Context

The University of Bath has recently published their 2024-28 Access and Participation Plan (APP). The purpose of this plan is to provide a clear strategy and framework for improving the outcomes for underrepresented student groups throughout their academic journey at Bath. As part of the APP, an analysis of student characteristics was conducted. However, at the time, it was not possible to complete a comprehensive intersectional characteristic analysis. Analysis of the impact of a student having multiple characteristics that are less likely to have equality of opportunity is challenging and is rarely done. The Office for Students introduced the ABCS model as a way of allowing institutions to see how likely a student with intersectional characteristics is to access, continue or succeed at a university. Although this gave some insight it is limited in its useability and does not allow an institution to look in detail at their own data. This project will produce a model and visualisation method to allow institutions to understand the impact on a student who is from a background where they have multiple characteristics that are at risk of not having equality of opportunity. The project aims to achieve the following outcomes:

1. In depth understanding of whether and how students with different combinations of characteristics experience varying outcomes.
2. The development of a scalable model to support future APP monitoring and development.
3. Improved APP targets and objectives to better support most at-risk students.

Evaluation Questions

• Is there a statistically significant compounding impact on student access, and if so, which characteristics?
• Is there a statistically significant compounding impact on student continuation, and if so, which characteristics?
• Is there a statistically significant compounding impact on degree outcomes (attainment), and if so, which characteristics?
• Is there a statistically significant compounding impact on graduate outcomes (progression), and if so, which characteristics?

Methodology

• Creation of a statistical model that can assess the different lifecycle points (access, continuation, attainment and progression) via institutional datasets
• Creation of scripts that can be adapted into visualisation software and for future iterations of analysis
• Creation of a management dashboard to support further analysis and action plans

Type of evaluation evidence

Using the OfS standards of evidence this project will produce Type 3 (causal evidence)

Published report

At the end of the project timeline, a technical report and our experiences of creating this model will be published on this webpage.