Report
19 November 2020
Summary
Higher education has long been recognised as a pathway to social mobility in England. This link has recently come under increasing scrutiny. While disadvantaged and under-represented students are entering higher education at a higher rate than ever before, significant equality gaps remain once they get there. These student groups often do not have the same chances as others to succeed in their studies and progress to graduate-level jobs.
To address inequality in the student experience, we need to understand which interventions appear to be most effective, under what circumstances, and for whom. TASO took the first step in this discovery process by commissioning the Bridge Group and Coventry University to review the existing evidence base.
The review aimed to uncover the strength of evidence for interventions that higher education providers might use to reduce inequality gaps. Specifically, it sought to identify evidence of causal relationships between interventions and student outcomes. The review was designed to focus on understanding what evidence there is for interventions causing a difference in outcomes, as opposed to evidence of associations or correlations.
The review focused on four outcome areas: attainment, retention, wellbeing and employment. It incorporated 157 sources from both published literature and a call for evidence, undertaken in summer 2019.
This summary report synthesises the review’s findings and recommendations with insights on the student experience. The report concludes with reflections and priorities for future work on this topic.