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Widening participation: a review by HEFCE

At the end of 2006 we undertook a review of widening participation activities in the sector which we reported to the Minister of State for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning.

The review contains two main messages.

• there is evidence of real progress in embedding widening participation as part of the core mission of all higher education institutions and this commitment should be carefully reinforced and nurtured
• widening participation practice and the evidence base (what works and why) can be improved. There are lessons about the way widening participation activity is organised and delivered and how it is targeted. There are also lessons about the pattern of engagement that suggest relatively simple steps that can be taken to improve substantially both effectiveness and the evidence for success.

The report is available to download.

[ MS Word 671K | Zipped Word 166K | Adobe PDF 581K | Zipped PDF 450K ]

DfES press release on the review.

Last updated 4 January 2007