Teachers’ perspectives on the delivery of transitional outreach activities and their potential to raise secondary school students’ Higher Education aspirations during the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The role secondary schools play in raising student aspirations for, and encouraging progression into, Higher Education through supported outreach is important but often overlooked by both colleges and universities alike. This article reports on our work within Uni Connect’s ‘Raising Higher Education Aspirations’ programme in Lincolnshire which delivers targeted university-inspiring transitional outreach activities to Year 9–13 students from disadvantaged backgrounds with low levels of social and cultural capital, little or no familial habitus of Higher Education and where Higher Education participation is lower than expected. Specifically, this article considers university-inspiring transitional outreach from the perspective of six secondary school Uni Connect programme leads. Semi-structured interviews conducted with school leads over a 12-month period between October 2019 and November 2020 provided a unique insight into the successes and challenges schools face in delivering aspirational Higher Education outreach. In particular, the study found that the Uni Connect programme was beginning to have a positive effect on students, with some school leads reporting a cultural shift amongst students in their attitudes towards Higher Education. Students were reported to be more open to the possibility of going to university, more willing to explore the different pathways available to them and more prepared to take part in next steps conversations. Key to the programmes’ success was the relationship between school leads and the local partnership responsible for delivering the programme. However, continued and timely delivery of outreach, especially to Year 10 and 11 students, was viewed as the biggest challenge during the ongoing Covid-19 climate.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher Education
• student aspirations
• transitional outreach
• Uni Connect
• habitus and social capital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anthea Rose

Anthea Rose is a Research Fellow at the Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute (LHERI), University of Lincoln and is currently leading the local Lincolnshire evaluation of the Uni Connect programme funded by the Office for Students (OfS). Anthea specialises in qualitative methods, especially case studies, and is particularly interested in social justice and issues around equality, gender and the impact of government policy on education practices. Recent areas of investigation include the effectiveness of school improvement initiatives and mental health and wellbeing in the education sector. Anthea is a co-convenor of BERA’s mental health and wellbeing special interest group.

Lucy Mallinson

Lucy Mallinson is a Research Assistant within the Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute (LHERI) at the University of Lincoln. Lucy specialises in quantitative research methods, particularly in the design, implementation and analysis of large-scale online surveys. Lucy currently works within the team providing local evaluation for LiNChigher, part of the Office for Students Uni Connect programme.