Common use of Monitoring and evaluation arrangements Clause in Contracts

Monitoring and evaluation arrangements. Strategic development of widening participation is a whole University responsibility led by the University Executive Board through the Pro-Vice Chancellor (PVC) for Learning and Teaching. The PVC chairs the Learning and Teaching Committee and its three sub-committees on behalf of Senate, including the Admissions and Outreach Sub-Committee. As a member of the University Executive Board, the PVC for Learning and Teaching ensures that strategic thinking about widening participation is at the heart of University strategic developments and reflections. This Board also includes the PVCs with responsibility for driving forward University strategies in each of the University’s five faculties (Arts and Humanities; Engineering; Medicine, Dentistry and Health; Science and Social Sciences). This strategic leadership structure ensures that widening participation is articulated within the Faculty learning and teaching strategies and practices. The University will monitor activity and evidence of impact in a number of ways. To date, Student Services teams have worked alongside Learning & Teaching Services (LeTS) staff to implement robust procedures for monitoring the activity that is delivered both by central teams and by individual faculties and academic departments. This will continue and will be strengthened by the recent integration of LeTS into the Student Services structure. In addition, in developing its Access Agreement for 2012 and beyond, the University has committed resource to the development of an academic Widening Participation Research Unit. This will allow for quantitative and qualitative research into the long term impact of our widening participation initiatives to be undertaken by research experts. Results of such research will be published as a way of sharing good practice within the sector. The evidence will also feed into continuous improvement of the activities and programmes we deliver. The unit will contribute and oversee short term research and evaluation activity, to provide a more consistent and formal approach to impact assessment and continuous improvement. On an ongoing basis, quantitative data will be used to measure outputs (e.g. number of participants, number of activities, number of schools and colleges involved) to assess the level of activity undertaken against the numerical targets we set. We will also use a range of evaluation techniques to measure the effectiveness of individual activities and longer term widening participation programmes as a way of measuring the impact of the work we undertake. This will include paper and electronic surveys of participants and attitudinal surveys of participants on intensive programmes. Data will be monitored and tracked to longitudinally assess the long term progression and success of students who participate in outreach programmes and/or progress to the University, using admissions and progression data from the University’s internal student records system. Progress will be monitored through our own internal governance structures and reported to the Office for Fair Access on an annual basis. Monitoring of progress against targets and milestones set out in the Access Agreement will be undertaken by the Admissions and Outreach Sub-Committee of Learning & Teaching Committee, which formally reports to the University’s Senate. Primary EXPANDED Interactive web-based resources for all primary schools across South Yorkshire. Professor ▇▇▇▇▇▇ sessions on and off campus targeting pupils and parents. Classroom mentoring for literacy and numeracy. Primary teachers have been involved in developing the resources that will be rolled out across South Yorkshire. Their expertise with regard to what will work with this particular target group has been invaluable. a) Aimhigher South Yorkshire data shows that the attainment and progression rates of young people in South Yorkshire have improved significantly in recent years. Our contribution to this is difficult to measure because there are so many contributing factors, but we would anticipate that the extensive programme of activities we have contributed has played a key role in these improvements. b) The Institute for Effective Education at the University of York is undertaking a research project following the “Find Your Way” cohort of Excellence Hubs. This is a long term research project but initial findings are that the participants; enjoy working collaboratively as a group, prefer interactive hands on activities, like being able to visit a range of HEIs, prefer activities that are held during the school day, feel that working with student ambassadors is beneficial and are keen to receive more information about HE options as early as possible.

