Blog9 October 2025
Why do we use a theory of change approach?
Using a theory of change approach to planning interventions and evaluations has become increasingly popular in higher education and is encouraged by the Office for Students in their access and participation plan guidance. That being said, a theory of change is not a new idea, nor one unique to higher education. The concept of the theory of change has been around since the 1990s, materialising in the fields of evaluation and social change initiatives. The development of theories of change emerged from the need to better articulate the assumptions underlying social initiatives to make it easier to evaluate them. In other words, a theory of change helps to describe how and why an initiative leads to a long-term goal by identifying the shorter-term changes that need to happen first, and the contextual factors and risks that might influence the change process. Using a theory of change approach therefore helps to both design more effective programmes that are aligned with their intended outcomes, and evaluations that measure not just whether a change occurred, but how and why it came about.
Theory of change at TASO
At TASO, we have been creating theories of change for our own projects and supporting the wider sector to do so since our inception. Building on early guidance set out by the Office for Students on evaluating the impact of outreach in 2019, we initially developed a set of theory of change templates and resources to guide the sector through the process of creating a theory of change. Since then, we have created countless theories of change in partnership with higher education providers and delivered many theory of change training sessions to practitioners and evaluators. This has given us insights into the common challenges involved in creating theories of change: What do all the sections mean? Which part do I start with? And is there a way to do this that doesn’t involve resizing text boxes in PowerPoint for several hours?
A new tool: The Theory of Change Builder
Last month we launched our Theory of Change Builder – an online tool designed to support theory of change development and tackle these challenges. Since our last blog update in March, we have launched a fully functioning tool with built-in guidance and examples that walks you step-by-step through the process of creating a theory of change, tested by colleagues in the sector to ensure it works in practice.
Those familiar with our existing theory of change resources will notice we have also made some updates to our theory of change webpage and our templates. These changes aim to make theories of change easier to create and to read, align our Core and Enhanced Theory of Change templates more closely to make it easier to develop the latter, and to focus the theory of change on its core function: to explain how and why we expect our initiatives to bring about change.
Provider perspective: Theory of change at Nottingham Trent University
At Nottingham Trent University (NTU), we have just introduced our new ‘Evaluation Framework’. This is a 19-step checklist for evaluation, based on TASO’s Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (MEF), that all NTU staff should consider in evaluation of any work that enhances student experience or student outcomes. The first step on this checklist is ‘to complete a theory of change’.
Many of our staff are highly skilled at working with students or in delivering student-facing programmes and interventions. However, experiences of working with a theory of change is mixed. What some staff at NTU need goes beyond having a blank template to fill in; they need something that is interactive, that guides them as they build a theory of change, provides examples of what should or could be included at each step, and builds confidence in creating, developing, and enhancing a theory of change.
The TASO Theory of Change Builder is the tool to do just this. When testing this out with staff, the reactions have been very positive. The tool feels more intuitive than a blank document, and having something start to populate an Enhanced Theory of Change template – even when we focus on just the Core element initially – can be a game changer. Even though our new Evaluation Framework was created and shared with staff in this academic year, we’ve already recommended that staff use the Theory of Change Builder tool from the start. NTU’s theory of change templates have been updated to reflect the exports from the tool, and we’ve even created a walkthrough video for staff, explaining how they can use this tool to get started on their evaluation journey.
From the perspective of someone who is encouraging staff to create and develop their own theory of change, giving staff something interactive to play with has been great. I’m excited to use this tool going forward, and can’t wait to see how the wider sector uses it too!