Thematic Reports

Since widening participation students are not one homogenous group, HEAT classifies its members’ outreach participants into groups based on both their socioeconomic background and their prior attainment. This classification system allows us to compare similar students in terms of their likelihood of progressing to Higher Education. We use the HEAT Groups alongside other individual deprivation measures such as POLAR4 or the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. HEAT has published a number of Reports using the HEAT methodology:

The HEAT Groups Thematic Paper (updated March 2019)

Using the HEAT Groups, this paper examines attainment and progression outcomes for HEAT’s student groups and identifies critical points in the educational pathways of certain groups.

The report provides insight into when outreach interventions might be needed most. This paper has been updated with Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) data to provide insight into application and acceptance in Higher Education (HE) for widening participation (WP) outreach participants.

To read more, download The HEAT Groups Thematic Paper.

The Predictive Power of the HEAT Groups (in partnership with the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT)

For this report HEAT asked the Behavioural Insights Team to deconstruct the HEAT Groups methodology to ascertain how well the HEAT Groups predict progression to Higher Education.

To read more, download the Predictive Power of the HEAT Groups report.

HEAT commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team to interrogate the HEAT outreach database to try to ascertain whether taking part in an on-campus outreach activity increases propensity towards HE entry.

To read more, download the Exploring the relationship between on-campus outreach and HE entry summary report.

With a focus on young people living in isolated rural and coastal areas, this thematic explores whether remoteness may be a barrier to participation in outreach. This report aims to improve our understanding of the influence of place on access to Higher Education.

To read more, download the Progression to Higher Education in Rural and Coastal Communities report.

This infographic draws on HEAT’s tracking data to increase our understanding of why disadvantaged white males are underrepresented in Higher Education (HE). In this report, the educational outcomes of disadvantaged white males, from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 5, are compared with outcomes for other disadvantaged groups.

To read more, download the Outreach Participation and Progression Outcomes of Disadvantaged White Males Report and Outreach Participation and Progression Outcomes of Disadvantaged White Males Infographic.

This report characterises our HEAT collective outreach cohort in terms of both socio-economic disadvantage and prior attainment at age 16. The report details quasi-experimental research to provide evidence that universities are working with schools to raise attainment at KS4. It uses a quasi-experimental research design in response to the Office for Fair Access (now the Office for Students) Standards of Evaluation report and meets the highest level (Level 3) of evidence quality.

To read more, download the Exploring the relationship between Outreach engagement, Key Stage 4 performance and HE progression report.

This infographic shows regional differences in the Key Stage 4 (KS4) performance of pupils who engaged in pre-16 outreach delivered by HEAT’s member organisations. Participants are allocated to a region based on the location of their school. The analysis shows the number of participants engaged in pre-16 outreach in each region alongside a profile of their prior attainment at Key Stage 2 (KS2). The report then looks at the absolute and relative KS4 performance of these participants in comparison with their school average.

To read more, download the Key Stage 4 Performance Tracking Regional Breakdown report.

This paper explains the approach taken by the HEAT Service when classifying packages of outreach as more or less intensive. We discuss two different methods which make use of fields available on the database and conclude by combining aspects from these to inform a method that will be used for the purpose of aggregate HEAT Track reporting.

To read more, download the Classifying packages of Outreach by their Level of Intensity report.