Monitoring and evaluation arrangements. Strategic development of widening participation is a whole University responsibility led by the University Executive Board through the Pro-Vice Chancellor (PVC) for Learning and Teaching. The PVC chairs the Learning and Teaching Committee and its three sub-committees on behalf of Senate, including the Admissions and Outreach Sub-Committee. As a member of the University Executive Board, the PVC for Learning and Teaching ensures that strategic thinking about widening participation is at the heart of University strategic developments and reflections. This Board also includes the PVCs with responsibility for driving forward University strategies in each of the University’s five faculties (Arts and Humanities; Engineering; Medicine, Dentistry and Health; Science and Social Sciences). This strategic leadership structure ensures that widening participation is articulated within the Faculty learning and teaching strategies and practices. The University will monitor activity and evidence of impact in a number of ways. To date, Student Services teams have worked alongside Learning & Teaching Services (LeTS) staff to implement robust procedures for monitoring the activity that is delivered both by central teams and by individual faculties and academic departments. This will continue and will be strengthened by the recent integration of LeTS into the Student Services structure. In addition, in developing its Access Agreement for 2012 and beyond12.1 Annually, the University has committed resource to the development of an academic Widening Participation Research Unit. This will allow for quantitative and qualitative research into the long term impact of our widening participation initiatives to be undertaken by research experts. Results of such research will be published as a way of sharing good practice within the sector. The evidence will also feed into continuous improvement of the activities and programmes we deliver. The unit will contribute and oversee short term research and evaluation activity, to provide a more consistent and formal approach to impact assessment and continuous improvement. On an ongoing basis, quantitative data will be used to measure outputs (e.g. number of participants, number of activities, number of schools and colleges involved) to assess the level of activity undertaken against the numerical targets we set. We will also use a range of evaluation techniques to measure the effectiveness of individual activities and longer term widening participation programmes as a way of measuring the impact of the work we undertake. This will include paper and electronic surveys of participants and attitudinal surveys of participants on intensive programmes. Data will be monitored and tracked to longitudinally assess the long term progression and success of students who participate in outreach programmes and/or progress to the University, using admissions and progression data from the University’s internal student records system. Progress will be monitored through our own internal governance structures and reported reports to the Office for Fair Access Access, OFFA, in its Annual Monitoring Report. This includes all expenditure from additional fee income on an annual basisfinancial support for lower income students and other under-represented groups and reports progress against objectives and milestones. Monitoring We look forward to the development of the national evaluation framework to inform our evaluation of access and student success activities effectively. 12.2 Internally, our basic monitoring of outreach initiatives includes progress against targets and milestones set out and is reported annually. The elementary evidence base is provided through Management Information Services reporting which identifies volumes and outputs of outreach activity. Proportions of target groups benefiting from WP activities are analysed through this data capture. The regular statistical analysis offers the opportunity to assess the nature and delivery of activity and informs evaluation and future planning. 12.3 Most recent measurement of outcomes has shown that objectives have been delivered, exceeding expectation of engagement/applications/enrolments to the University from participants, and it is pleasing to note that the work has shown consistent improvement in the Access Agreement will be undertaken by the Admissions and Outreach Sub-Committee of Learning & Teaching Committeeparticipant application to Preparation for Higher Education/Higher Education programmes, which formally have resulted in enrolments. 12.4 The University prepares an annual report during the Autumn of each year, which considers data on retention, progression and achievement of all minority target groups. Separate reports consider responses to both the University’s Senate. Primary EXPANDED Interactive web-based resources for all primary schools across South Yorkshire. Professor ▇▇▇▇▇▇ sessions on National Student Survey and off campus targeting pupils and parents. Classroom mentoring for literacy and numeracy. Primary teachers have been involved in developing the resources that will be rolled out across South Yorkshire. Their expertise with regard to what will work with this particular internal Student Perception Survey, again analysed by minority target group has been invaluablewhere available. This enables a clear overview of where action might be appropriate to support the retention, achievement and progression of under-represented groups. a) Aimhigher South Yorkshire data shows 12.5 The University further intends to build upon the current self-assessment process by developing an integrated Targeting, Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy that focuses both on the attainment OFFA National Strategy for Access and progression rates Student Success and the OFFA Strategic Plan. The strategy, based on HEFCE guidance, will have four levels: Level 1: Basic monitoring – progress against targets and milestones, outputs and volumes Level 2: Targeting – proportions of young people the target groups benefitting from WP activities Level 3: Measurement of outcomes – impacts and unintended consequences, short-, medium- and long-term Level 4: Value for money – cost-effectiveness. 12.6 It was intended to introduce this process for 2016/17, but staff absence has resulted in South Yorkshire have improved significantly in recent its deferral to future years. Our contribution to this In addition, the University is difficult to measure because there are so many contributing factorsconsidering membership of the monitoring and evaluation service for subscribing Higher Education Institutions, the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) Service. The service is clearly of value, but we would anticipate that as the extensive programme costs are not proportional to institutional size, subscription requires careful consideration of activities we have contributed has played a key role in these improvementsthe benefits. b) The Institute for Effective Education at the University of York is undertaking a research project following the “Find Your Way” cohort of Excellence Hubs. This is a long term research project but initial findings are that the participants; enjoy working collaboratively as a group, prefer interactive hands on activities, like being able to visit a range of HEIs, prefer activities that are held during the school day, feel that working with student ambassadors is beneficial and are keen to receive more information about HE options as early as possible.

