Year one report of the national formative and impact evaluation, including capacity building with NCOP consortia

NCOP aims to boost higher education (HE) participation rates amongst disadvantaged young people in England in order to contribute to the achievement of current Government goals to double the proportion of disadvantaged young people going in to HE and increase by 20 per cent the number of students from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds by 2020. In addition, the Government has highlighted concerns about the continuing gap in HE participation rates between men and women, with particular reference to boys from disadvantaged backgrounds. NCOP funds 29 consortia formed of HE institutions (HEIs), further education colleges (FECs), schools and other organisations such as employers, third sector bodies and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to deliver focused activity to pupils living in areas with low absolute levels of HE participation and where participation is lower than expected given GCSE attainment. All except three of the 29 consortia have built on pre-existing partnerships. However, in some cases the exact composition of consortia has changed due the scale of activity and the number of schools and FECs engaged with.