Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT. The University of Surrey is a member of the collaborative Higher Education Access Tracker service (HEAT) which assists members in the targeting, monitoring and evaluation of both their individual and their collaborative Widening Access activities. Where adequate data protection consent has been obtained, The Department of WP and Outreach records data about outreach initiatives and the participants involved on the HEAT database. This is then entered into the HEAT longitudinal tracking system which matches records on individual outreach participants to administrative datasets spanning Key Stage 2 data through to postgraduate study and employment. This allows member universities to demonstrate outreach participation in relation to success at key transition points, and to collectively explore best practice in combining qualitative and quantitative research on outreach. By subscribing to HEAT we can take an evidence based approach to planning outreach delivery so that we can continue to invest in outreach activities that optimise progression with disadvantaged cohorts. Tracking reports received from HEAT help the University to better understand the relationship between our outreach provision and the attainment and progression of disadvantaged young people. It can take some time for data about young participants in outreach to mature to the point of understanding their patterns of enrolment in Higher Education (HE) as well as their retention and success rates. In the meantime the HEAT service has developed a model of matching a number of different administrative datasets to the HEAT database which will afford the University a better understanding of the relationship between outreach and key educational outcomes at both pre and post 16, before any enrolment takes place. The collective size and diversity of the database will mean this relationship can be explored against multiple participant characteristics, contributing to the University’s and the sector's understanding of outcomes for different under-represented groups and recognising that WP students are not a homogenous group. Being part of the HEAT service also enables the University to engage with collective WP sector research. By using data from all members as an aggregate, the HEAT service is now able to explore new multi-dimensional ways of defining under-representation, disadvantage and differential outcomes and the effect that outreach can have on different groups of participants. For example, from curr...
Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT. The University will start to record participation of students on intensive outreach activities through HEAT from summer 2015. This will track progression to university and enable us to measure the impact of outreach activity to inform future projects. We anticipate seeing the first set of results in spring 2017. HEAT data will form part of our Outreach Evaluation Strategy.
Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT. In collaboration with other universities, we continue to subscribe to the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) service; The HEAT service is a continuation of the collaboration undertaken by the South East AimHigher partnerships. Through membership of the HEAT service we are able to provide evidence, based on longitudinal tracking, as a group of HEIs in a common geographic area, on the progression and achievement patterns of our HE outreach participants. Further details of how we use HEAT to monitor and evaluate our work can be found on p.20. Knowledge exchange In line with our commitment to the collaborative sharing of best practice within the field of Widening Participation, we will continue to contribute to UK, European and International knowledge exchange and research conferences. In the UK we are active members of NEON and have been invited to join the Laser Awards’ Access Quality and Development Committee.
Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT. 6.3.1 QMUL is a member of the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) membership service which assists Higher Education Institutions in England to target, monitor and evaluate their outreach activity. Subscribing to HEAT helps us to take an evidence-based approach to planning outreach delivery so that we can continue to invest in outreach activities that optimise progression with disadvantaged cohorts. Furthermore, being an active member of HEAT, by participating at Steering Group and Research Group level, allows us to be contributory in helping HEAT to realise its wider research aims.
