a . Reduce the gap in higher education participation between the most and least represented groups .
b . Support young people to make well-informed decisions about their future education .
c . Support effective and impactful local collaboration by higher education providers working together with schools , colleges , employers and other partners .
d . Contribute to a stronger evidence base around ‘ what works ’ in higher education outreach and strengthen evaluation practice in the sector . 9
Uni Connect evaluation
15 . To assess how successfully the programme is meeting these aims , a range of national and local partnership evaluation activities have been established . 10 This report should be considered alongside this wider evaluation activity . The programme evaluation includes :
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 ).
16 . The purpose of this analysis is to provide an updated assessment of whether , as stated in the programme aims , the gap in higher education participation between the most and least represented groups in England has reduced since the launch of Uni Connect in 2017 . Other parts of the programme evaluation focus more on the success of interventions at the local level .
COVID-19 pandemic
17 . The two most recent cohorts of learners in this updated analysis were applying ( or at least receiving offers ) during the COVID-19 pandemic , in the 2020 and 2021 application cycles respectively . But the nature of this disruption varied between the two cohorts .
18 . For learners applying in the 2020 cycle , the vast majority ( around 95 per cent ) had already applied by the January deadline before the first lockdown was announced in the UK on 23
9
New aims for phase three can be found at www . officeforstudents . org . uk / advice-and-guidance / promotingequal-opportunities / uni-connect /.
10
See www . officeforstudents . org . uk / advice-and-guidance / promoting-equal-opportunities / uniconnect / evaluating-uni-connects-impact /.
9