Through its long-term , coordinated outreach to support student progression to further and higher education , Uni Connect enables schools and colleges to focus resources on the academic performance of young people from those disadvantaged groups disproportionately impacted by the pandemic .
The Office for Students has provided funding of £ 60 million per year for the Uni Connect programme for academic years 2017-18 , 2018-19 , 2019-20 and 2020-21 .
The programme aims to :
Figure 1 Map of the 29 Uni Connect partnerships across England reduce the gap in higher education participation between the most and least represented groups support young people to make well-informed decisions about their future education support effective and impactful local collaboration by higher education providers working together with schools , colleges , employers and other partners contribute to a stronger evidence base around ‘ what works ’ in higher education outreach and strengthen evaluation practice in the sector .
This report examines the evidence available across partnerships to understand progress towards these aims . It looks first at what Uni Connect partnerships have achieved , and then at available evidence of the difference the programme has made under each objective , at the national , partnership , activity , school and student level .
What has been achieved so far ?
Uni Connect activities represent a very significant contribution to the widening participation work taking place across England . From January 2017 to July 2020 , at least 1,600 schools and colleges and 765,389 young people , of whom 348,290 lived in target areas , took part in higher education outreach through the Uni Connect programme . Over 68,000 activities have taken place and almost 2.5 million contact hours have been delivered across 28 of the 29 partnerships . This represents an average of 3.88 contact hours per learner taking part in Uni Connect , in line with the 3-6 hours found to be associated with increased expectations of applying to HE in HeppSY ’ s recent study 7 .
7
HeppSY Cohort Evaluation : Contact Hours and Expectations of Applying to HE Aged 18 or 19 . October 2020 . Daniel Fletcher and Greg Brown . 5