Menu
Close
- Announcements
- HEAT to partner with TASO to host the new higher education evaluation library (HEEL)
Anna Anthony, HEAT Director, talks about our plans to work with TASO to provide the infrastructure for the new higher education evaluation library, ensuring the specification is co-designed with the sector to maximise collaboration and cultivate a supportive learning environment
John Blake recently announced the Office for Students’ plans to establish an evidence repository, for providers to submit the evaluation reporting they produce as part of their Access and Participation Plans (APP).
We are delighted to announce that, following approval from the HEAT Governance Group, we are now working with TASO to host the new higher education evaluation library (HEEL) for the sector.
Both HEAT and TASO are committed to developing a library that supports the sector to work together and share best practice, building on HEAT’s long established collaborative ethos. Dr Omar Khan (CEO at TASO) explains our discussions so far in his recent blog, including TASO’s role in analysing and summarising evaluation submitted to the library.
This is your opportunity to co-design the library with TASO so that, like HEAT, it is designed by the sector for the sector, in a way that provides meaningful learning opportunities for all those who use it.
The library will be open-access, and therefore available to non-HEAT member organisations. This will allow national coverage, whilst being separate from our core database and therefore protecting HEAT’s membership model.
We have drawn up an initial specification outlining how we think the library could work. We (HEAT and TASO) will be undertaking a thorough consultation process, with feedback from the sector driving the detail of this spec, to ensure that what we create supports the library aims of collaboration and capacity building through sharing. The following sections provide more detail on our initial proposal.
What type of information will be published to the library?
Our initial technical specification is designed around creating an inclusive library. This means we are aiming to include publications that use a range of evaluation designs.
To allow submissions to be coded and therefore searchable in a library, we envisage that publications will be accompanied by a theory of change and information on the methods used.
As well as providing the foundation for a searchable library, capturing this information will be beneficial to the sector. Significant time is currently spent across the sector, researching and developing theories of change based on a sound rationale and assumption and suitable methods of data collection. It makes sense, therefore, to share this type of information through an evaluation library.
Therefore, it is our intention that the library will assist all providers, by giving them access to a bank of theories of change, along with proposed methodologies, for interventions commonly being delivered across the sector. This will be particularly beneficial to smaller providers, or those with less capacity, who can draw on this resource when evaluation planning, thereby avoiding duplication and saving time.
We will continue to work with the membership and wider sector to ensure categorisations are useful for providers to search the library for the purpose of identifying evaluation publications for interventions that are similar to those they are running. At each step, the technical spec will be assessed to ensure it is designed around maximising learning opportunities.
Who can submit to the library?
The library will be available to the whole sector, including those without HEAT membership. Non-HEAT subscribing institutions will also be able to submit to the library. This will not require a HEAT subscription.
We will continue to work with the membership and wider sector to ensure categorisations are useful for providers to search the library for the purpose of identifying evaluation publications for interventions that are similar to those they are running. At each step, the technical spec will be assessed to ensure it is designed around maximising learning opportunities.
Anticipated launch date for the library
We are currently anticipating launching the library as part of our Winter 2025 Technical Update.
How to get involved
We hope you are as excited about the opportunity for HEAT to host the evaluation library as we are. We intend to provide many routes for you to feed into this development. To start, we will be talking about the library at the next HEAT Research Group in February 2025. Thereafter HEAT and TASO will hold webinars and consultation events throughout the spring and early summer of 2025 to prepare the HEAT membership and wider sector for this development.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you so please do get in touch with HEAT Support.
Back