National Aimhigher Conference 2007

‘Another Country’

A report of the Aimhigher National Conference held on October 2^nd in Leeds.

Introduction

Aimhigher marked its maturity with its first national conference at Queens Hotel in Leeds. With more than 250 delegates, this event was hugely oversubscribed, which is itself a tribute to the engagement of practitioners in all sectors who are involved in Aimhigher partnerships across the country.  The conference showcased the work of Aimhigher to date and highlighted emerging themes so that delegates had opportunities to debate the ways in which they will meet future challenges.

This report picks up some of the themes and explores them through the perspectives offered by speakers and delegates. These are inevitably brief summaries of much longer discussions that took place in various sessions during the day. A copy of the programme is attached as an appendix and speaker presentations and fuller notes on the workshops and world café sessions can be found on the Action on Access website along with the conference evaluation report.

Conference Themes:

1. Another Country
2. Widening Participation and Fair Access
3. Widening Participation and the Skills Agenda
4. Evidence and yet more Evidence
5. Targeting and social inclusion
6. Partnerships and collaboration

1. Another Country.

The conference title came from the following quote from a speech at Strathclyde University given by Professor Diana Warwick, President of UUK, in 2001:

‘We are in competition here with the University of Life. It offers the prospect of a full-time wage, not benefits deferred. Most of its beneficiaries don't expect much more than an education delivered through the cheap and low-tech method of osmosis. To them higher education seems like Another Country. This is the last constituency we have to win over. The last frontier! This constituency is the hardest to reach.’[1]

In a rousing speech to start the day, Michael Hatfield, Assistant Headteacher at Middlefield School of Technology in Lincolnshire, told the conference:  ‘AIMHIGHER WORKS!’  From the perspective of a school which sees Aimhigher as the principal initiative for the progression of working class young people, Michael urged Aimhigher to continue to ‘light fires, not fill buckets’ to inspire and motivate and, above all, to address cultural and social deprivation.  Michael brought to the platform four young people who have taken part in the school’s Aimhigher programme to speak about the ways in which Aimhigher had extended their experience and introduced them to another country.

Rob Cuthbert played with the theme in his address to the conference, quoting from plays by Marlow and Julian Mitchell and a James Baldwin novel.  Rob said:

‘…in fighting the battle against ignorance, our particular role is:  to confront some uncomfortable social truths; to champion diversity by overcoming intolerance; and to help destroy social capital by widening access and participation.’

Rob’s keynote encouraged participants to reflect upon the distance Aimhigher has travelled in its first three years of operation, the difference it is making to social class participation rates, to the sector and society. He concluded his speech with words to encourage further innovation:

‘The next step is much harder.  Because in the next step we don’t have to persuade our potential students that they’re clever enough.  We have to persuade ourselves that we’re not clever enough to know what we should be offering, for all the people still under-represented in higher education.  We have achieved a lot already in changing lives for individuals and for whole communities.  But there is a lot more to do.  And if we want to change more lives and more communities, then first we have to change ourselves so we can change higher education.  We have to overcome our own ignorance, and confront some uncomfortable social truths within higher education, to take the next big step in meeting that social imperative.’

2. Widening Participation and Fair Access

One of the key themes to emerge throughout the day was the debate about the difference between widening participation and fair access.  Rob Cuthbert initiated the debate by referring to the media’s preoccupation with “the 3000 (young people) from state schools who should but don’t get into the Russell group, and not enough time given to the 300,000 who do get a good higher education, but somewhere else.” The media focus has highlighted the fair access debate in policy circles and this was taken up by the Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, Mr. Bill Rammell. In response to a question from the floor of the conference, he recognised the difference between working for fair access and working for widening participation, where the former addresses the barriers that limit the options for applicants to higher education and the latter addresses the barriers that prevent learners aspiring to or applying to higher education. This theme also emerged in the world café session with respect to higher education institutions who use their outreach funds to encourage more young people from state schools to apply to their institution, sometimes irrespective of their social background. The discussions around widening participation and fair access highlighted the subtle tensions between these two agendas. Whereas Aimhigher partnerships promote higher education of all kinds and in all institutions, HE institutions are also working with schools to recruit to their own institution.

3. Widening Participation and the Skills Agenda

Many participants considered that adults, especially those in the workplace, should remain a key target group for Aimhigher, Indeed, for many practitioners, the widening participation movement has its roots in the adult agenda with the development of Access courses in the 1980s. The final session of the day involved a panel of partners in a wide range of sectors who raised wider and deeper issues about the reach of Aimhigher and the links between the widening participation agenda and those of other key initiatives.  In particular, the panel addressed issues related to the link with employer engagement, with adult learning and with the skills agenda.  The Minister also stressed the importance of widening participation for adults in the workplace and the role employers can play in raising skill levels.

Derek Longhurst, Director of Foundation Degree Forward, presented workbased learning as a major opportunity for widening participation and bringing different students into higher education.  He called for flexible, part-time higher education programmes to attract such students.  The world café session also highlighted the need to raise the profile of workbased learning among HE staff who remain unaware of the role it can play in the development of the sector.

4. Evidence

The conference presented abundant evidence of the impact of Aimhigher.  For example, Frank Gill, Principal of Knowsley College, cited the increase in progression to higher education for BTeC National students and attributed this to the opportunities Aimhigher had provided for these students to ‘meet’ higher education before applying.  Similarly, Michael Hatfield’s slides showed clear evidence of increases in attainment for pupils in his school and he gave Aimhigher credit for the increase in progression at 16 into full-time education and training.  The conference workshops and the young people who spoke to the conference illustrated the ways in which, in Michael Hatfield’s words, Aimhigher provides new and different experiences, demystifies university, allows learning to be fun and stretches the boundaries of institutional and individual understanding.  This is powerful evidence of impact and examples came thick and fast throughout the day.

