May 2009 (web only)
Guidance

Completed planning templates should be e-mailed to HEFCE by Friday 3 July 2009

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Aimhigher Associates scheme
Guidance and planning for the national phase, 2009-2011

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.

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Foreword

By David Lammy, Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property

Every so often, an idea is launched and it succeeds beyond the wildest dreams. This is what has happened with Aimhigher Associates. Last year, John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, announced a new Aimhigher Associates scheme and launched a pathfinder phase. This has proved to be a huge success.

Through the pilots 17 projects have been launched, and already by the end of February 77 HEIs, 7,227 learners and 1,380 Associates had become involved. When one university advertised for 50 Associates, it had 900 people applying.

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.

Associates help pupils from Key Stage 4 through educational transitions and with the UCAS university application process, offering personal experience that can encourage young people to make the most of their talents.

Our efforts to raise the aspirations of young people towards university are working. Over 50 per cent of young people from all social backgrounds now aspire to university and applications for entry in 2009 are at record levels. In the current economic climate it is vital that we keep up this momentum so that young people have the skills and qualifications to take advantage of the opportunities that will open up as world economies recover.

This document marks the next phase of plans to extend Aimhigher Associates nationally. We have already announced funding of £21 million over three years to support this programme, including the £3 million set aside last year for the pathfinder phase. I expect us to be able to progress quickly to achieve our aim of 5,500 Associates working with 21,000 young people.

This document invites all Aimhigher partnerships to put forward proposals for projects in their areas. Your continued support is vital if we are to build on the progress we have already made and ensure that all young people have the opportunity to realise their potential, whatever their background.

Aimhigher Associates scheme: guidance and planning for the national phase, 2009-2011

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To:	Chairs and managers of Aimhigher partnerships
Publication date:	May 2009
Enquiries to:	Clair Murphy tel 0117 931 7138 Jennifer Radley-Davies tel 0117 931 7441 e-mail aimhigher@hefce.ac.uk

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Executive summary (read online)

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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.

Action required

9.   Partnerships should complete the electronic form at Annex D and return it by e-mail to aimhigher@hefce.ac.uk by Friday 3 July 2009.