The Sutton Trust today welcomed a new £22 million scheme from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to encourage more young people into higher education.  The National Networks for Collaborative Outreach (NNCO) will include over 200 higher education institutions and reach 4,300 secondary schools and colleges.

Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust, said today: “We welcome this new initiative. HEFCE shares our view that improving and widening access to higher education is vital to social mobility. This new £22 million programme is a positive step towards addressing a key recommendation in our Mobility Manifesto, where we urge more effective co-ordination of access and outreach, as well as secure and sustainable funding.

”Strong accountability measures are important in evaluating the success of outreach and access programmes and we need to improve the careers service so that all young people can know what their options are.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The Sutton Trust is a foundation set up in 1997, dedicated to improving social mobility through education. It has published over 150 research studies and funded and evaluated programmes that have helped hundreds of thousands of young people of all ages, from early years through to access to the professions.

2. The Mobility Manifesto, published in September 2014 by the Sutton Trust ahead of the party conference season, sets out 10 practical policy steps to put social mobility at the heart of the 2015 election campaign.

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