Challenge
A multinational corporation aimed to expand their existing social impact activities in the UK education and skills space by supporting 100 students from under-represented backgrounds through their degree course.
Santander Scholarships
Approach
The discovery phase helped us gain a deeper understanding of what the client was trying to achieve with the scheme by evaluating what had been considered or tried in the past, and how the outcomes would support their broader strategy and existing Theory of Change. Next we designed the schemes eligibility criteria with a a data-driven approach drawing on best practice and informed by -and aligned to - data and analysis undertaken by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and England’s Office for Students (OfS). We worked closely with the client to translate this into an easy to understand application form suitable for the diverse target groups, ranging from mature and disabled students to care-experienced, refugees, ethnic minorities, and those from lower socio-economic groups.
We then applied a rigorous assessment methodology to c. 4000 applications. The assessment process was carefully designed to align with the objectives of the scheme and to be as objective as possible, verified by a high degree of inter-coder reliability. We then verified selected student status/eligibility, where including a selection process analysis helped demonstrate that there was no inherent bias against particular groups or universities, and to provide additional insights into the cohort.
Lastly, we designed and delivered a monitoring and evaluation framework including detailed survey design, to let impact be tracked over time.
Impact
100 students were successfully selected and on-boarded into the scholarships programme, with 99% remaining after two years (a much higher rate than would be expected of the general student population). Scholars report very high levels of satisfaction with the scheme. Our M&E framework continues to provide evidence to the client on the effectiveness of their support.
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