Nonetheless there is a perceived evidence gap. Evidence remains local, is not collated at national level and good news stories rarely attract the attention of the national media.  The Minister stressed the need for clear evidence of the impact of Aimhigher order to present arguments in Government and to justify continued funding.  He assured the conference that the issue of evidence was of such importance that it would be addressed in the near future.

5. Targeting and Social Inclusion

The World Café session asked participants to debate the challenges and the opportunities for targeting lower socio-economic groups from the perspective of different stakeholders, including schools, local authorities, further and higher education institutions and adults. For schools, identifying, locating and sending school students from the target groups on Aimhigher interventions was seen as a key challenge for primary and secondary teachers, particularly because of the competing demands on the schools’ attention and the difficulty of singling out individuals in a class group. Linking Aimhigher to 14-19 developments, School Improvement Plans and the curriculum can encourage engagement and help both schools and partnerships to meet their objectives. For large FE colleges, the size of the potential Aimhigher cohort can be daunting but participants recognised that vocational routes can enable learner progression within a college environment. The world café session showed some of the creative ways in which partnerships are addressing the challenges presented by the targeting guidance and demonstrated that the breadth of partnerships brings a wide range of skills and expertise to the solution of these issues.

6. Partnerships and Collaboration

The strength and the maturity of the Aimhigher partnerships were a recurring theme of the conference.  Rob Cuthbert pointed out that these partnerships did not exist at all ten years ago and suggested that Aimhigher is now the biggest and the best collaboration in higher education, and one which shows the possibilities of collaborative work.  Partnerships have developed differently to suit local circumstances but Aimhigher collaboration has survived, or even been strengthened, by the uncertain funding and the frequent changes in the programme.

In the final session of the day, members of the panel each offered a view of partnership work.  John Townsey, Headteacher at Morley High School saw the Aimhigher partnership as a broker, encouraging innovation and supporting institutions to undertake riskier projects.  He gave the example of work the school was now doing with a local employer to help pupils to recognise and experience careers and qualifications linked to local jobs.

Frank Gill, Principal of Knowsley College said the Aimhigher partnership built bridges between the sectors for learners and made HEIs into familiar, visited places.

Ian Tunbridge, Chief Executive of Universities in the South West asked whether organisations collaborate because they have to or because they want to.  Effective collaboration respects different strengths in partners and recognises that there are different voices.  Partnership provides a single point of contact for learners so that they don’t need to deal with all these different agendas.

John Selby, Head of Widening Participation at HEFCE said the strength of partnerships was in providing impartial advice and a coherent face to learners and protecting the needs of partners.  But there are risks that partnerships will work to the lowest common denominator, become bureaucratic, or exclusive, or simply too resource intensive.  Aimhigher needs to avoid these traps.  It will be strengthened if it can harness more of the resources in higher education institutions.

Viv Wylie , Aimhigher Regional Manager, West Midlands:  Partnership  brings people together for a common purpose, allows greater creativity and wider perspectives on issues to be addressed and looks at the learner journey as a whole across the sectors. The partnership can take a holistic, integrated view of widening participation.  Partnerships are underpinned by the quality of the relationships they generate and these need constant renewal. 

Derek Longhurst, Director of Foundation Degree Forward:  Collaboration is essential if we are to move forward in both widening participation and the development of skills for employment.  Without collaboration, the risk is that we create noise but no impact.  Partnerships need a strategic arm and a clear vision and need to recognise what each partner brings to the table.  Employers could become increasingly important partners.

‘Another Country’

Widening Participation in HE: the experience of Aimhigher Partnerships

Tuesday 2^nd October, Queen’s Hotel, Leeds .

Programme

10.30  Welcome from morning chair:  John Hall, Regional Director, Aimhigher London

10.35:  Session One – Where has Aimhigher got to? The Journey & the Present

Keynote: A School Perspective:  Michael Hatfield, Assistant Headteacher, Middlefield School of Technology

Keynote: An HE Perspective:  Rob Cuthbert, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of West of England

11.15:  Session Two – Workshops: The Experience of Aimhigher

Professional Qualifications for WP practitioners	Greater Manchester Union Learning Clubs
Motivating Students to learn languages in secondary schools	Successful pilots using the new targeting guidelines
Creating the success boys deserve	Working in close partnership with Connexions:  influencing the influencers
Volunteering:  developing FE/HE partnerships to enhance progression	Build a Dream:  involving students in interactive workshops
The Vocational Progression Scheme:  a model to improve IAG for vocational learners in South London	Making Choices Together:  a project with Looked After Children

 

1.15  Afternoon Chair:  Shona Paul, Regional Director, Aimhigher North East

1.20  Session Three - Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education

Bill Rammell MP, Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education  Questions to the Minister

2.0  Session Four – Targeting Aimhigher

World Café Discussions

3.0  Session Five – Partnership panel

Panel Chair:  Rhiannon Evans, Director, Action on Access;

Panel members:

Viv Wylie, Regional Director, Aimhigher West Midlands;

Ian Tunbridge, Chief Executive, Combined Universities in Cornwall;

John Townsey, Headteacher, Morley High School;

John Selby, Director of Widening Participation, HEFCE;

Derek Longhurst, Chief Executive, Foundation Degree Forward;

Frank Gill, Principal, Knowsley Community College.

3.50 Closing Remarks:  Shona Paul