Monitoring and evaluation arrangements. Strategic Progress in delivering our Access Agreement and widening participation strategy is monitored through the people and bodies outlined in Appendix E. The University's Widening Access Working Group, chaired by the Vice President for Teaching, Learning & Students with academic representation across the Faculties, senior Professional Support Services staff and the Students’ Union, utilise expertise and ensure full consultation in the development of widening participation the Access Agreement. Research and evaluation is embedded into our strategy and is integral to our work, which is illustrated in the Framework in Appendix D and focuses our assessment of outcomes and impact. Specific examples of our assessment of targeting and evaluation of outcomes are provided in our Widening Participation Annual Report4. Our approach includes:  Targeting: ensuring that we are targeting the right students for our access, student success and progression activity is an essential element of our work. We use a whole University responsibility led by range of indicators and approaches dependent upon the University Executive Board through the Pro-Vice Chancellor (PVC) for Learning and Teaching. The PVC chairs the Learning and Teaching Committee and its three sub-committees on behalf of Senate, including the Admissions and Outreach Sub-Committee. As a member aim/objective of the University Executive Boardactivity, the PVC delivery or intensity and what data are available. Where appropriate, we also monitor the effectiveness of our targeting; for Learning and Teaching ensures that strategic thinking about widening participation is at example, by analysing the heart postcodes of University strategic developments and reflectionspupils who have taken part in key outreach programmes. This Board also includes the PVCs with responsibility  Monitoring: key performance indicators for driving forward University strategies in each of WP are embedded into the University’s five faculties (Arts and Humanities; Engineering; Medicine, Dentistry and Health; Science and Social Sciences). This strategic leadership structure ensures that widening participation is articulated within the Faculty learning and teaching strategies and practices. The University will monitor activity and evidence of impact in a number of ways. To date, Student Services teams have worked alongside Learning & Teaching Services (LeTS) staff to implement robust procedures for monitoring the activity that is delivered both by central teams and by individual faculties and academic departments. This will continue and will be strengthened by the recent integration of LeTS into the Student Services structureinternal Annual Performance Reviews5. In addition, in developing its Access Agreement we also collect a range of internal monitoring data, for 2012 example, since 2005 we have used a specific online database for the systematic collection and beyondanalysis of individual, area and school/college-level monitoring data for our vast range of outreach work.  Evaluation: our approach to assessing the University has committed resource to the development of an academic Widening Participation Research Unit. This will allow for quantitative and qualitative research into the long term outcome/impact of our widening participation initiatives to be undertaken by research expertsactivity involves:  short-term evaluation of individual activities;  medium and longer term evaluation of participant outcomes. Results Evaluation is embedded in our plans and we analyse the outcomes and impact of such research will be published as a way of sharing good practice within the sectorour outreach, student success and progression interventions each year. The evidence will also feed into continuous improvement of the activities and programmes we deliver. The unit will contribute and oversee short term research and results from our evaluation activity, to provide a more consistent and formal approach to impact assessment and continuous improvement. On an ongoing basis, quantitative data will be used to measure outputs (e.g. number of participants, number of activities, number of schools and colleges involved) enable us to assess the level of activity undertaken against the numerical targets we set. We will also use a range of evaluation techniques to measure the effectiveness of individual activities our activity, and longer term widening participation programmes change or adapt this as necessary; it has also helped to inform priorities for our work. For example, our Careers Service monitors its activities, both quantitatively and qualitatively, in order to ensure that the University is able to achieve its ambition and Access Agreement target of a way of measuring the impact of the work we undertake. This will include paper and electronic surveys of participants and attitudinal surveys of participants on intensive programmes. Data will be monitored and tracked to longitudinally assess the long term progression and success of students who participate in outreach programmes and/or progress to the University, using admissions and progression data from the University’s internal student records system. Progress will be monitored through our own internal governance structures and reported to the Office for Fair Access on an annual basis. Monitoring of progress against targets and milestones set out year-on- year increase in the Access Agreement will be undertaken by proportion of WP students in positive employment destinations.  