The future of collaborative outreach

One of the great joys of my job is that almost everyone I speak to about the work of equality of opportunity in English universities is so innovative and entrepreneurial, and I always enjoy people coming up to me and making suggestions about how all aspects of our work could be improved, challenged, streamlined or expanded. It makes for fascinating discussions.

I have had plenty of these since my recent speech to the UUK access, participation, and student success conference. There I spoke about the work we at the OfS have recently been doing with our colleagues in Uni Connect partnerships about the future of collaborative equality work in English higher education. The map for this work has been the report put together by Public First, about the past, present and plausible futures for such collaborations.

Following this review (published in February), we commissioned Public First to generate a theory of change, exploring what the next steps could be for Uni Connect partnerships, and this formed the foundations for my UUK speech.

To briefly summarise that part of my speech that got people talking to me, we have formed three big conclusions:

• Collaborative equality work, especially that with students who are not yet applying for higher education, is demonstrably beneficial for the higher education system as a whole.
• The processes, incentives, and frameworks for doing such work are, right now, not properly aligned to get the best out of the huge efforts staff at Uni Connect partnerships, in higher education providers, and in schools and colleges are making.
• The OfS would like to reframe the structures of this work by making partnerships more durable and impactful, by improving their tools, ensuring their funding, and reforming our metrics.

Today we are publishing the theory of change work underpinning that argument.

Those who read it will note it does not contain all the answers for the future of this work and it was never intended to do so – some parts of that depend on government agreement (funding), and questions about precisely how we form the partnerships, and what level of co-ordination and control they have over the activity of providers in their region, are - quite deliberately - questions we want to answer in dialogue with the sector.

And, as I noted at the start, that dialogue has already begun: questions about how regional link-ups might work for, say, the Open University, which is by definition present in every region, or for providers with franchised provision across different localities, or for providers in regions with very few higher education institutions and therefore less to collaborate with.

I am not being deliberately obtuse when I say I don’t know the answers to these questions yet - I am seeking to hold open the space for fruitful discussions about the mechanics of the system which the theory of change points us towards.

But there are some clear parameters, drawn from discussions with more than 70 stakeholders representing different sectors and organisations in the access world, and refined in workshops with leaders of the current Uni Connect partnerships. These are:

• Collaborative higher education access work will have a clear and coherent mission – and we will give regional partnerships clearer guidance on how to divide their efforts​. 

• A range of resources will be commissioned nationally, underpinned by a single national brand​.

• ​We’ll create common tools and frameworks to tell a stronger shared story about impact​ – a key innovation will be that providers seeking an access and participation plan will be expected to secure the agreement of their local partnership before submitting their plan to the OfS.

• Attainment raising will sit within broader programmes of regional activity supporting early, persistent and consistent engagement. 

That we think we can make this work better does not invalidate the excellent work already in train: we currently have 2,079 schools and colleges engaged in Uni Connect activity (based on 2022-23 data), but this work occurs in a system where, at present, universities and colleges are incentivised individually to prioritise access and participation - and we know that can lead to competition in a space when really, we need collaboration to tackle the challenges nationally.

There is a long way to go, in discussions with partnerships, providers and the government as the ultimate funder of this work, but I hope our aspirations are clear: by creating regional partnerships for this activity, we believe that this will help with efficiencies, improved evaluation and practice – and ultimately better outcomes for students.