Monitoring and Evaluation

Evaluation undertaken by Aimhigher Area Partnerships is part of a wider evaluation being undertaken by HEFCE on the impact of Aimhigher and widening participation outreach programmes on learner attainment and progression. Details of this can be found on the Aimhigher Practitioners' website.

Guidance from HEFCE to Aimhigher Area Partnerships (Guidance for Aimhigher partnerships, updated for the 2008-11 programme http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2008/08_05/)
states that the aims of evaluation at Aimhigher Area level are to improve understanding of:

• The impact of Aimhigher programmes on targeted participants
• The impact of Aimhigher on providers

To this end, the 2008-11 planning process formally required Aimhigher Area Partnerships to produce plans that set out at the outset of the funding period (2008-11) the intended strategy by which the programme will be evaluated.

The Aimhigher West Evaluation Plan 2008-011, which can be downloaded below, sets out the detail of how the Partnership will undertake this evaluation.

 Aimhigher West Evaluation Plan 2008_011

The strategy focuses on three aspects in particular:

• The cohort survey: explores in detail the effects of the targeting strategy. It also investigates the effectiveness of individual and cumulative intervention programmes.
• The learner identity enquiry: explores the contributions made by the Aimhigher programme to the development of positive learner identities.
• The cultural impact survey: explores the degree to which Aimhigher becomes embedded in the culture of partner organisations and the degree to which such work might be made sustainable in the long-term.

Reports produced from these can be accessed and downloaded from the Area Evaluation Reports Section of the website.