Specific Research: involves analysis of data, both statistical and qualitative, and comparison is made with other data (e.g. comparison groups, the Admissions wider cohort, regional and Outreach Sub-Committee of Learning & Teaching Committee, which formally reports to the University’s Senate. Primary EXPANDED Interactive web-based resources for all primary schools across South Yorkshire. Professor ▇▇▇▇▇▇ sessions on and off campus targeting pupils and parents. Classroom mentoring for literacy and numeracy. Primary teachers have been involved in developing the resources that will be rolled out across South Yorkshire. Their expertise with regard to what will work with this particular target group has been invaluablenational data). a) Aimhigher South Yorkshire data shows that the attainment and progression rates of young people in South Yorkshire have improved significantly in recent years. Our contribution to this is difficult to measure because there are so many contributing factors, but we would anticipate that the extensive programme of activities we have contributed has played a key role in these improvements. b) The Institute for Effective Education at the University of York is undertaking a research project following the “Find Your Way” cohort of Excellence Hubs. This is a long term research project but initial findings are that the participants; enjoy working collaboratively as a group, prefer interactive hands on activities, like being able to visit a range of HEIs, prefer activities that are held during the school day, feel that working with student ambassadors is beneficial and are keen to receive more information about HE options as early as possible.3.1 Student financial support

Monitoring and evaluation arrangements. Strategic development The University will seek to embed the monitoring of widening participation these measures within our existing governance, executive and deliberative structures, as well as developing specialised mechanisms for evaluating the success of certain core activities (such as project delivery). The Board of Governors is a whole University responsibility led by already kept regularly informed regarding progress against the University’s key performance indicators (both at main Board meetings, and within Policy and Resources Committee). The Audit Committee has oversight of monitoring mechanisms, in their totality, and will approve (and maintain) any such that are put into place for these measures. We aim to introduce additional performance measures (or to adapt existing ones) to ensure that the Board has oversight of our performance in achieving the commitments made within this Agreement, as well as reporting the outcomes of the various projects that we implement each year (the Board already receives an Annual Report, from Academic Board, which covers performance against HESA performance indicators as well as reporting on developmental activity in the spheres of quality assurance and enhancement, and learning and teaching development, across the University). Within the executive, operational and deliberative spheres of the University, our existing management and committee structures allow for appropriate monitoring of individual activities, with the University Executive Board through Executive, and the Pro-Vice Chancellor (PVC) for Learning and TeachingAcademic Board, maintaining strategic oversight. The PVC chairs University has developed regular faculty and departmental planning meetings, which scrutinise budgetary expenditure as well as operational goals, and which use the same forms of performance measure against which we evaluate ourselves institutionally. We also have a developed, and uniform, process of project development and delivery, which includes the operation of a project board and the regular reporting of progress up to Executive level. Students are an important part of our committee structure, with student membership of the Board of Governors (and its key sub-committees), Academic Board, Quality and Standards Committee and Learning and Teaching Committee and its three sub-committees on behalf of Senate, including the Admissions and Outreach Sub-Committee. As a member Students are also actively involved at faculty and course level, and within some project groups. In line with our proposal to maintain current participation levels (within benchmark) whilst improving student progression and retention (above and beyond benchmark) the emphasis of the University Executive Board, the PVC for Learning our monitoring processes is on tracking and Teaching ensures that strategic thinking about widening participation is at the heart of University strategic developments and reflections. This Board also includes the PVCs with responsibility for driving forward University strategies in each of the