Teachers, your local university could be the best resource you’ll ever have

What can a dance tell us about someone’s social standing? What does their clothing and gestures reveal about their place in history?

These are the kinds of questions that eight- to 14-year-olds are exposed to when the University of Cambridge’s history faculty invites them to come and experience life in a different era. Next up is a Tudor dance workshop.

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Last year the fair access watchdog Offa persuaded UK universities to spend£750m a year on outreach activities. But Lee Elliot Major, chief executive of the Sutton Trust, claims it’s a “disgrace” that universities still aren’t properly measuring the impact of their outreach.

“We spend huge amounts of money on this area and we have been very poor at evaluating what works,” he says. “We believe universities should be spending at least 10% of their budgets on outreach evaluation.”

There’s a lack of evidence identifying which outreach initiatives are the most effective, but a recent analysis from the Sutton Trust found that summer schools, mentoring and tutoring are among the methods with the most evidence of success.

Read her full article here