New partners to build evidence base in efficacy pilot

TASO is partnering with two independent evaluators and four higher education providers (HEPs) to build the evidence base for what works to reduce equality gaps for disabled students in higher education (HE) and improve employment and employability outcomes for students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds.

The following HEPs have been chosen to work with independent evaluator SQW:

• University of Brighton
• University of Exeter

The University of Cambridge is acting as independent evaluator for:

• London School of Economics
• University of Central Lancashire

The work builds upon our evidence review of what works to reduce equality gaps for disabled students in HE and employment and employability outcomes for students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds.

This project will further build the evidence base of what works in these areas by generating type 2 evidence and scoping out the feasibility of type 3 evaluation.

With the support of SQW and the University of Cambridge, HEPs will develop an evaluation plan and theory of change for the activity being evaluated and explore how type 3 evaluation methods might be used to assess intervention impact in the longer term.

This will be published in Summer 2023.