University’s five faculties (Arts and Humanities; Engineering; Medicine, Dentistry and Health; Science and Social Sciences). This strategic leadership structure ensures that widening participation is articulated within the Faculty learning and teaching strategies and practicesimproving retention. The University will monitor activity and evidence of impact in has established a number of ways. To datemeans of monitoring student progression and engagement, which are drawn within a wider-ranging programme of projects titled ‘Student Services teams have worked alongside Learning & Teaching Services Progression and Transition’ (LeTS) staff to implement robust procedures for monitoring the activity that is delivered both by central teams and by individual faculties and academic departments. This will continue and will be strengthened by the recent integration of LeTS into the Student Services structure. In addition, in developing its Access Agreement for 2012 and beyond, the University has committed resource to the development of an academic Widening Participation Research Unit. This will allow for quantitative and qualitative research into the long term impact of our widening participation initiatives to be undertaken by research experts. Results of such research will be published as a way of sharing good practice within the sectorSTAR). The evidence will also feed into continuous improvement aims of the activities and programmes we deliver. The unit will contribute and oversee short term research and evaluation activity, to provide a more consistent and formal approach to impact assessment and continuous improvement. On an ongoing basis, quantitative data will be used to measure outputs (e.g. number of participants, number of activities, number of schools and colleges involved) to assess the level of activity undertaken against the numerical targets we set. We will also use a range of evaluation techniques to measure the effectiveness of individual activities and longer term widening participation programmes as a way of measuring the impact of the work we undertake. This will include paper and electronic surveys of participants and attitudinal surveys of participants on intensive programmes. Data will be monitored and tracked to longitudinally assess the long term progression and success of students who participate in outreach programmes and/or progress to the University, using admissions and progression data from the University’s internal student records system. Progress will be monitored through our own internal governance structures and reported to the Office for Fair Access on an annual basis. Monitoring of progress against targets and milestones set out in the Access Agreement will be undertaken by the Admissions and Outreach Sub-Committee of Learning & Teaching Committee, which formally reports to the University’s Senate. Primary EXPANDED Interactive web-based resources for all primary schools across South Yorkshire. Professor ▇▇▇▇▇▇ sessions on and off campus targeting pupils and parents. Classroom mentoring for literacy and numeracy. Primary teachers have been involved in developing the resources that will be rolled out across South Yorkshire. Their expertise with regard to what will work with this particular target group has been invaluable. a) Aimhigher South Yorkshire data shows that the attainment and progression rates of young people in South Yorkshire have improved significantly in recent years. Our contribution to this is difficult to measure because there STAR are so many contributing factors, but we would anticipate that the extensive programme of activities we have contributed has played a key role in these improvements. b) The Institute for Effective Education at the University of York is undertaking a research project following the “Find Your Way” cohort of Excellence Hubs. This is a long term research project but initial findings are that the participants; enjoy working collaboratively as a group, prefer interactive hands on activities, like being able to visit a range of HEIs, prefer activities that are held during the school day, feel that working with student ambassadors is beneficial and are keen to receive more information about HE options as early as possible.to:

Monitoring and evaluation arrangements. Strategic development of The widening participation agenda, retention rates and success across the student lifecycle are overseen by the University’s Student Access and Progress Committee. The Committee, chaired by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) and with representation from the Guild of Students, receives and considers regular reports and analysis of institutional performance in a range of areas (such as continuation rates, student equality benchmarks, HESA Performance Indicators, student experience surveys, outreach activity evaluation, etc.). In addition, the University Education Committee, also chaired by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) and with representation from the Guild, receives an annual progress report, approves OFFA reporting and considers the annual report from the Academic Skills Centre. Within the University’s Outreach team