Uni Connect

Uni Connect is being evaluated and monitored at a national level to assess how successfully the programme meets its aims.

We use this information to support our funding decisions and refine practice at a local level.

Local partnerships also evaluate their own activities, including longitudinal tracking of Uni Connect learners to evaluate the impact of particular interventions. 

Latest findings

For the latest phase of the programme we commissioned Ipsos to conduct two formative evaluations of Uni Connect.

The first evaluation (May 2023) focused on understanding strategic outreach planning and delivery. It found that partnerships were proactively adapting their offer to schools to reflect the changing priorities of the programme; focusing on addressing regional gaps in outreach and developing approaches to raise pre-16 attainment.

The second evaluation (October 2024) focused on the delivery of activities to raise pre-16 attainment in schools. It found high levels of satisfaction among schools partnered with local higher education providers through the Uni Connect programme.

In 2023 we published an impact evaluation from CFE Research assessing the changes that have resulted from Uni Connect interventions. It found additional evidence that Uni Connect contributes to increased knowledge of the higher education offer and also increases the likelihood that a learner will apply to higher education.

Evidence bank

In 2023, we refreshed the Uni Connect evidence bank. This is a database resource that details nearly all the evidence submissions CFE Research have accepted and reviewed over the last five Uni Connect evidence reviews, covering 314 sources of outreach evaluation evidence.

Ipsos has also developed learning digests to ensure we make the most of the Uni Connect evaluation findings.

Evaluation and research reports