Invitation to tender25 February 2025

Open call for independent evaluators: Evaluation of activities designed to support student success in higher education (TASO/39)

We are seeking to appoint independent evaluators to work with higher education providers to run randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-experimental designs (QEDs) to test the impact of student success interventions in higher education.

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The Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) is seeking to appoint independent evaluators to work with higher education providers to run randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-experimental designs (QEDs) and to support with the associated implementation and process evaluations (IPEs) to test the impact of student success interventions in higher education. The length of the project will depend on the interventions being evaluated but could run for one academic year from June 2025, with interim reporting in March 2026 and final reporting in early 2027. This is an open call, and as such both independent evaluators who are and are not on our panel of evaluators are eligible to apply.

Introduction

TASO aims to improve lives through evidence-based practice in higher education. Our vision is to eliminate equality gaps for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups, allowing all students to have the same chance to enter HE, get a good degree and progress into further study or employment. TASO is an affiliate ‘What Works’ centre and is part of the UK government’s What Works Movement. This means that TASO is committed to the generation, synthesis and dissemination of high-quality evidence about effective practice in widening participation and student success.

In recent years progress has been made in improving the access and participation to higher education of under-represented groups, however less progress has been made in the student success space. While OfS data indicates that students with declared disabilities are matching or outperforming their peers in continuation, attainment and completion, the picture is less rosy elsewhere. Relative to their peers, students who were previously eligible for free school meals have lower continuation rates (6 percentage points lower), completion rates (8 pp) and attainment (12 pp fewer upper-second and first-class degrees). The statistics tell similar stories for students from ethnic minorities and for mature students (OfS access and participation data dashboard, July 2024).

Scope of the evaluation

This project will aim to provide robust causal evidence on the effectiveness of strategies designed to improve student success and narrow equality gaps. TASO is seeking independent evaluators to work with up to two providers each to design and run RCTs or QEDs, to test the impact of activities designed to support student success. We are inviting partner providers to run their own implementation and process evaluation but recognise that is not always possible. If the partner provider chooses to run their own IPE the independent evaluator will support the design of the IPE. If the partner provider chooses not to run their own IPE then the independent evaluator will design and lead the IPE. The exact interventions to be tested is currently being decided via an open commissioning process, and TASO will select partner providers based on factors including feasibility of the intervention for testing and how widespread/scalable the approach is. Interventions that fall in scope for this project include, but are not limited to:

• Curriculum-based interventions such as changes to teaching, assessment or content.
• Support for students’ transition into higher education and between stages within HE.
• Interventions prompted by learning analytics systems.
• Financial support such as income-contingent bursaries.
• Mentoring, coaching, or personal academic tutoring.
• Work experience or placements.

Methods

The design of the RCTs or QEDs will be determined by the independent evaluator in discussion with TASO and the participating providers and will depend on the intervention to be evaluated (to be discussed and confirmed as part of the inception and scoping phase). The precise sample would be determined by power calculations conducted by the independent evaluator (e.g. informed by student data from previous years). Due to the timeline of the project, we will be evaluating interventions that are delivered over the autumn term/semester from September to December 2025. The exact student outcomes to be measured will be chosen based on work with partner providers and the interventions which will be tested, but could include:

• Student engagement in their studies (for example, such as whether
• students are attending lectures, or accessing online material)
• Continuation to the next term/semester/year.
• Completion of their studies.
• Module/end of year grades.

Requirements for the independent evaluator

 The independent evaluator will work on this project from May 2025 (when appointed) to March 2026 (when interim reports are due) and final reporting in early 2027. The independent evaluator will work directly with (up to two) successful providers and TASO to deliver all elements of the project outlined in this brief.

Ethical approval

• Higher education providers will be responsible for securing ethical approval (e.g. from their institution’s research ethics committee) for both the impact evaluation and the implementation and process evaluation. The independent evaluator will be expected to support this process as appropriate, such as through advising on what type of data is to be collected for what purposes, how it will be protected, and when it will be destroyed.

Data protection 

• TASO will manage and organise contracting for data protection and sharing, however, it will be the providers and evaluators joint-responsibility to have an agreement in place in order to share data for the impact evaluation and with TASO for sharing data as appropriate for quality assurance.

Workshops

• The independent evaluator will deliver a collaborative inception workshop (preferably in person at TASO’s London office) with participating providers to discuss common evaluation challenges, outcome measures, and an introduction to theories of change.
• The evaluator will also run individual in-person workshops with each provider as appropriate to produce a theory of change for each intervention.

Impact evaluation

• The independent evaluator will be responsible for the design, randomisation, data analysis and reporting for the impact evaluation (RCT) of up to two interventions (one per provider).
• The evaluator will also share interim results and key updates with the providers (those who are conducting their own implementation and process evaluations) in order to support integration of impact evaluation findings into the implementation and process evaluation.

Implementation and process evaluation

• We are inviting and encouraging providers to conduct their own implementation and process evaluations in the associated provider’s invitation to tender. Providers would receive funding to recruit a suitably qualified researcher as appropriate.

• However, we recognise that there may be providers who want to come forward with suitable interventions and appropriate data sources for the RCTs, but who may not have the required capacity or skills to deliver an implementation and process evaluation on their own. In these cases it will be the responsibility of the evaluator to design and conduct the implementation and process evaluation alongside the impact evaluation (with additional funding to achieve this).
• Irrespective of this, the independent evaluator will work collaboratively with each provider to design a robust implementation and process evaluation that complements the impact evaluation, including advising on sample, design, data collection and analysis, adhering to TASO’s implementation and process evaluation guidance.
• TASO will decide on the allocation of this work strand (between evaluators and providers) upon commissioning.

