Sheffield Hallam University: South Yorkshire Futures

This is one of a series of case studies to accompany our Insight brief on schools, attainment and the role of higher education. It highlights an example of a successful partnership between schools, higher education providers and other organisations.

Secondary school pupils in an IT room. One child is getting help from a teacher.

Sheffield Hallam is one of the UK’s largest and most diverse universities, with a community of more than 30,000 students and 4,000 staff.¹ With an almost 200-year history in Sheffield, the university has strong roots in its local region; this regional identity continues today, with a high proportion of its students coming from South Yorkshire, and an embedded commitment to civic engagement with its local communities.

The university has a long-standing aim to improve access to higher education for students from ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds. Last year, and for the fifth year in a row, Sheffield Hallam educated more students from underrepresented backgrounds than any other UK university. Hallam's student body consists of more than 50 per cent first-generation university students, with 65 per cent from one or more disadvantaged, underrepresented or vulnerable groups.

The challenge

Consistent high quality education and skills provision remain a challenge in South Yorkshire. Young people are less likely to achieve good GCSEs or remain in education, and have fewer life opportunities than their peers in many other areas. The Sutton Trust found that much of the region suffers from low or very low levels of social mobility. These are major barriers to people successfully achieving their full potential.

The university’s social mobility programme, South Yorkshire Futures, was launched in 2017 with the aim of bringing together regional partners to tackle this issue, with a focus on supporting those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Given the scale of barriers to higher education, identifying and prioritising areas for its interventions has been a challenge. To avoid spreading itself too thinly, the university’s Civic Engagement Team uses data and analytics to identify, continually evaluate and improve interventions with an inclusive outlook at the core of its approach.

The approach

‘We exist to create opportunities for people to achieve their potential and their aspirations, and not be restricted by their background or where they come from.’

Sheffield Hallam won University of the Year at the 2021 UK Social Mobility Awards in recognition of its holistic approach to advancing social mobility, including an outreach programme focused on understanding and addressing barriers.² The university maintains a 10-year impartial outreach collaboration with the University of Sheffield in the form of the Higher Education Progression Partnership. The partnership ensures targeted schools in the region experience high quality higher education advice and guidance from Year 6 upwards.

The university also leads the Civic University Network, which aims to enhance the ways universities maximise their local impact, for example how effective college-university collaboration can build a more integrated education and skills system.³

Enabling factors

Sheffield Hallam’s focus on social mobility has buy-in throughout the institution – starting with the Vice-Chancellor. Professor Sir Chris Husbands leads the university’s transforming lives strategy – which commits Hallam to being a ‘beacon for what a university can do for and with its community’. This senior leadership is a key enabler for sustained commitments to advance social mobility.

The university has a dedicated Civic Engagement Team which leads on social mobility activities. This team builds on the success of the university's South Yorkshire Futures social mobility programme – the biggest university-led social mobility programme in the country. The team plays an important role in coordinating and maximising existing resources to support effective civic engagement and drive social mobility.

Evaluation

‘You have to know what problem you’re trying to solve – what are the key elements and barriers? Are our interventions removing the barriers?’

Using data to understand the problems faced by students has been a key enabling factor for the university’s social mobility work. Once problems have been identified, interventions are driven by metrics and data, which are tracked over time to understand what works and any continuing barriers that need to be addressed.

Table 1: Alignment with the OfS standards of evidence

Type	Evidence
Type 1: Narrative	Sheffield Hallam advocates the Theory of Change approach, and uses this for overall vision and for individual projects within it: Civic University Agreement⁴ HeppSY cohort evaluation⁵ individual projects, e.g. Early Years.⁶ This theory is based upon academic, peer-reviewed evidence.
Type 2: Empirical Enquiry	Interventions are associated with beneficial results, including: an evaluative framework to track and monitor impact, which utilises the Higher Education Access Tracker impact studies, e.g. Evaluation of the Early Outcomes Framework Fund; Evaluation of the GROW Programme⁷ qualitative data and case studies.⁸
Type 3: Causality	Interventions cause improvements and demonstrate differences: Children’s University, which demonstrates additional two months’ progress⁹ the current EEF project on impact of participation in Children’s University in improving aspirations and attainment of primary pupils.¹⁰

Type

Evidence

Type 1: Narrative

Sheffield Hallam advocates the Theory of Change approach, and uses this for overall vision and for individual projects within it:

Civic University Agreement⁴
HeppSY cohort evaluation⁵
individual projects, e.g. Early Years.⁶

This theory is based upon academic, peer-reviewed evidence.

Type 2: Empirical Enquiry

Interventions are associated with beneficial results, including:

an evaluative framework to track and monitor impact, which utilises the Higher Education Access Tracker
impact studies, e.g. Evaluation of the Early Outcomes Framework Fund; Evaluation of the GROW Programme⁷
qualitative data and case studies.⁸

Type 3: Causality

Interventions cause improvements and demonstrate differences:

Children’s University, which demonstrates additional two months’ progress⁹
the current EEF project on impact of participation in Children’s University in improving aspirations and attainment of primary pupils.¹⁰

The result

South Yorkshire Futures has already been successful in securing new funding and improving collaboration within the region. This includes working with regional colleges to move towards a truly joined-up skills strategy for the region. The university will continue with this partnership while prioritising new and important education and skills commitments.

Through its civic engagement programme, Sheffield Hallam will continue to develop its ‘beyond the classroom’ work. This includes delivering extracurricular activities to support the development of social capital, and informing young people about a wider range of careers. This work aims to help young people understand the relevance of their education for their future, and to bridge the gap between school and the world of work.

Notes

Read our Insight brief

Read our Insight brief on schools, attainment and the role of higher education

Building partnerships between schools and universities

Read our guide for teachers and school leaders

Published 07 April 2022

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