STAR Programme
Sutton Trust Academic Routes (STAR), delivered in partnership with Leeds and Exeter Universities, is targeted at the top ten percent of bright but disadvantaged students in low progression schools in the vicinity of the two universities. It supports them over three years through a programme of advice sessions, taster days, study skills and residential events - underpinned by the aim that many of them will be admitted to research-led universities.
The project was the result of an in-depth review of of innovative university admissions schemes developed in the UK, as well as initiatives from overseas. As a result of the review the Trust and its university partners developed STAR - an innovative access programme to pilot and evaluate in the UK, drawing on some of the best and most transferable ideas from overseas.
Importantly – and in contrast to other schemes the Trust has funded – STAR begins in year 11 so that it can influence students’ A-level choices, which are often a stumbling block for non-privileged youngsters accessing research-led universities. Another innovative element to STAR is the idea of a ‘guaranteed pathway’ – so that students can see clearly from the beginning of the programme how they can realise a place a top university and the individual steps they need to take to get there. The programme culminates in the possibility of a lower A-level offer to reflect the work the student has put in over the three year course. The scheme aims to identify and nurture talent in all young people with the potential to study at a leading university - therefore STAR students meeting the eligibility criteria are automatically enrolled in the programme, rather than having to come forward themselves or be nominated by teachers.
One of the most significant aspects of the STAR scheme is the way in which its impact is being assessed over a three year period by Durham University’s Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring. The programme will be the first of its kind in the UK to be evaluated using a randomised control trial – to remove as many of the extraneous factors as possible which obscure the true impact of the programme. While this approach is common in the US, it is rarely used in education research in the UK, but will tell us in the clearest terms to date whether the programme improves the life chances of young people.
Beyond its importance to STAR, in the short term we hope that the evaluation will provide a framework for assessing the efficacy of other projects of this kind so that the widest possible evidence base can be created. In the longer term, the findings will be of huge relevance to the higher education sector and to the government as spending priorities are defined in a difficult economic climate.
