Uni Connect programme has now reached over a million learners

In 2017, the Uni Connect Programme was launched by the Office for Students (OfS), with the aim of inspiring aspiration and progression amongst student groups currently underrepresented in Higher Education…

Five years later and the OfS has announced that over one million learners (1,041,867) have engaged in the programme since that launch – a milestone moment in its goal to create greater equality of educational opportunity across England.

A national programme with deep local roots

The Uni Connect programme incorporates 29 partnerships across England – the Sussex Learning Network being one.

Each partnership works at a regional level to build strong networks between local schools, sixth form colleges, further education colleges, universities, community groups and experts so that comprehensive support and progression programmes can be developed and tailored to meet the needs of underrepresented learners, empowering them to make informed choices about their futures.

Over half of schools and colleges involved

The Uni Connect programme has grown significantly over the past five years and the latest OfS announcements reveal that last year (2020-2021) more than 50% of all schools and colleges in England are currently involved, helping it to reach, and support, over a million learners. It also reveals that greater engagement in Uni Connect activities results in learners being better informed about their choices, and over the short, medium and long term they are increasingly positive about what higher level education can offer them.

Of those who have participated, some 400,000 have engaged with more sustained and progressive outreach activities which take part over longer periods of time and help to build confidence, resilience and knowledge which are proven to have a lasting positive impact on learners.

Our local impact

In Sussex, we are hugely proud of the extensive network that has been established across our region working with schools, colleges and universities.  The Sussex Learning Network is currently working with over 60% of state schools as well as every further education college and university and in the last academic year alone we engaged with over 24,100 learners as a result of our collaborative effort.

Our network holds regular careers and progression events, runs free CPD sessions for teachers, schools and colleges (see our Learning4Life site for details by clicking here), provides advice and guidance to young people, their parents, carers and teachers (see our Get Career Confident site for details here) and creates free careers, learning and progression learning resources (see our Digital Resource guide for details here).

Looking to the future

Over the coming academic year, the OfS has announced that Uni Connect partnerships will begin to develop collaborative approaches to raising the academic attainment of learners in Years 7-11 in local state secondary schools. The OfS hope that all Uni Connect partnerships will do this by pulling together their existing collaborative networks and drawing on their collective expertise and resources which support attainment raising to better support local schools.

As we continue our work to ensure inclusive, bright futures for all students across Sussex, we will continue our efforts to keep you posted on ways that you can get involved, support, and benefit from what is happening across the region.