Professor Jeff Kramer described the review of the College’s outreach activities and its approach to increasing access to higher education, which he led at the end of 2010 at the request of the Management Board.
Overview of the Outreach and Access Review
Jeff gave an overview of the Review of outreach activities which began in November, looking at the range of funded activities currently undertaken by the College, their impact and costs, together with unfunded and voluntary activities arranged by staff and students. The Review also considered how outreach activities are coordinated, the requirements for our outreach commitments through our Access Agreement with OFFA and the activities of competitor universities. Jeff noted the College should look to improve how it measures the success and impact of activities, though he acknowledged this was a difficult task. He suggested Imperial should develop programmes which build on an established relationship with school students, which seems to be far more productive than a scattergun approach to outreach activities.
Current outreach activities
Around 96,000 pupils are involved in the College’s main outreach activities per annum. For a full breakdown of number of pupils who take part in different activities see this slide.
- The range of College activities undertaken is demonstrated on this slide.
Jeff noted that the motivations for outreach and access activities across the College are not exclusively linked to student recruitment. Other factors include the raising of aspirations, the opportunities for public engagement in Imperial’s activities, and the benefits outreach initiatives bring to students through mentoring and teaching opportunities.
The College’s current annual spend on outreach activities stands at £500,000. In addition its partnership with Exscitec allows Imperial to leverage a further £1,500,000 worth of activities.
Summary
In summarising the challenges facing the College, Jeff stated:
- The College needs to have a more strategic oversight of outreach, without constraining departments’ existing activities, to ensure outreach activities are more focussed.
- Outreach activities should be publicised more widely, both internally and externally.
- Academics should be more actively rewarded for their support of outreach.
- It would be helpful to have a senior academic advise on widening participation strategy and co-ordination, who understands the academic working environment, to help improve engagement and involvement at an academic level.
- Nothing we do should in the future come at the expense of the activities that benefit current students, by broadening their experience.
Discussion
A discussion followed Jeff’s presentation, in which the following remarks were made:
- Imperial is competing with other universities in targeting a pool of talented potential students through outreach.
- Funding bodies are increasingly interested in outreach activities when making strategic awards.
- The College could explore opportunities presented by the closure of the Aimhigher scheme. It is likely that something will be needed to fill this void, and Imperial could investigate the possibilities around taking on the Science aspect of the London Aimhigher remit.
- Corporate partners, which independently are looking to expand their outreach activities, could also help Imperial to extend its work in this area.
- There could be opportunities for additional engagement with parents and teachers. The Department of Bioengineering, for example, invited school careers advisors to listen to a talk from a UCAS employee. It also gave the advisors an opportunity to find out more about bioengineering and Imperial in general.
Conclusion
The Rector brought the session to a close noting: “The really hard thing is to devise a strategy that’s going to work in a competitive way. This isn’t just about money, we need to think through a strategic approach which connects these activities to our access agreement.”
There does not appear to be anything on Jeff’s slide 5 which simply embraces the lectures and visits arranged by Friends of Imperial College -see http://www.friendsofimperial.org.uk
“Friends” can been regarded as a self-driven and largely self-funded out-reach club for associates and benefactors who like to keep abreast of research at the College. It includes several retired members of staff. It is not specifically aimed at school children or teachers although occasionally some have attended by arrangement.
It seems to me that, in consultation with the Friends’ committee, more London science teachers could be invited to join and the organisation could play a more pro-active role for the College as part of its out-reach activities.
I’ve had a read through the report. Here are my comments in italic:
“Jeff noted the College should look to improve how it measures the success and impact of activities, though he acknowledged this was a difficult task.”
I agree – there is increasingly pressure to measure ‘impact’ and this is difficult. Funding bodies are increasingly interested in outreach activities when making strategic awards and impact is an important consideration.
“He suggested Imperial should develop programmes which build on an established relationship with school students, which seems to be far more productive than a scattergun approach to outreach activities.”
I think this is what Outreach is already doing in many ways, building on existing relationships with schools.
“The College’s current annual spend on outreach activities stands at £500,000. In addition its partnership with Exscitec allows Imperial to leverage a further £1,500,000 worth of activities.”
That’s a very good return on Imperial’s investment!
“Imperial is competing with other universities in targeting a pool of talented potential students through outreach.”
Some universities (who may be our competitors) target much of their ‘outreach’ only at students from top independent schools. Therefore it appears that the way the term ‘outreach’ is being used here is only linked to recruitment, whereas ‘access’ is an important part of outreach understood more broadly. Widening access to talented potential students from the poorest backgrounds is beneficial to Imperial from both a strategic and moral perspective.
“Corporate partners, which independently are looking to expand their outreach activities, could also help Imperial to extend its work in this area.”
This is a good idea and should be developed further perhaps by designated ‘business development’ outreach staff.