UK SBS FWRECR17031HEFCE

This tender seeks to commission an external evaluation relating to a new HEFCE Catalyst Fund programme entitled 'Addressing barriers to student success'.

The HEFCE Catalyst Fund commits up to £30 million in annual funding. This money aims to drive innovation in the HE sector, enhance excellence and efficiency in HE, and support innovative solutions.

This particular programme aims to address differential outcomes within higher education and beyond for certain groups of students that are disproportionately affected.

HEFCE wishes to place a tender for a two year formative evaluation and capacity building programme that will assess how successfully the Catalyst funded programme has: a. supported collaborations that have developed systematic and strategic approaches to address differential student outcomes b. supported collaborations that have scaled up successful innovations for disabled students c. identified how good practice and interventions can be validated, replicated, transmitted and embedded across a diverse range of providers, and identify what conditions need to be present to facilitate this.

This tender has three strands (described in more detail in the 'Requirement' section): a. formative evaluation, ongoing thematic synthesis and dissemination of good practice b. facilitating and delivering project-level evaluation capacity building for the successful projects in the programme, including formative support where necessary c. summative, systematic review of the evidence emerging from the projects and their overall impact. This should incorporate an element of peer review.