A new £22m scheme aims to capitalise on the power of networking to encourage more young people into HE and raise the profile of university outreach programmes, as Clair Murphy explains.

Joined-up thinking

Over recent years there has been no nationally coordinated approach to helping schools and colleges encourage young people to aspire to a place at university. But now a new £22m national initiative, funded by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and managed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), is offering help.

The national networks for collaborative outreach (NNCO) scheme will enable English, publicly funded universities and colleges to develop networks to coordinate outreach activities for all state-funded schools and colleges in England. Funding spans the academic years 2014/15 and 2015/16. A call for applications from universities and colleges to form networks was made in June with a closing date of 30 October.

Successful networks will each appoint a single point of contact – a SpoC – through which teachers and advisers will be able to fi nd out about the availability of HE outreach activity and programmes, as well as tap into general advice about progression into higher education. Networks will also host websites carrying information about activities available locally and signpost other sites useful to schools and colleges as they prepare their students for the possibility of higher education.

Networks will work most closely with schools and colleges that have relatively few pupils who go on to university, but the scheme will also offer a gateway to information for all state-funded schools and colleges. Each network will not be expected to work in exactly the same way but instead will provide activities and advice that address the particular outreach needs of their local area.

The funding is available to both the networks of universities and colleges that are already in place – for example, those that developed in some areas following the end of Aimhigher – and the development of new approaches to partnership and new models of outreach, including the use of new technologies. Where appropriate, HEFCE is encouraging networks to use the funding to support approaches to higher skills and progression delivered using European Social Fund (ESF) grants in conjunction with their local enterprise partnership (LEP).

Sharing skills

The Kent and Medway Progression Federation (KMPF) was launched in 2011 when funding for Aimhigher ceased. Made up of former Aimhigher schools, the local authorities (Kent and Medway) and partner higher education institutions (HEIs) (University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University, and the University of the Creative Arts (in Surrey)), it operates as an equal partnership and recognises that colleagues from the different sectors have much to teach one another, says its Director, Felicity Dunworth.

“The federation has brought together a shared set of skills, where different partners contribute different areas of expertise,” Felicity says. “Partners invest together to train and develop colleagues in partner schools, colleges and universities, and all have become adept at selecting those young people who will most benefi t from what we offer.”

The federation has three key elements: a rich and ever-growing database; the skills that the partners have developed to explore the signifi cance of that information; and a well-developed and supported network of specialist individuals working in close collaboration.

Schools demonstrate their commitment to the federation by contributing the services of a member of their staff to act as that school’s KMPF progression mentor. This individual will be the main point of contact between the school and specialist colleagues in partner schools and universities. They will also be responsible for identifying and supporting those young people who may benefi t from the federation’s collaborative support.

Universities also put on a range of outreach activities, while local authorities provide the funds for investment in specialist expertise and to ensure that young people will be able to travel to and from events at university campuses.

Becoming part of the new national network will enable KMPF to extend their reach to offer some activities to every state school and college in the area, says Felicity.

“While the bulk of intensive work will always be targeted towards schools serving the most deprived parts of our county, some activities will be more widely available. The network will also allow us to broaden our range of delivering partners. Most excitingly, the new network will enable us to give more emphasis to the opportunities in higher education offered by our local colleges of further education as they become members of our expanded network,” she adds.

‘No gaps’

In West Yorkshire, HEART (Higher Education Access Rewarding Transforming), an established consortium of 12 universities and colleges offering higher education, is planning to expand its activity with support from the NNCO scheme.

Ian McGregor Brown, HEART’s Manager, says: “We are proposing to be one of four networks in the Yorkshire and Humber region alongside similar existing networks Higher York, HEPP [Higher Education Progression Partnership] (South Yorkshire) and the Federation of Colleges, Hull. Working with them we’ll ensure all schools in the region have simple access to our partners and that there are no gaps for schools.”

HEART already has a website – www.heart.ac.uk – offering information to its partners and, through the NNCO initiative, aims to improve the site to offer better information and support to all schools across the fi ve West Yorkshire local authority areas.

Plans include:

• improving the search function for the calendar of events and supplementing with details of all partner outreach activities
• developing a direct communication system not only to HEART but also enabling schools to contact multiple universities and colleges directly
• producing videos covering some of the typical outreach activities offered by all partners, such as sessions on student finance and support and UCAS application processes, which will be available all day, every day
• supplementing the videos with timetabled webinars offering further support to teachers, advisers and students
• producing a series of information pieces/factsheets on all aspects of higher education
• piloting new collaborative outreach activities targeting the learners most under-represented in higher education, the aim being to develop new methods of engagement and to enable partners to learn together how best to support all young people in their area

Ian adds: “More ambitious activities are being discussed with our partners and HEFCE, so schools in West Yorkshire should look out for our communications regarding the HEART SPoC and how to find out more.”

Other age groups

While the scheme aims to coordinate outreach activity for state-funded secondary schools and colleges, some networks will also work with younger and older age groups – for example, through primary schools and with employers and community groups to offer opportunities to older learners.

Networks will not disrupt the individual partnerships that some schools and colleges have built with particular HE providers. But networks, and particularly the SpoC, will provide a conduit through which all state-funded secondary schools and colleges can be guided towards outreach activity that is suitable for their students.

NNCOs should have their funding confi rmed by December, so secondary schools and colleges can expect to hear from their local network by the New Year. Early next year HEFCE will publish a national guide to the networks, which will include contact details for all SPoCs.

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For more information on this and the rest of the scheme, go to www. hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/wp/current/nnco/ or contact Clair Murphy (c.murphy@hefce.ac.uk) or Sam Dyer (s.dyer@hefce.ac.uk) at HEFCE.

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Clair Murphy is Senior HE Policy Adviser, Student Opportunity Team, at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

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