Summary
1 . Uni Connect ( formerly known as the National Collaborative Outreach Programme ) is an Office for Students ( OfS ) funded programme that supports the delivery of sustained and progressive outreach to target learners in years 9 to 13 of secondary education . 1 The programme brings together 29 partnerships of universities , colleges and other local partners to offer activities , advice and information on the benefits and realities of going to university or college .
2 . To assess how successfully the programme is meeting its aims , a range of national and local partnership evaluation activities have been established . 2 These include :
a . Independent impact evaluation to assess changes in learners ’ higher education knowledge , attitudes , intentions and behaviours that result from Uni Connect activity , including a review of impact evidence from partnerships ’ local evaluations .
b . Independent formative evaluation to improve understanding of how the programme is working and drive improvements .
c . Partnership local evaluations , including longitudinal tracking . d . Monitoring activity delivery and learner engagement . e . Analysis of national administrative data ( presented in this report ).
3 . This report provides an updated evaluation of one of the stated aims of the Uni Connect programme : to reduce the gap in higher education participation between the most and least represented groups of learners . It then investigates gaps in participation between learners living in Uni Connect target areas and those not , before finally considering some of the underlying factors associated with changes in these gaps over time .
4 . With data available for two additional cohorts of Uni Connect participants since the previous OfS analysis was published , this report provides a more complete assessment of the national trends in participation rates to date . It now covers four years of Uni Connect outreach delivery to learners during school years 10 , 11 , 12 and 13 . 3 This remains one year short of the five years sustained and progressive delivery between years 9 and 13 which the programme was designed to offer .
5 . The two additional cohorts included in this report were applying ( or at least receiving offers ) during the COVID-19 pandemic , in the 2020 and 2021 application cycles respectively . Delivery of the Uni Connect programme was also disrupted during this period . The findings of this report should be viewed within this wider context . Because of this and other limitations ( see the
1
For more information on Uni Connect , see www . officeforstudents . org . uk / advice-and-guidance / promotingequal-opportunities / uni-connect /.
2
See www . officeforstudents . org . uk / advice-and-guidance / promoting-equal-opportunities / uniconnect / evaluating-uni-connects-impact /.
3
The previous analysis can be found at www . officeforstudents . org . uk / publications / uni-connect-nationalevaluation /.
3