Everything that The Brilliant Club does, we do in pursuit of consistent and reliable outcomes for pupils. Our Research and Impact Department brings together five social scientists who work to understand the impact of our programmes on pupil outcomes. We use this evidence to widen participation to highly-selective universities, and to measure and improve curriculum enrichment.

On this page you will find updates on the work of the Research and Impact Department including the results of research and evaluations, as well as details of the Department’s work with external organisations.

For the last two years, The Brilliant Club has worked with the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to evaluate the impact The Scholars Programme on progression to highly-selective universities.

In both years, UCAS found that pupils who completed The Scholars Programme were significantly more likely to apply to, receive an offer from and progress to a highly-selective university than pupils in control groups matched for prior attainment and socio-economic factors.

Read our most recent impact evaluation here:

Our Research and Impact Series provides three ways for you to engage with our work and that of our partners:

Research Seminar Series
A forum for practitioners to interact with academic research about education and widening participation. The first seminar series ran in 2017/18 and included speakers Dr Rebecca Allen from Education Datalab, Dr Claire Crawford from the University of Warwick, and Dr Sarah Tazzyman from CFE Research. Uniquely, each seminar featured presentations by at least one academic and one practitioner, linked by a central theme – read the series digest here.

In 2018/19, we will be hosting Research Seminar Series 2 in partnership with Cardiff University, the University of Sheffield, the University of Strathclyde and UCL. We are delighted to be able to hold seminars across the UK and look forward to welcoming researchers and practitioners to engage with the subjects covered. Further details and tickets will be available on this page later in the year.

Impact Case Study Series
Accessible case studies addressing key thematic challenges in widening participation and curriculum enrichment, and how we have approached them – read our latest impact case studies.

Research Report Series
Detailed research reports looking at specific ways in which we have tried to improve and evaluate the impact of our programmes, including what we have learnt and the translation of research and evaluation into wider practice – read our latest research reports.

Contact Details
Dr Lauren Bellaera (Research and Impact Director) can provide further information on the Research and Impact Series, as well as the wider work of the department. Please email lauren.bellaera@thebrilliantclub.org.