UK's Aimhigher Associates Scheme Gains Momentum. (May 20, 2009)

Last year, John Denham, the UK's Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, introduced as a pilot -- the Aimhigher Associates scheme.

David Lammy, UK Minister of State for Higher Education

According to the scheme's website it: "focuses on using undergraduate students (termed Associates) in higher education institutions (HEI) to support underrepresented learners (students from disadvantaged backgrounds) at key points in their education so that they will be able to progress to higher education equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed even at the most competitive HEIs."

The pilot phase (2008–09), consisted of 17 Pathfinder Aimhigher Area Partnerships and according to David Lammy, Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, by the end of February 2008, "77 HEIs, 7,227 learners and 1,380 Associates had become involved. When one university advertised for 50 Associates, it had 900 people applying".

The second phase is to begin next month and will involve all of the 43 Aimhigher Area Partnerships. This two-year national phase of the Scheme will run through  2011.

According to Mr Lammy: "There are many reasons for the success of Aimhigher Associates. Undergraduates from disadvantaged backgrounds are discovering that they can succeed in higher education, and are doing so. They find that they are gaining skills and abilities which will stand them in good stead in the labour market, and that they are capable of achieving far more than they previously imagined. And they want to share their experiences with young people from similar backgrounds who, like them when they were younger, were nervous and lacking in good, first-hand, information about what university is really like."

Below is the executive summary of the document put out by the minister soliciting expressions of interest to take part in the next phase of the scheme.

_______________________________________________

Executive summary

Purpose of this guidance

1.   This guidance provides information about the national phase of the Aimhigher Associates scheme, 2009-11, and invites Aimhigher partnerships to submit plans against which allocated funds may be drawn down.

2.   The scheme has funding of £21 million spread over a period of three academic years, 2008-2011. In 2008-09, we funded 21 area partnerships as a pathfinder phase. This guidance explains the key elements of the scheme, drawing on the experience of the pathfinder year, and includes an application form for funding.

Background and rationale for the Aimhigher Associates scheme

3.   Experience to date from Aimhigher and other widening participation activity shows that there is much to be gained from interventions where undergraduates work intensively with learners at Key Stage 4 and post-16. Young learners who have spent time in exchanges with undergraduates have reported that they have benefited from the experience in terms of their personal development and general confidence about their current studies and future learning pathways. Undergraduates involved in these schemes are often perceived as good and impartial role models by learners and as an important additional resource by the school, academy or college. However, until now, sustained links between undergraduates and individual learners in schools, academies or colleges over a period of time or across educational phases have been less common. The Aimhigher Associates scheme will provide both a sustained approach to this area of partnership, and a national model on which Aimhigher partnerships, Associates and learners may draw.

Key points

4.   The Aimhigher Associates scheme is designed to help ensure that learners who come from widening participation backgrounds have the opportunity to progress to the full range of higher education provision available. To facilitate this the scheme will:

• promote progression by learners from communities under-represented in higher education to the full range of higher education provision on offer
• focus on those learners who meet the guidelines set out in our publication 'Higher education outreach: targeting disadvantaged learners' (HEFCE 2007/12)
• recruit undergraduates from a state school background and, as far as possible, from the same backgrounds as those identified as the Aimhigher target group, to be Aimhigher Associates
• provide, through Associates, support and encouragement to learners as they encounter the various transition milestones between Year 9 and Year 13
• provide training to Associates to help them in this role
• use the wider resources of Aimhigher partnerships to help schools, colleges and academies to improve the quality, quantity and timing of impartial higher education-related information advice and guidance available to learners.

5.   Targets will be agreed with Aimhigher partnerships for outputs and outcomes from the scheme and these will be reflected in the monitoring procedures and evaluation plans of partnerships.

6.   The Aimhigher Associates scheme will operate within the existing arrangements for governance and management in the mainstream Aimhigher programme.

7.   Links will be encouraged between the scheme and other initiatives such as: the City Challenge; 14-19 consortia; the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics programme and the Young Gifted and Talented programme.

8.   During 2008-09, 17 pathfinder projects, involving 21 Aimhigher partnerships, were funded and a national co-ordination team (NCT) was established to work with them to begin to identify good practice. Early lessons have emerged from the pathfinders and these will be shared with all partnerships by the NCT, which will publish a Manual of Guidance, an Associates' Handbook, the National Training Standard and a training programme. These documents and materials will be published during Aimhigher Week, from 8 June 2009, and will be distributed to all Aimhigher partnerships by the NCT.