A summary of the envisaged roles and responsibility of TASO and the project partners is given in Table 1.

TASO staff will manage the overall contracts with partner providers and independent evaluators. This will entail a minimum of bi-weekly project meetings for monitoring purposes.

Table 1. Project responsibilities. 

1If the provider chooses to conduct the IPE. 

Deliverables

Deliverables will include:

• Two theories of change (one for each provider) based on TASO’s template.

• Two evaluation protocols (one for each higher education provider), including brief description of the intervention and theory of change, power calculations to inform sample size, details of data to be collected by providers, and the analytical strategy for the impact evaluation, in addition to the design, methods and materials (e.g. interview guides) to be adopted by the implementation and process evaluation. TASO will provide a protocol template.
• Two impact evaluation reports (one for each provider) based on TASO’s template to include:
  • Executive summary – outlining the key findings from the report.
  • Introduction – providing a background and outlining the content of the report.
  • Intervention description – including a summary of the theory of change.
  • Methodology – description of the research strategy adopted.
  • Findings – with charts that adhere to TASO’s data visualisation guidelines.
  • Discussion – of results, limitations of trial and future research directions.
  • Harvard style references provided for the evidence cited.
  • Annotated statistical analysis code and any summary data used to generate figures.
  • Full tables for any analyses; e.g., regression tables.
• The evaluator will embed the IPE reporting (whether conducted by the evaluator or provider) into the evaluation reports above under the appropriate headings.
• Presentation of findings to TASO and provider partners.
• The report will be provided in a format which is ready for external publication. A comprehensive outline of publication requirements will be distributed to the successful supplier.
• Provide timely information as to the progress of the trial so TASO can fulfil reporting requirements to its funders.

Quality assurance 

Throughout all stages of this evaluation, TASO will seek assurance from both providers and the independent evaluator that the highest quality standards have been met. We expect to see draft copies of all the key deliverables including analytical strategies, data specifications, questionnaires and topic guides, sampling and recruitment plans, qualitative interview transcripts, statistical analysis code (and associated data files), regression tables, and we may examine interim and final reporting outputs. For selected evaluation outputs, we expect to facilitate peer review by external experts, for example to quality assure the evaluation protocol (which should combine impact evaluation and implementation and process evaluation approaches), and will publish (pre-register) in line with Open Science principles.

Project timeline

An indicative timeline for the application process is provided in Table 2, and a tentative project timeline is in Table 3.

Table 2. Application timeline.

Table 3. Tentative project timeline.

Funding 

• Up to £170,000 (excluding VAT) to support the scoping, design and analysis of the impact evaluations at two higher education providers
• Up to £35,000 (excluding VAT) per appointed higher education provider to support the design and analysis of an IPE. Higher education providers are given the option to conduct their own IPE, and for those who do, this option will not be exercised.

Responses to this invitation to tender should include accurate pricing, inclusive of expenses, and provide a detailed breakdown by project requirements and number of days allocated to each team member. Please note that assessment of responses to this tender invitation will be on perceived quality of service and demonstrable ability to meet the brief, rather than the lowest cost, however, value for money is a selection criterion. We invite all bidders to put forward their most cost efficient proposals.

Eligibility

• This call is open to evaluators who are or are not on our panel of evaluators

How to apply

• Fill out the application form (docx) (opens in a new tab)
• Please save the form using the name of your organisation.
• Clarification questions can be emailed to research@taso.org.uk up until 21 March 2025. TASO will endeavour to circulate a response to these queries within 3-4 working days.
• Please submit the completed application form to research@taso.org.uk by 13:00 27 March 2025.
• You will be informed of the outcome of your submission in the w/c 14 April 2025.
• We anticipate that the project will start at the beginning of June 2025. 

If you have any questions regarding the open call, please get in touch over email via research@taso.org.uk.

Application assessment

Your application will be assessed by the TASO Research and Evaluation team. The strength of applications will be assessed on the below criteria (please note the weighting of each section):

• The project team (40%)
• The application – meeting the project brief (40%)
  • How well the application answers the brief.
  • How well it articulates the ability of the team to deliver all requirements and deliverables.
• Budget (20%)
  • Feasibility based on the budget submitted.
  • Value for money.
  • Financial stability and long-term viability of the organisation, including detail of the organisation’s last set of accounts and current year budget. Please note this criterion will receive a binary score of pass/fail and if not met the application will not be considered further.
• Data Protection compliance (binary – compliant/non-compliant)
  • Security of the measures taken to ensure data compliance.

Additional guidance

• TASO reserves the right, acting reasonably, to:
  • Discontinue the award procedure in the absence of appropriate applications;
  • Change the timetable for the procurement of the Contract, and in such circumstances TASO will notify all applicants of any change by the fastest means possible;
  • Terminate discussions with organisations which apply;
  • Discontinue the procedure leading to the award of the Contract;
  • Not to award any Contract at all as a result of this process
• Under no circumstances shall TASO incur any liability in respect of any of these actions.
• No publicity regarding the project will be permitted until TASO has given express written consent to the relevant communication. No statements may be made to any part of the media regarding the nature of this application, its contents or any proposals relating to it without the prior written consent of TASO.
• TASO will not reimburse any costs incurred by organisations in connection with preparation of their applications.
• If you are unsure of the meaning of a question or anything in this invitation to tender then it is your responsibility to ask TASO to clarify in writing via email.
• TASO will endeavour to circulate a response to these queries within 3-4 working days. TASO may also decline to answer a question if it deems the question to be inappropriate. If TASO is unable to answer a question, this will be communicated.