pension333: Letter to Les Ebdon: 'UK universities need a joined-up outreach framework'

The new Offa director must tackle the main barrier to widening participation in higher education ? the lack of a nationwide and collaborative framework, says Alex Bols of the 1994 Group

Dear Les,

Congratulations on your new job as director of the Office for Fair Access (Offa). After the fuss that surrounded your appointment you are no doubt pleased to be finally getting down to work. You will know how important the job is and the level of responsibility it carries. Making sure that talented people have opportunities to study is not only a social imperative; it is a vital neccessity for universities seeking to recruit the brightest and best.

The temptation to apply tough targets for universities and strong sanctions for those not meeting them will be strong, but you will be well aware of the limitations of this simplistic approach. As OFFA has rightly signalled in the past, long term outreach which boosts aspiration and attainment is the most effective way of putting potential students in strong positions to apply to selective universities.

We believe in targeted outreach at the 1994 Group and the approach is paying dividends: while on the whole progress on widening participation has remained largely flat in selective institutions,between the academic years 2005-6 and 2010-11, members of the 1994 Group on average improved their figures for the three main HESA widening participation performance indicators by several percentage points in each category.

We've been looking into some of the reasons for this, collecting evidence and case studies from staff and students from across our institutions to identify best practice in outreach. Our findings supported OFFA's belief that well-targeted outreach that begins early on in life works best. The broader message from our students: it would be na�ve to try and model the motivations of prospective students ? many of those we spoke to faced very different barriers before attending university. Maintaining a portfolio of outreach activities was seen as crucial to responding to diverse needs and concerns, as was ensuring that these programmes are carefully targeted towards individuals who need the most support.

The key task for OFFA going forward is not to identify the best types and methods of outreach, but to ensure that the infrastructure which supports outreach activity across the sector is sound, as well as advocating for the policy environment which surrounds it. It won't be easy. The practitioners we spoke to identified three main barriers to making substantial progress on outreach.

First, the lack of a joined-up monitoring and data framework is not helping. It is almost impossible for universities to assess the impact of particular outreach initiatives on any significant scale, as contact with participants is too easily lost if they change school or attend another university. Integrating the unique learner number into this system would be one way to better track the outcomes of participants, as would tracking free school meal data and enabling greater links between university data and the National Pupil Database.

Second, there is no reliable geographical picture of outreach coverage across the country. This has lead to a dual problem of duplicated efforts and widening participation 'blind spots', mainly in rural areas with limited access to large, urban universities. Though it could have been more effective, the Aimhigher initiative did at least bring about better geographical co-ordination of efforts and a vacuum has been left in its wake.

Third, increasing competitive pressures on recruitment are making it extremely difficult for institutions to engage in collaborative activities at the 16+ level. The loss of Aimhigher has also created a need for a neutral centralised mechanism for collaboration, and OFFA would do well to consider what is needed to fill this gap.

A fit-for-purpose outreach framework offers the best road to creating a more diverse student population without forfeiting academic standards. Taking steps to ensure that the conditions are in place for such a framework would enable you to have a truly 'nuclear' impact on the sector, allowing universities to open the doors to talented students from an ever widening range of backgrounds. We look forward to working with you in the months ahead.

Yours, Alex Bols

Alex Bols is executive director of the 1994 Group ? follow the group on Twitter @1994group

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