there is a whole University dedicated Officer with specific responsibility led for evaluation; this post works closely with Outreach Officers and with Aimhigher on the evaluation of activities. The Outreach Evaluation Strategy for 2015-2018 supports our commitment to evidence-based practice in widening participation and outreach as well as to facilitating a culture of learning and continuous improvement. We are committed to generating evidence-based information from timely and robust evaluations to inform and support our outreach work. The overall aim of the Evaluation Strategy is to provide a framework for producing high quality evidence-based monitoring and evaluation information to support learning, improvement, innovation, accountability and strategic decision-making. The key objectives of the strategy are as detailed below. • Support the generation of evaluation evidence to improve fair access to higher education by: o understanding what we do; o identifying what approaches work in promoting fair access and social mobility; o identifying where we can improve to increase the effectiveness of our widening participation policies and interventions; and, o supporting strategic decision making and allocation of resources. • Provide direction on our approach to evaluation to ensure information generated is robust, relevant and useful. • Provide a framework for future evaluations and link them to strategic decision-making by setting out the University Executive Board key focus areas for evaluations and the main evaluation questions they will seek to address. • Provide a plan for outreach evaluations over the next 3 years, which will be reviewed and updated annually. We have a comprehensive evaluation programme for our Access to Birmingham programme, including monitoring of applications through from acceptance and tracking students to graduation and employment. Aimhigher West Midlands undertakes comprehensive evaluation of the impact of its interventions, with reference to control and experimental groups. Tracking suggests that engagement in Aimhigher during Key Stage 3 and 4 generates increased aspiration towards higher education, improved KS4 attainment and increased progress to higher education (HE). The proportion of Aimhigher-engaged Pupil Premium learners attaining 5 GCSEs at A* - C, including English and Maths, exceeded that of regional Pupil Premium learners over the four years 2011/12 to 2014/15. The progression of Aimhigher beneficiaries into HE is tracked via HESA data. Aimhigher learners formerly receiving Free School Meals (FSM) are more likely to enter HE than non-Aimhigher FSM students (31.6% in 2014 and 36.7% in 2015). By comparison, regionally 22% of former FSM students entered HE in 2014. Aimhigher learners from POLAR3 Quintile 1 postcodes also enter HE in greater proportions than their peers (40.0% in 2014, compared to 12.4% regionally, and 32.40% in 2015, compared to 13.4% regionally). There is evidence of increased volatility in national GCSE attainment and progression to HE trends. National research1 suggest Key Stage 4 curriculum reform will disproportionately impact on the attainment for disadvantaged learners, and January 2017 UCAS data showing a marked (2/3rd) reduction in the year-on-year growth in application rates of 18 year olds witnessed since 2012. As a result we intend to maintain our current ambitious milestones for both the GCSE attainment and HE progression of Aimhigher beneficiaries. The Realising Opportunities Pilot project has undergone extensive evaluation looking at the outcomes for learners and the wider impact of the partnership. This continues to inform the future of the scheme. We continue to develop our Evaluation Strategy with respect to the range of financial support we provide. This is focused on two main areas: work to understand patterns of spend and how the money is used, along with work to understand the impact of the money provided on retention and success. The work will draw on the OFFA toolkit. Our students and staff are key to achieving excellence and to delivering the objectives outlined in our Strategic Framework 2015-2020. Our linked Equality Scheme recognises the need to encourage each and every student to flourish whilst removing barriers to success. Equality is central to our mission to be a global force in teaching and research, and our Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (PVC) for Learning and TeachingEqualities leads our institutional development in this, reflecting that commitment. The PVC chairs the Learning University’s Equality Scheme 2016-2020 has been developed around themes of inclusiveness, attainment, flexibility and Teaching Committee and its three sub-committees on behalf of Senate, including the Admissions and Outreach Sub-Committeeembedding. As a member part of the University Executive Board, the PVC for Learning and Teaching ensures that strategic thinking about widening participation is at the heart of University strategic developments and reflections. This Board also includes the PVCs with responsibility for driving forward University strategies in each development of the University’s five faculties (Arts