This research project aims to assess the effectiveness of Widening Participation (WP) targeting strategies. It begins by discussing the differences between macrolevel (whole schools) and microlevel (individuals) targeting as a means to identifying those in need of WP intervention work. Using survey data and quantitative techniques it establishes that macrolevel targeting does reach a majority of individual students that fall within the WP remit but there are still many individual students who remain unidentified. It then moves on to assess whether attitudes towards HE are shaped by individual or school-level factors finding the latter to be the case. Finally it explores the effect of WP intervention work and finds that it is individual WP students in non-WP schools that benefit the most.
The study concludes that macrolevel factors are the most influential in determining individual attitudes and that this justifies a school-centred targeting approach but what course of action to take on the issue of the effectiveness of intervention work is undecided.
