Ipsos | Uni Connect Phase 3 : Attainment-raising Activity – Final Report
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Prior to attainment-raising , several partnerships developed experience examining long-term outcomes as a result of their outreach activities . Several delivery partners access Higher Education Statistics Agency data ( HESA data ) via HEAT and also get data from a university within their partnership . They then match the HESA data with HEAT data outcomes . At present , there are plans to conduct similar analysis relating to attainment-raising activities .
4.3 What has worked well ?
Summary : Nearly all partnerships that conducted pilots found that this was a useful step ( in relation to the evaluation in particular ) as it enabled them to identify data-collection limitations and develop mitigating solutions . Partnerships also collaborated with HEP academics and evaluation experts either in their core team or through third-party support .
Piloting the evaluation enabled programmes to identify potential problem areas . Most partnerships found that pilots provided a useful opportunity to assess research protocols , data-collection instruments , datacollection strategies and other research techniques in preparation for full delivery and evaluation . For example , this helped one partnership decide between two competing study methods , such as using interviews rather than a self-administered questionnaire . It also highlighted where schools were unable to share data such as predictive and actual grades . This allowed for partnerships to adjust accordingly e . g . setting up pre / post surveys when unable to access grade data .
Third parties , HEP academics and evaluation leads functioned as a valuable resource . Nearly all partnerships utilised evaluation experts . Most importantly , having an evaluation lead or consultant within the partnership team was very valuable as this individual has the necessary the skills , experience and dedicated capacity to oversee the evaluation process .
“ We are retaining two of the evaluation staff . Not actually because of attainment activity delivery , but as part of the wider need to ensure the core evaluation comes through . Two full-time evaluation staff , which I always like to point out because it ’ s quite a big proportion of our staffing and rightly so .” ( Partnership lead )
In some cases , academics or subject experts from HEPs helped partnerships select and develop appropriate data-collection tools and validated surveys . Wider support included working with HEAT for tracking and monitoring outcomes and evaluation plans , using TASO resources ( especially learner success criteria ), and NEON ( an organisation that supports widening access to HE ) evaluation training .
“ Giving access to the data is really important for us to be able to provide the service that we do . What Uni Connect , I think , have done really well has been able to in some cases establish that link with the school or college so that they are getting the data easily at the beginning of an academic year every year ; that helps with sustaining the service .” ( Stakeholder )
The role of teachers in evaluation was clearly communicated . Most schools reported that the information about their role in supporting evaluation and monitoring of attainment-raising activities was clear ( 51 %) or very clear ( 34 %) ( Annex B ). In addition to this , 68 % were satisfied with the data-sharing agreements and processes set up with partnerships ( Annex B ). This could be a result of schools having worked with partnerships prior to the attainment-raising strand of work and already having data-sharing agreements in place .
20-048464 | FINAL | Public | This work was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the international quality standard for Market Research , ISO 20252 , and with the Ipsos MORI Terms and Conditions which can be found at http :// www . ipsos-mori . com / terms .