Report | Evaluating multi-intervention outreach and mentoring programmes

_{17 May 2023}

Summary

Multi-intervention outreach and mentoring programmes usually offer a combination of activities, including mentoring, coaching, information, advice and guidance; campus visits; subject tasters and summer schools, and these activities often engage hundreds of students over a year or more.

It is a resource-intensive widening participation activity that requires a significant investment of time and effort from higher education providers and students alike. 

Existing literature provides correlational and contextual evidence on the efficacy of this approach, but does not demonstrate a causal link between intervention and outcomes for students. There is a need to establish clear causal evidence around this issue. A further challenge is understanding the most effective design for multi-intervention outreach. There is wide variation in how such programmes are conducted, which components are incorporated, and what the outcomes are. Developing a better understanding of these issues is key to developing a stronger body of evidence that pools learning from across different programmes and higher education providers. 

To address these issues, TASO commissioned and oversaw a series of evaluations, partnering with three higher education providers to explore the different ways in which multi-intervention outreach and mentoring programmes could be evaluated. The partners were: 

• The University of Birmingham’s Forward Thinking programme 
• King’s College London’s K+ widening participation programme 
• Aston University’s:
  • Pathway to Healthcare programme 
  • Pathway to STEM programme

This report begins with a short review of the evidence available on the impact of multi-intervention, outreach and mentoring programmes on student outcomes. It then describes the structure of multi-intervention and outreach programmes, and presents the interim findings from the evaluation of the partners’ programmes. The report then discusses findings from the Implementation and Process Evaluations, and concludes with several recommendations for the higher education sector.

Read the report