Alignment of research and practice
Professor Anna Mountford-Zimdars, Director (Practice) Centre for Social Mobility.
“The Centre for Social Mobility is the UK’s only university centre dedicated to improving social mobility through evidence-informed practice and policy in higher education.
As well as the production of published research the centre adminsters a small grants scheme which has supported innovative projects in relation to decolonising curricula, unhiding curricula, inclusive higher education, using imagined self in student support and supporting employability. We are about to start further work with mature students, Sanctuary scholars and contextualised students as well as an innovative writing scheme which will support practitioners to prepare their research for peer-reviewed publication.
We are keen to support regional developments in the area of social mobility and have recently founded a social mobility commission for the South West based on a state-of-the-region report about education and social mobility we launched in 2022. We have also undertaken rapid-response research during the Covid-19 pandemic which we used to influence policy making around education, for example, in relation to electively home-educated children missing out on the teacher predicted grades and proposing a national tutoring scheme. One of our centre members won the Hutton Prize for Social Sciences for her achievements in policy impact, this is the first time this honour was awarded to work in education. We also put the group of electively home educated students forward as being at risk of missing out in education for the new OFS risk register. The Centre for Social Mobility has been noticed in the national Social Mobility Awards for three years running.
In all our work, we aim to co-create evidence that supports meaningful action for enhancing practice and support and ultimately support students to access, succeed and progress at Exeter and beyond. Centre members serve on a wide range of national groups including the TASO academic advisory group, the Social Mobility Commission academic advisory panel and the widening participation practitioner group and feature in national policy debates through contributions in the media including BBC radio 4 and national newspapers.”
Professor Anna Mountford-Zimdars, Director (Practice) Centre for Social Mobility.
“The Centre for Social Mobility is the UK’s only university centre dedicated to improving social mobility through evidence-informed practice and policy in higher education.
As well as the production of published research the centre adminsters a small grants scheme which has supported innovative projects in relation to decolonising curricula, unhiding curricula, inclusive higher education, using imagined self in student support and supporting employability. We are about to start further work with mature students, Sanctuary scholars and contextualised students as well as an innovative writing scheme which will support practitioners to prepare their research for peer-reviewed publication.
We are keen to support regional developments in the area of social mobility and have recently founded a social mobility commission for the South West based on a state-of-the-region report about education and social mobility we launched in 2022. We have also undertaken rapid-response research during the Covid-19 pandemic which we used to influence policy making around education, for example, in relation to electively home-educated children missing out on the teacher predicted grades and proposing a national tutoring scheme. One of our centre members won the Hutton Prize for Social Sciences for her achievements in policy impact, this is the first time this honour was awarded to work in education. We also put the group of electively home educated students forward as being at risk of missing out in education for the new OFS risk register. The Centre for Social Mobility has been noticed in the national Social Mobility Awards for three years running.
In all our work, we aim to co-create evidence that supports meaningful action for enhancing practice and support and ultimately support students to access, succeed and progress at Exeter and beyond. Centre members serve on a wide range of national groups including the TASO academic advisory group, the Social Mobility Commission academic advisory panel and the widening participation practitioner group and feature in national policy debates through contributions in the media including BBC radio 4 and national newspapers.”
New South West Social Mobility Commission launched
(Chaired by Sir Michael Barber)
A new Commission chaired by world-renowned expert on government delivery Sir Michael Barber will aim to transform life prospects for disadvantaged young people across the South West peninsula.
Following a phenomenal response to the publication of their report into social mobility in the South West peninsula, Centre for Social Mobility researchers Professor Lee Elliot Major and Dr Anne-Marie Sim have been working on the set-up of the new Commission. The Commission will bring together influential leaders from different sectors from across the region who are passionate about making a difference to the lives of young people experiencing disadvantage.
The 12 Inaugural Commissioners are:
- Lisa Roberts, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter
- Kate Kennally, Chief Executive of Cornwall Council
- Paul von der Heyde, Chair of Somerset Integrated Care Board
- Lisa Mannall, Chief Executive of Cornwall Education Learning Trust and former South-West Regional Schools Commissioner
- Sean Mackney, Principal and CEO of PETROC College
- Brendan Staniforth, Strategy Delivery Director at Devonport Royal Dockyard (Babcock International)
- Paul Crawford, Chief Executive of Live West
- Karl Tucker, Chair of Yeo Valley Ltd, Chair of HotSW LEP and Interim Chair of GSW
- Tony Rowe, Chair of Exeter Chiefs
- Alice Thomson, Columnist and Interviewer at The Times
- Andrew Moreman, Chief Executive of Young Devon
The Commission will set ambitious goals for the region to improve social mobility and bring together different system actors to establish a strategy for achieving these goals.
Lee and Anne-Marie are also taking forward several of the other recommendations from their report including piloting a university-led tutoring service for disadvantaged school pupils. Following a successful pilot with undergraduate students taking Exeter’s Learning for Teaching module, plans are in place to promote the service nationally and expand coverage across the peninsula.
Small grants, big impacts
Centre for Social Mobility Grants scheme
The Centre for Social Mobility grants scheme is about to commence its fourth cycle. So far, ten projects have received a grant, spending £30,000. Through small grants, the scheme aims to provide a pathway for research ideas in the field of social mobility to be developed into evidence-based policy and practice, and/or, contribute to the sector’s knowledge base. A wide variety of projects have been funded from Lego serious play workshops that explore transitions out of university, to investigating the experiences of electively home-educated students, to theatre-based training for personal tutors. To see a synopsis of all of our projects, see our website.
There have seen ten publications in peer-reviewed journals, the development of four new assets (e.g. toolkits, resources, etc.), three projects that have involved students as co-creators, as well as a number of conference presentations, workshops, and data collection. However, these outputs are increasing as projects that were funded more recently start to conclude.
Earlier projects have shown the capability to have real-world impacts. The Decolonisation toolkit for example, led by Dr Caitlin Kight, has not only made a significant contribution to practice within the University, but it has also led to further funding from the British Council and a new decolonisation project with Jadavpur University.
New evaluation approach
Over the past 12 months, we have developed the practice of evaluation within Success for All in three ways.
First, we have developed an approach to designing evaluations that can be used by delivery teams. It consists of an evaluation plan template and associated guidance. Two Success for All briefings on this topic were recorded and can be viewed, along with the evaluation planning resources, via the Evaluation toolkit. Also included in the toolkit, is a template for evaluating third-party partnership agreements and new validated Widening Participation survey scales, developed by TASO.
Second, we have added strategic oversight to the increasingly large number of evaluations for programmes funded by the Access and Participation Plan (APP), by establishing an APP evaluation steering group. The steering group prioritises APP activities that require more evaluation and works with programme leads to support the development of these evaluations.
Third, we have engaged with the sector more widely on evaluation. We have taken up leadership of the Russell Group Widening Participation Evaluation Forum, which gives Russell Group providers an opportunity to collaborate on sector-wide issues related to the evaluation. We have also secured a research partnership with TASO to evaluate the Access to Internships scheme. This research is piloting a type 2 approach (according to OfS standards of evidence) to evaluate the impact of paid student internships on employability and employment outcomes, which will be shared with the sector.