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CloseWhat is HEAT?
The Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) is a non-profit research collaboration of over 100 higher education providers and third sector organisations, who have built a sector-leading Service that provides a system, data and tools for evaluation.
- About Us
- What is HEAT?
Since 2014, we have worked with our members to build evidence and further our collective knowledge around what works for equality of opportunity in higher education and beyond.
Our System and Service
Through their subscription, members can utilise our broad range of services to help them monitor and evaluate the work they are delivering to mitigate risks to equality of opportunity in education.
Watch the video to learn more about the HEAT Service and how we support our members to produce high equality evaluation.
Watch videoOur Mission
Our mission is to support the sector to evaluate the work they are doing to mitigate risks to equality of opportunity in education.
We do this through the provision of a shared system, data and tools, providing our members with the resources they need to generate high-quality evidence of impact.
Our Members
Our Service is driven by our membership, a community of subscribing organisations who are committed to fostering collaboration in evaluation across the sector.
We work on the behalf of the membership to avoid duplication and share the resources and associated costs of evaluation.
Find out more about our unique community.
Our Impact
Thanks to our large membership, we are able to build evidence of impact at a sector-level, publishing reports based on members’ aggregate data.
We have tracked over one million outreach participants through school and into higher education as part of our longitudinal tracking study, and these results are shared in our impact reports.
Find out more about our research and evidence.
Our Sector Partners
We work closely with various government agencies and data custodians such as the Office for Students (OfS), the Department for Education (DfE) and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
We also work alongside our sector partners to ensure our research aims are aligned, including with the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO).
Find out more about our collaborations and research projects.
Our Objectives
We have seven objectives that guide us to continue our collaborative ethos – working with our membership, on their behalf, to make evaluation easier.
Find out more about our objectives and community, including information about our Governance and working groups.
- Practical Evaluation Support
- Assist with Regulation
- Drive Collaboration
- Build Evidence
- Maximise Engagement
- Self-sustaining and Inclusive
- Agile and Innovative
Our History
As a dedicated collaboration and non-profit, we are proud to share the milestones that have defined our journey. Founded with a vision to build robust evidence through collaborative working and resource sharing, we have been at the forefront of providing practical solutions for evaluation since our inception.
Over the years, HEAT has evolved, adapting to the changing landscape of education and evaluation best practice while remaining steadfast in our commitment to an affordable and accessible service. We play an active role within the education sector and have continuously worked to develop a system that supports providers to meet their regulatory requirements, civic duties, and foster a culture of collaboration.
Explore our milestones to see how our initiatives, membership, and achievements have contributed to championing educational equity. We invite you to join us as we continue our journey.
In 2011, the South East region of the United Kingdom worked collaboratively on developing a shared widening participation monitoring and evaluation system.
14 universities in the South East of England signed up to the new HEAT membership, all dedicated to establishing a shared service to continue a collaborative approach to monitoring and evaluating widening participation activity.
In 2014, the HEAT membership reached 21 Universities, and expanded beyond the South East region for the first time.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (now the Office for Students) provided catalyst funding until 2018 to enable the HEAT Service to expand nationally. Over the next five years, we welcomed over 50 new members and extended our Service to the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (now the Uni Connect Partnership).
By 2024, HEAT had grown substantially, welcoming over 100 subscribing member organisations, and 25 Uni Connect Partnership members.
We offer different Membership Types, to make joining HEAT possible for even the smallest organisations. As we are self-sustaining, we can keep equality of opportunity at the centre of all we do.
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Community & Governance
Find out about our community objectives, how we are governed and our working groups.
Discover more about our members
Find out about our community and the membership types available.
Our Team
Find out more about the HEAT team driving our mission and supporting our members to create impactful change in education.