In the first part of this session for evaluators and managers, Tom Perry, Associate Professor University of Warwick explored the limitations of experimental methods and considered alternatives that could be of more value in the context of intervention strategies and Access and Participation Plans.

Matthew Horton, Evaluation Manager, University of Wolverhampton, then introduced the Toolkit for Access and Participation Evaluation - the TAPE which has been developed to measure the impact of interventions on pupils’ non-cognitive factors such as: Higher Education expectations, knowledge, attitudes, Self-efficacy and Academic motivation.

Dr Matt Horton is the Evaluation Manager at the University of Wolverhampton (APP, TEF and REC). Matt has over 24 years' experience of evaluating programmes that tackle disadvantage and promote educational opportunity. He has worked across charities (Mencap), Sure Start, local authorities, and APPs in higher education. Matt is passionate about embedding evaluation into practice and building a culture where learning drives positive change. His recent contributions include leading the creation of (TAPE), the first survey with predictive validity to measure the impact of WP outreach activities and generating new evidence on the success of Aimhigher, UCP and post-entry support. You can find out more via Matt’s LinkedIn feed: Dr Matthew Horton | LinkedIn

Dr Tom Perry is a social scientist, education researcher and educator, working at the intersection of research, policy and practice to tackle systemic inequalities in education. He is Associate Professor at the University of Warwick and Co-Director of Postgraduate Research in the Department of Education Studies. His work focuses on generating and applying robust social science evidence to real-world educational challenges, and on strengthening research capacity, methods and use within the field.

You can find out more on Tom’s webpage: www.thomasperry.education