objectives we consulted with students to identify actions they felt the University should take to improve equality, and Humanities; Engineering; Medicine, Dentistry we have sought to address this feedback in our objectives. Progress against objectives is reviewed annually as part of the Equality and Health; Science and Social Sciences). This strategic leadership structure ensures that widening participation is articulated within the Faculty learning and teaching strategies and practicesDiversity Assurance Report to Council. The University will monitor activity has been taking action to address the attainment gap between BME students and evidence of impact white students achieving a first or upper second class honours degree. We have delivered innovative mentoring and employability schemes for BME students, providing them with practical skills and role models for success in a number of waysthe workplace. To dateThe BME ambassador scheme, Student Services teams have worked alongside Learning & Teaching Services (LeTS) an initiative part-funded by the HEA, involves students engaging with staff in Schools and Departments to implement robust procedures for monitoring the activity consider actions that is delivered both by central teams can be taken to improve BME student inclusion, representation, engagement and by individual faculties and academic departmentsto promote race equality. This project has been widely cited across the UK HE sector as an example of good practice in engaging and listening to BME students. We will continue to focus on developing this area of work and will be strengthened by partners with Manchester University and Manchester Metropolitan University in a HEFCE Catalyst funded project as part of this. A website dedicated to supporting the recent integration success of LeTS into BME students was launched in 2014/15, and a supporting online platform for staff launched in 2016 that captures the Student Services structuremonitoring and evaluation of the impact of ambassador activity. In additionThe BME student ambassadors continue to work with School Equality co-ordinators to identify issues that impact on their experiences, and have developed action plans for activities that make a positive difference. There are over 200 BME students who are ambassadors and 10 College student leads. Following the launch of the online portal, the project will be evaluated in developing its Access Agreement for 2012 July 2017. The ethnicity attainment gap is a sector-wide issue and beyondforms much of the focus of work with students on equality issues in universities today. This is an area of activity that we will continue to pursue in relation to our work towards the ECU’s Race Equality Mark. We are expanding this work to identify and address differences in completion rates and attainment amongst other groups, such as LGBT and trans students, mature students, disabled students and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, and identify equivalent interventions. Around 6% of all University of Birmingham students have dependents. The University is one of only a handful that collects this information at registration and we are therefore now able to monitor the progression and retention of student parents. Since 2010, the University has committed resource helped support student parents establish a Guild Association, produce a pregnancy, maternity and paternity policy, and work towards a more inclusive curriculum that recognizes the needs of students with caring responsibilities. From 2015/16 we have further enhanced the support offered to student carers identified above at (d), and developed a new University Policy for Student Parents, Guardians and Carers (effective from 2017/18). LGBT students have been supported by a mentoring scheme that was launched in 2012 called ‘Come Out, Stay Out’. In 2016 there were around 60 professional mentors, most being University staff, supporting over 28 student mentees. Around 3% of students identified as LGBT in 2016, whilst over 30% did not select the option to tell us their sexual identity at registration. Students are encouraged to disclose, and information is available at registration to explain the benefits of informing the University. We have developed trans-inclusive practices, including the provision of gender neutral facilities, the recording of personal information and through the publication of transgender guidance, and we are developing activities to improve understanding amongst our wider community of trans issues. To support the development and promotion of religious literacy and integration on campus the University has worked with a number of community organisations including local mosques and religious schools. The University’s Good Campus Relations Group comprises of members from community groups and works towards the promotion of understanding and representation of different faith groups. The University has an excellent data collection and analysis system and, as part of its annual review of academic programmes, ensures that Schools consider the recruitment and performance data of students in the protected characteristics