Mind the (ethnicity degree awarding) gap: students at the forefront of Theory of Change development

Loughborough University is one of six higher education providers currently working on the TASO project to develop Theories of Change and evaluation plans for interventions addressing the ethnicity degree awarding gap.

Dr Mandy Crow and Jared Patel from the Loughborough team discuss the five things they have learned from their involvement.

Referral Scheme

One of our interventions to address the ethnicity degree awarding gap comprises a pilot Referral Scheme to our new Student Success Academy, identifying and linking students to tailored support and development opportunities at key transition points during their studies. The scheme and support maps directly onto three of the approaches included in the TASO ethnicity degree awarding gap typology: Learner Analytics, Peer Learning and Mentoring, and Personalised Support.

The Referral Scheme was developed because our data suggested students from ethnic minority backgrounds with low average marks and low attendance were not engaging with and benefitting from our support systems. The scheme removes barriers by proactively contacting students – and as everyone is different, there is no ‘one size fits all’ model.

The support offered is therefore inclusive, accessible and personalised. For example, this may include ‘Get Ahead Together’ – peer mentoring to support students from ethnic minority backgrounds and groups underrepresented in higher education as they transition to university, or ‘Academic Success Coaching’ – tailored one-to-one support, prioritising learners in need and close to a grade boundary. Here students receive sessions on time management, critical thinking and research skills.

Developing a Theory of Change

Working with TASO and the external evaluation team at Advance HE and Staffordshire University, we designed an overarching core Theory of Change and an enhanced Theory of Change for the Referral Scheme specifically. This gave us the opportunity to review the goals of the intervention and establish a collective understanding of any barriers and enablers.

It took two days of workshops, reams of flip-chart paper, sticky notes everywhere and delicate wordsmithing – and it was worth it!

Our five key takeaways

Here are five things we have taken away from the process:

1. Involve a range of stakeholders and diverse voices  – importantly, and particularly as our intervention focuses on students’ knowledge, skills and experience, this should include students. It was incredibly valuable to have both a current and a recent student in the room, who were able to share their experiences and thoughts of the programme from different points in time and this really helped shape our Theory of Change and intervention development.
2. Ask the right questions – it’s important to challenge and interrogate your own, and others’, thinking about the intervention and why it should work. In the excitement of discussion, lots of great ideas start flying about; questions help bring the focus back to the task at hand, though these ideas are still worth capturing for later.
3. How to identify assumptions – these are the underlying beliefs about how an intervention will work: what must be true for activities to lead to outcomes? It can be quite hard to identify your own assumptions. We found that involving external facilitators and a range of stakeholders helped us identify ‘givens’ that – in some cases – weren’t so obvious.
4. The concept of ‘mechanisms of change’ – these are often tied up in the assumptions, and we hadn’t really thought about these before.  However, they describe the underlying processes that drive change and are therefore key to any intervention delivery or evaluation. For instance, the relationship with our students, how students engage with the activities, and the thought processes they go through which will help our intervention to work.
5. When to use a Core or Enhanced Theory of Change – which one to use depends on what you are trying to do. A Core Theory of Change is simplified and allows you to outline the essential elements and is therefore great as a first step and for engaging a wider audience. An Enhanced Theory of Change, however, allows for more detail and a more comprehensive breakdown of activities and why they will lead to the outcomes you are aiming for. This makes it useful for evaluation planning and for interrogating how your intervention is theorised to work.

For us, the timing of this opportunity was perfect. We are looking to expand our Referral Scheme and being involved in this project meant the team could give time and effort to this process. As a result of the project, we have an Enhanced Theory of Change and evaluation plan that we can share. We are now at the stage where the best way we can increase our understanding further is through evaluation.

Now that we have these outputs, we can’t wait to evaluate!