Evaluation of the Impact of Aimhigher and Widening Participation Outreach Programmes on Learner Attainment and Progression: Interim Report
01 March 2009
HEFCE have commissioned the NFER to assess the contribution that Aimhigher and other widening participation outreach initiatives are making to improvements in attainment and progression. HEFCE are particularly interested in establishing whether there is any evidence that Aimhigher and widening participation activities have led to positive participant outcomes in attainment and progression, identified through a combination of quantitative and qualitative data.
This research has three objectives:
- to assess the quality and extent of existing data in order to refine and develop future data capture exercises in Aimhigher partnerships
- to explore, in detail, the evidence of impact that can be inferred from data provided by Aimhigher partnerships where data quality and completeness is perceived to be good
- to provide a robust evaluation of the Aimhigher programme as a whole.
This report presents interim findings on the first research objective. NFER has also begun work towards the second objective and progress on this is recorded here.