Invitation to tender: new project on impact of wellbeing interventions prompted by analytics (Ref: TASO/34)

Do you work for a higher education provider that is currently using analytics to inform support for student wellbeing and mental health? Are you interested in participating in a randomised controlled trial? Apply below to be involved in an exciting upcoming TASO project.

TASO has been awarded funding from the Evaluation Accelerator Fund (EAF) for a project that will test the impact of wellbeing interventions prompted by analytics. The EAF is administered by the Cabinet Office Evaluation Task Force.

TASO proposes to evaluate a range of wellbeing interventions prompted by analytics. The overarching research question is: what impact do student-support/wellbeing interventions prompted by analytics have on student outcomes?

We will select up to three higher education providers to work with an independent evaluator to run randomised controlled trials. The trials will look at existing or new interventions planned to be run from September 2024 in higher education providers. Providers will also have the opportunity to conduct associated implementation and process evaluations, supported by TASO and the independent evaluator.

TASO will select partners based on factors including feasibility of the intervention for testing and the scalability of the approach. Possible interventions could include:

• Communications to tutors / lecturers (for example, via email) sharing analytics data on which of their students are ‘at-risk’ and recommendations on how to follow up.
• Different ways of communicating to ‘at-risk’ students (for example, comparing the framing/language used in different text messages).
• Referral of ‘at-risk’ students to wellbeing support (this could take different forms – for example, peer mentoring, stress management).

Eligibility criteria for higher education providers

• This tender is open to any UK higher education provider.
• Applications involving programmes or interventions that are delivered collaboratively across multiple higher education providers, or with other organisations, are welcome.

Available funding

Up to three participating providers will each receive up to £30,000 to support the resourcing of the project, which is expected to cover mainly staff costs to collaborate with the independent evaluator on the project scoping phase and data sharing, and for the provider to conduct the implementation and process evaluation.

Project timings

• The deadline for proposals is 13.00 GMT+1 17 May 2024.
• We will hold an information webinar on Tuesday 30 April to outline the project and give you the opportunity to ask questions.
• The project is likely to start with a scoping phase (June to September) before moving on to data collection (September to December), and analysis and reporting (January to March 2025).
• The project must have finished and reported by the end of March 2025.

How to apply

For more information on the project, including the requirements and deliverables, download the invitation to tender (Word doc).

Please download the application form (Word doc) and submit by uploading using the form below by 13:00 GMT+1 on Friday 17 May 2024.

Please also complete the equality, diversity and inclusion monitoring form. This is for internal monitoring purposes only and will not impact the tender decision.