What is it about?
Access to top universities is not equal. Young people from privileged backgrounds are more likely to go to top universities than young people from less privileged backgrounds. University widening participation interventions are seen as an important approach in addressing unequal access to top universities; but do they work? Evaluating the impact of such interventions is challenging. This paper discusses how the Theory of Change (ToC) was used as a framework to evaluate the impact of one intervention - The Academic Enrichment Programme (AEP) at the University of Birmingham - and presents the findings of the evaluation.
Featured Image
Photo by Vasily Koloda on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Understanding what works and is effective in widening participation to higher education is important. This paper shows the AEP increased entry rates to top universities for disadvantaged students, the effect was greater when combined with alternative offers. The paper also demonstrates the value of the ToC approach in evaluating university widening participation interventions.
Perspectives
I hope this article provides an insight into the work of university widening participation (WP) teams and the challenges around evaluating impact of such interventions. I hope WP practitioners and evaluators find it useful in their work.
Shaheen Barkat
University of Birmingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Evaluating the impact of the Academic Enrichment Programme on widening access to selective universities: Application of the Theory of Change framework, British Educational Research Journal, July 2019, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/berj.3556.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
