Quantifying the extent of Uni Connect engagement in target areas
77 . Uni Connect partnerships were set a goal to engage with at least 20 per cent of learners in target areas in phase one and two of the programme . 30 Analysis in this section shows that 17.2 per cent of learners in these areas from the most recent cohort received the full level of engagement that the programme envisaged , although nearly all received some engagement . These findings suggest that the impact of the Uni Connect programme may be limited by its scale .
78 . Table 5 below ( and previously Figure 1 ) show how each cohort analysed in this report has had an increasing number of potential years of Uni Connect engagement compared with the last . In theory , the most recent cohorts , with the greatest potential engagement , should allow for the most complete assessment of whether Uni Connect ’ s sustained and progressive outreach is associated with any improvement in participation rates . However , as previously discussed , the nature of this engagement for the two most recent cohorts was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic .
Table 5 : The six cohorts analysed in the following section
Potential number of full years of Uni Connect engagement
Year 9
GCSE summer ( end of Key Stage 4 )
UCAS application cycle
0 2011-12 2014 2016 0 2012-13 2015 2017 1 2013-14 2016 2018 2 2014-15 2017 2019 3 * 2015-16 2018 2020 4 * 2016-17 2019 2021 Note : An asterisk (*) indicates that Uni Connect engagement was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic for this cohort .
79 . Although we cannot directly identify individual learners who have engaged with the Uni Connect programme , or for how long , we can identify schools that Uni Connect partnerships intended to engage with . This is possible through ‘ activity monitoring ’ data returned by partnerships . For more recent cohorts , information collected through ‘ tracking reports ’ further reveals the number of hours of activity delivered within schools over a given period . 31 Ultimately , this allows us to identify learners from Uni Connect areas who appear to have
30
See ‘ Meeting targets and milestones ’ in ‘ NCOP : end of phase one report for the national formative and impact evaluations ’, available at www . officeforstudents . org . uk / publications / ncop-end-of-phase-oneevaluation-report /. For phase two , see paragraph 13 of ‘ National Collaborative Outreach Programme Phase two guidance ’ available at www . officeforstudents . org . uk / publications / national-collaborative-outreachprogramme-phase-two-guidance /.
31
The OfS ‘ Uni Connect annual report : Phase two ( August 2019 to July 2020 )’ contains further information about the engagement activity carried out during phase two . See www . officeforstudents . org . uk / publications / uni-connect-annual-report-phase-two /.
29