth considering this approach if you do not already have contextual admissions in place. A range of best practice is available across the sector, including on the OfS website in the A-Z of effective practice section.
Having said this, we find that most micro, small and specialist providers are much more adept at contextualising and individualising admissions processes. Admissions methodology, which is more likely to involve individual interviews or auditions, lends itself to contextual practices; while the smaller intake size allows for more personalised admissions via academics and flexibility /responsiveness of administrative processes. Therefore it is worth considering whether you have best or innovative practices that could be shared. The SEER team will support members in this process, building the collective voice as well as individual provider examples.
Value for money
Students’ views on what value for money means can differ significantly to the views of providers. For some it’s about outcomes, others it’s about the types of academics they have the opportunity to work with. In research commissioned by OfS, it was clear that quality of teaching, contact time and feedback was broadly considered important by students. The OfS are pushing providers to be more transparent about value for money for their students, and they will be looking at how they can strengthen their guidance in this area.
The importance of meaningful student engagement will continue to be a focus, the OfS will be publishing their student engagement strategy in the spring. Providers are expected to involve students in the development of their plans, and the OfS are ensuring that student engagement is part of the monitoring process.
Advice to our members
We would encourage our members to actively and iteratively consider whether they fully understand what ‘value for money’ means to their students, and how they build value. How these considerations translate into increasing the effectiveness of recruitment activity (including outreach, with particular consideration and nuances for APP target groups) is also a critical reflection point. There are a range of views across the sector regarding “value for money” and members should consider these in the context of their offer to students (academic, personal and professional). Understanding and documenting value that is added due to the particular status of your institution (i.e. specialist; campus-based; professionally linked or accredited, etc.) would be a good exercise.
Using the ‘student engagement’ focus, members may wish to include students in some ideation or workshop sessions to explore and discuss concepts of “value for money”, along side other topics relevant to access and participation.
The SEER team will help members to leverage their student body and collaborate with them in relation to the SEER objectives and in particular evaluation of APP activity. Involving students in the development of data baselines and strategy; and, analyses and interpretation of data, would add value and contribute to the “students as co-creators” approach (rather than just providing feedback). Members can expect to work with the SEER team to explore and set up such processes to involve students in the implementation and monitoring of their APPs.
DfE WP Statistics 2019 - SEER Summary
This morning the DfE have released the 2019 WP statistics. Unfortunately (beyond the bubble of London), where you live still matters. The structural influences of region and school type are stark in the data, which still illustrate significant and widening gaps in progression to higher education for the most disadvantaged. The SEER service brings you its summary, focusing on measures for WP, Access and Participation Plans.