Current Regional Research - Aimhigher Southwest 2008 / 2011
2010 Research - Finding the Cohort - the learners 'potential for HE'
This piece of work is being undertaken by the Aimhigher Southwest regional team on behalf of Aimhigher West.
How do you identify a learner’s potential for Higher Education? Part of the Aimhigher criteria for identifying its cohort of learners is the qualifying condition of their being a learner with the potential for higher education. This research will examine the concept of 'potential' and collate evidence to better understand how the learners’ potential for higher education is identified and evaluated within the activities of the Aimhigher West area partnership. These results will be compared with a national survey.
The research is currently underway and will employ a literature review, two online questionnaires, and a series of practitioner interviews. It is expected to produce its final report by the end of 2010. Provisional reports will be placed online here in the interim as emergent findings.
Emergent Findings
Literature Review (Draft version)
Questionnaire Data – the National Survey (Draft version)
Questionnaire Data – the Aimhiger West Area Survey (Draft version)
Interviews with Aimhigher West Local Area Coordinators (Draft version)
Interviews with South West Disabled Students Advisers and WP Regional Network members (Draft version)
Please note: these are draft reports and they are online provisionally.
2009 / 2010 Research - Relationships, Impact, and Sustainability
Relationships, Impact, and Sustainability: the relationship between the Aimhigher partnerships and Higher Education institutions’ outreach work in the South West region.
This piece of work has been undertaken by the Aimhigher Southwest regional team on behalf of the three Aimhigher Area Partnerships in the South West. The research will explore the ways in which the activities of each of the three Aimhigher area partnerships in the South West region have interacted with the widening participation outreach activities of their local Higher Education Institutions. It will also assess the ways in which these combined programmes have affected the HE awareness, aspirations and attainment of young people from groups that are currently under-represented in HE and will consider options for the future beyond the period of confirmed funding for the Aimhigher programme.
This research is currently underway and is expected to produce its final report by the end of 2010. Provisional reports will be placed online here in the interim as emergent findings.
Emergent Findings
Targeting: Inter-relationship between HEIs and Aimhigher
Widening Participation profiles of HEIs in the Southwest (2002/03 to 2007/08)
2008 / 2009 Research - Aimhigher and FE Colleges - Results
Aimhigher and Colleges. A report presented to the Aimhigher area
partnerships in the south west by Sue Hatt and Jim Tate, July 2009.
Download the Final Report as a PDF file or a Word file
Aimhigher and Colleges (pdf) Aimhigher and Colleges (Word)
This piece of work was undertaken by the Aimhigher Southwest regional team on behalf of the three Aimhigher Area Partnerships in the South West. The research has been conducted in three stages. Stage 1 consists of desk-based research reviewing the available literature, evaluating college websites, and looking at secondary data. The findings from this stage are used to inform and contextualise the fieldwork stages. Stage 2 consists of a questionnaire to all FE colleges to find out the extent and the ways in which they are engaging with the Aimhigher targeting criteria and the newly implemented Higher Education Progression Framework. Stage 3 consists of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in seven colleges across the region and with six Area Partnership Managers/Co-ordinators to explore the extent to which Aimhigher is aligned with the colleges key strategic priorities.
Dissemination
A presentation based on this research was given at a national conference in April 2010 "Mainstreaming Equality in Higher Education?" at Edge Hill University. Download the powerpoint presentation
A presentation based on this research was given at the national conference FACE 2009 Towards a New Agenda for Lifelong Learning: Access, Diversity, and Participation in July 2009.
An article from this reseach has been published (June 2010) in the published proceedings from the FACE conference available from their website.
Two presentations from this research were given at the Aimhigher Southwest seminar in Taunton in November 2009.
Aimhigher and Colleges by Sue Hatt
Sustainability and Aimhigher by Jim Tate - word file download of the "Sustainability Tree"
Sustainability in a Changing Environment Feedback from the seminar group work on a theme of partnership working and Aimhigher’s priorities.
Literature and Web Review
Download the Interim Report on Desk-Based Research
Contextualising the Evidence
Some Key Points from the Literature and Web Review
- FE Colleges include significant proportions of students from groups that are under-represented in higher education and thus they form an important link in the progression route to higher education.
- Progression within the college is not always considered in the best interests of students nor is it always easy or ‘seamless’. The colleges FE and HE provision may not be well-aligned as they have been developed to meet the needs of distinct groups within the student body.
- The integration of P4P and Excellence Challenge have emphasised the focus on the 13-19 age groups and on progression to full time honours degrees.
Southwest FE Colleges Questionnaires
Download the Questionnaire Results as a PDF file and Download the Questionnaire itself
Aimhigher activities with FECs in the South West, 17 November 2008 to 27 February 2009
Some Key Points from the Questionnaire Results
- Learners “in schools” constituted 19.6% of all participants, less than half the number of participants who were “in college” (46.3%).
- "Vocational Level 3 students in your college" made up over a quarter (28.5%) of the total number of all types of learners who participated in activities. A significantly higher percentage than any other category of learner. These learners were present more frequently for every type of activity and account for between a quarter and a half of all participating groups in each activity.
- Almost three-quarters (70%) of all returned questionnaires reported activity involving vocational level 3 learners.
- For some data the result for the south west region overall is different to the result for the individual Area partnerships. For example, Masterclasses register much more significantly for LIFE (50%) than for the south west overall (24.7%).
- Over 10% of learners visiting HEIs were disabled learners. Disabled learners were also the recipients of over 11% of college-based activities and 12% of the provision of IAG.
- Strong differences emerge between the area partnerships. Three-quarters (75%) of the LIFE participants were learners in schools. For the Peninsula, not only were nearly 77% of participants Vocational Level 3 students, this category of learner was actually present at 100% of Peninsula events.
- Almost 90% of respondents said they were aware of information/advice on Aimhigher targeting.
- 50% reported that applying the Aimhigher targeting information/advice was “Easy” or “Very Easy”. 30% found it “Difficult” or “Very Difficult”.
- When identifying the Aimhigher cohort, the most significant sources of information were from the learners themselves (20.5%) and from consultation with institutional colleagues (18.1%).
- Over 80% reported that they were aware of the Higher Education Progression Framework and half (50%) said that their activity fitted into it.
Interviews and Analysis
- Interviews were conducted with Aimhigher contacts or co-ordinators in these colleges: University Centre Yeovil, South Devon College, New College Swindon, Exeter College, Wiltshire College, Bournemouth & Poole College, and Filton College. Analysis of these interviews will be included on this page when it is available.
- Interviews were also conducted with six Aimhigher colleagues working at management level; two from each of the three Aimhigher area partnerships in the south west. Analysis of these interviews will be included on this page when it is available.
