Summer Schools

In a bid to encourage a wider diversity of students into Higher Education, UK summer schools are making the grade.

Why do so many universities go to the trouble of running summer school programmes in the off-season periods between terms? Does it boost their revenue and/or the university’s profile? Or are we simply a misanthropic nation committed to teaching and encouraging our young adults in to Higher Education (HE)? Aimhigher is a national programme, run by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with support from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), which has been the guiding light in the organisation and promotion of UK summer schools for the past four years.

As Gareth Morgan from Universities UK explains: “These courses are not simply revenue-making exercises. Aimhigher, which organises summer schools, funds some of its schemes from the public purse and also from Higher Education institutions’ (HEI) own outreach funds.”

University Business takes a closer look at the inner workings of the planning and motivation behind the implementation of the British summer school by talking to a representative from Aimhigher, the now-prolific programme that originally set out to join forces with universities across England in an attempt to open their doors to students from years 10, 11 and 12. The focus is on young students who have the potential to go to university, but who are not sure whether to go, or perhaps haven’t even considered it as a possible option.

An Aimhigher spokesperson says: “The programme has been running under the Aimhigher banner for four years and has been growing steadily. For example, during 2006 alone approximately 10,000 pupils went to more than 250 summer schools across the UK, which were offered by more than 100 different HEIs. The main idea behind this venture is to give students a holistic view of HE by providing a true insight into both the academic and social aspects of university.”

Loughborough is just one of the participating universities whose Widening Participation office runs Aimhigher summer schools from its campus each year. Natalie Savage from Loughborough University comments: “Our summer schools are science-based only and are non profit-making. These summer schools involve year 10 and year 11 students from across the East Midlands, and we usually get an attendance of around 40–50 students each year. The events take place in university vacation time and students stay in existing halls. We do have plans to extend this area of our operation in the future, however we are subject to external funding.”

Aimhigher summer schools run for a period of between two and 10 days, and it is widely considered that a minimum of three or four nights is required for maximum student benefit. Although usually residential, a significant proportion of available summer school participations are non-residential and, equally, the courses are not restricted purely to the summer-holiday period. All course and travel costs, as well as meals and accommodation are provided free of charge by the scheme.

The HEFCE scheme, which has been running since 2004, has until July 2008 been part-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF). The ESF has contributed 45 per cent of the approximate £327 million that has been spent on summer schools since 2004, and when ESF funding ends later this year, HEFCE intends to provide and additional £10.5 million over the 2008–2010 period.

From 2008, the target group for summer schools will increasingly be more tightly focused with an emphasis on young people from the lower socio-economic groups, who come from areas of high deprivation (as measured by the national Statistics Socio Economic Classification NS-SEC and the Index of Multiple Deprivation).

The Aimhigher spokesperson comments: “Our summer schools are particularly focused on young people who are less familiar with HE, perhaps because they do not know many people among family or friends who have been to university or who can advise them on what choices to make. To be eligible for an Aimhigher summer school, a pupil should attend a state school or city technology college, have the potential to achieve at least the minimum entry qualification for HE, and be in years 10, 11 or 12, or the equivalent such
as an apprenticeship or similar vocational programme.”

“Following acceptance, the pupil will attend a university or college, generally one that is local to them, although some schemes incorporate a region-swapping element, so that students can explore what HE systems are like further away from home. The precise format of the summer-school scheme varies considerably from one institution to the next, but in general, summer schools are widely acknowledged by their providers, learners and teachers as the most powerful and certainly most popular widening participation intervention.”