‘Outreach’ to Widen Participation in HE - The Community Partnerships Programme

1. ‘Outreach’ to Widen Participation in HE - The Community Partnerships Programme Dr Meg Allen Evaluation Officer The Open University

2. Early research indicated limited impact Does ‘massification’ increase diversity? M/C families more able to mobilise to take up places More recent research indicated some impact - Sutton Trust 2008 &HEFCE 2010 Impact of Widening Participation?

3. New Labour response • Guidelines for Aimhigher (HEFCE 2007) • Use of financial incentives • HEFCE ‘talk’ of evaluation of widening participation strategies Increased focus on targeting and outreach

4. Issues in targeting Three ways to target (Hatt 2001) ; • Occupation / income - don’t capture ‘class’ • Area based Measures - often inadequate • Parental experience of HE - hard to capture Tend to identify ‘heterogeneous groups’ and also; • Potentially stigmatising and disguise the reality of endemic poverty • May be setting people up to fail – not ‘HE ready’

5. Problems with ‘Outreach’ • ‘Broad church’ – activities aren’t comparable • Places the onus on the learner to change • Can be ‘deficit’ model • Can be ‘bolt on’ – need for systemic change Where is the policy imperative for redistributive change?

6. Community Partnerships Programme Recruits adults to p/t distance learning using a specific outreach model: • Works in areas of high deprivation, those with no previous HE • Locally based staff – with local knowledge • Students recruited through a community based partner • Students given group based study skills support • All sessions run in local, familiar venues • No selection – targeted through area / local knowledge

7. The research … • Used data from seven comparable projects 2007 -2009 • 236 students, 128 met the OU’s definition of ‘widening participation’ • Comparison of profile of CPP students with ‘generic’ OU widening participation sample • 24 interviews with students • Interviews / feedback from regional staff and partners

8. Profile of the students … • High proportion of students met the OU’s widening participation criteria – 52% as opposed to 15% nationally • High proportions of women, 91% • High proportions of BME students – 47%, only 10% nationally • Lower levels of education than a comparable sample – more likely to have ‘O’ level or no qualifications • More likely to be unemployed / home worker or working part time • Students slightly less likely to complete and achieve than a comparable sample

9. The student experience… Student feedback was highly positive: • Students had moved into further study / employment • The majority intended to study in future • ‘Soft’ gains such as self esteem • Improved academic skills and confidence

10. ‘these courses I’ve been doing they have given me the confidence to go and look for another job that I never thought I’d do. I always thought I was gonna do this job till I retired because I was comfortable and I liked it and the pay is OK, but I’ve realised there is more to life, there’s more out there.’ ‘Its opened my eyes and made me realise I’m more capable of doing stuff … I’ve heard people say about education that it puts the world at your feet and I’ve thought ‘yeah yeah yeah’, but it is, it really is. Even if you don’t achieve, its just doing it, its opening your mind up.’

11. Issues for development … • Good pre-course advice and guidance – the right people on the right course • Frontloaded support – start and first assignment • Need for committed partners • ‘Qualities’ of the worker – takes specific skills • Time investment ‘in it for the long haul’ • Can we make it ‘mainstream’ – how do we change the university? • Resource intensive – issue for the future?

12. Who should we target? 'It is questionable whether these are the types of areas where the most significant advances in participation from lower socio-economic groups might be made in the short term… there is a strong social justice case for intervention across a longer timescale’ (Harrison and Hatt, 2010, p.84). • Completion and achievement rates only slightly lower – they have the ‘potential’ • Should there be HE access routes for all communities? • What does HE bring that FE / NVQ doesn’t? • Is this the role of HE? • Can we be in it ‘for the long haul’?