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UCAS evaluation confirms Scholars Programme graduates significantly more likely to progress to competitive universities

27 Apr 2022

Our mission for our national access programme, The Scholars Programme, is to support students from less advantaged backgrounds to secure a place at a competitive university. For the last six years, we have worked with the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to independently evaluate the impact of The Scholars Programme on progression to higher education.

Today, we are publishing data from the sixth consecutive UCAS evaluation which tracked over 500 Year 12 students who took part in The Scholars Programme in 2019/20.

The data examines these students who then applied to university in the 2021/22 application cycle using teacher assessed grades.

For the sixth consecutive year, independent UCAS evaluation has found that students who complete The Scholars Programme are significantly more likely to apply and progress to a competitive university than students from similar backgrounds (56% vs. 37%).

A graphic showing progression rates of Scholars Programme graduates to university

 

This also holds true for students from less advantaged backgrounds. 1 in 2 students eligible for Pupil Premium progressed to a competitive university, compared with an expected rate of 35%.

What’s more, students who completed The Scholars Programme, including those eligible for Pupil Premium, apply to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge at more than double the rate of their peers from similar backgrounds.

A graphic showing the progression rates of Scholars Programme graduates to universities

We are proud of this evaluation, which demonstrates the proven impact of our Scholars Programme on progression to university. You can read more figures from the evaluation here.