and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Schools report issues emanating from the data to the development of an academic Widening Participation Research UnitUniversity’s Quality Assurance and Enhancement Committee, chaired by the PVC (Education); the Committee then monitors how the Schools work towards making improvements. This will allow for quantitative and qualitative research into the long term impact of our widening participation initiatives process is supported through targeted Student Equality Reports, which are disseminated to be undertaken by research experts. Results of such research will be published as a way of sharing good practice within the sector. The evidence will also feed into continuous improvement of the activities and programmes we deliver. The unit will contribute and oversee short term research and evaluation activity, to provide a more consistent and formal approach to impact assessment and continuous improvement. On an ongoing basis, quantitative data will be used to measure outputs (e.g. number of participants, number of activities, number of schools and colleges involved) to assess the level of activity undertaken against the numerical targets we setSchools outlining any identified issues. We will also use a range of evaluation techniques are fully committed to measure ensuring that anyone with the effectiveness of individual activities aspiration and longer term widening participation programmes as a way of measuring the impact of the work we undertake. This will include paper and electronic surveys of participants and attitudinal surveys of participants on intensive programmes. Data will be monitored and tracked to longitudinally assess the long term progression and success of students who participate in outreach programmes and/or progress ability can gain access to the University, using admissions as well as progress and progression data achieve success regardless of any disability. As a result of the proposals around the reduction in funding and support by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in the form of the Disabled Students’ Allowances from 2016/17 onwards, a panel of specialist and senior staff, chaired by the Director of Student Services, was convened. Following this work the University continues to develop its approach to deliver a more inclusive education environment and also identified an additional £500k to support disabled students where that support now falls outside Disabled Students Allowance. The challenges of creating a physically accessible campus have been highlighted by students and staff in the Equality Scheme consultation as a key priority for the University, and we have undertaken significant work to improve accessibility across campus. During 2016 we developed a forum for students and staff to raise accessibility issues and to comment on campus developments to ensure the diverse needs of our community are reflected. We have worked closely with the Guild’s internal liberation associations and Guild officers via the Equality Executive Group to ensure we have student records systeminput on equality issues. Progress will be monitored through our own internal governance structures and reported We have worked to embed the Office for Fair Access on an annual basis. Monitoring principles of progress against targets and milestones set out in the Access Agreement will be undertaken by the Admissions and Outreach Sub-Committee of Learning & Teaching Committee, which formally reports to the University’s Senate. Primary EXPANDED Interactive web-based resources for all primary schools across South Yorkshire. Professor ▇▇▇▇▇▇ sessions on ▇▇▇▇, and off campus targeting pupils we outperform the sector for female representation in Maths and parentsEngineering (37.2% and 20.6% respectively against sector figures of 34.1% and 16.4%). Classroom mentoring for literacy and numeracy. Primary teachers have been involved In 2015, we took the next step in developing our equality principles and practices by embarking upon the resources that will be rolled out across South Yorkshire. Their expertise with regard work required to what will work with this particular target group has been invaluableachieve the ECU’s Race Equality Charter. a) Aimhigher South Yorkshire data shows that the attainment and progression rates of young people in South Yorkshire have improved significantly in recent years. Our contribution to this is difficult to measure because there are so many contributing factors, but we would anticipate that the extensive programme of activities we have contributed has played a key role in these improvements. b) The Institute for Effective Education at the University of York is undertaking a research project following the “Find Your Way” cohort of Excellence Hubs. This is a long term research project but initial findings are that the participants; enjoy working collaboratively as a group, prefer interactive hands on activities, like being able to visit a range of HEIs, prefer activities that are held during the school day, feel that working with student ambassadors is beneficial and are keen to receive more information about HE options as early as possible.