Project | Summer school evaluation

About Summer school evaluation

Summer schools are held by higher education providers as a way of giving students an experience of higher education, and can include residential stays, workshops, taster sessions and social activities. The aim of these summer schools is to widen participation in higher education, particularly among disadvantaged and underrepresented student groups.

Previous evidence indicates that participation in summer schools can result in positive attitudes and behaviours towards higher education. However, there is a lack of evidence demonstrating the causal impact of summer schools.

We are conducting a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to understand how effective summer schools are at improving access to higher education. The first trial evaluated summer schools which took place online in the summer of 2021. The second trial evaluated summer schools which took place face-to-face or online in the summer of 2022.

A range of higher education providers are involved in the trial and ran summer schools targeted at either pre-16 or post-16 aged students.

The final report for the first trial on online summer schools will be published in spring/summer 2025. The final report for the second trial on face-to-face summer schools will be published in 2026 (depending on when HE enrolment data becomes available).

If you would like to find out more or have any questions around this project, please get in touch with us at research@taso.org.uk.

Related outputs

Background

An Education Policy Institute evidence review, commissioned by TASO, demonstrated positive correlations between summer school participation and confidence and attitudes towards higher education, but mixed results on applications and entry to higher education.

The current evidence is of limited quality as most studies do not use a comparison group, so although this type of evidence can tell us that there is a positive association between summer schools and student outcomes, it cannot tell us definitively that the intervention has an impact (causal evidence). There is a clear need for causal evidence that quantifies the impact of summer schools on widening participation in higher education, especially given that summer schools are both time- and resource-intensive.