Evaluation of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge. The early impact of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge on pre-16 outcomes: an economic evaluation
23 November 2005
Available to download from DfE
The Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge programme of interventions seeks to encourage young people to participate in tertiary education by providing them with additional support and information. The policy is aimed particularly at young people from groups that have traditionally had low Higher Education participation rates.
Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge, initially introduced as Excellence Challenge, is closely linked to Excellence in Cities (EiC) and has been introduced in the Phase 1 and 2 EiC areas and the Education Action Zone (EAZ) areas from September 2001 (it has later been introduced in the EiC Phase 3 areas). The variants of the policy differ in these two types of area. In both cases the Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge programme seeks to encourage participation in Higher Education, but the Excellence in Cities areas also benefit from special support for young people deemed to be gifted and/or talented.
This paper presents the quantitative effects of the first full year of Aimhigher: Excellence Challenge since its introduction.