The National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) Phase 2: An overview of literature, theoretical frameworks and evaluation design

The main aim of NCOP is to raise student aspiration and ultimately increase the number of students progressing into higher education. This short research notice outlines the work being carried out by LHERI to evaluate the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) in Lincolnshire. NCOP is set within the Widening Participation (WP) agenda which, for the past 20 years or so, has encouraged young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter higher education (HE). Whilst WP has been successful on one level, with more first-generation young people from disadvantaged backgrounds now accessing HE than ever before (Wyness 2017), significant gaps between traditional and non-traditional students remain (Social Mobility Commission, 2019)