This report is a synthesis of the evidence in the Widening Access Student Retention and Success (WASRS) archive about partnership working and collaboration to widen participation. Although funding for national partnership programmes is no longer available the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) encourages higher education institutions to plan in their access agreements to collaborate with other HEIs and with schools to maximise the impact of their outreach activities. Nonetheless as competition to recruit students increases in higher education and in the school and college sectors institutions will wish to be sure of the benefits and the costs of collaboration.
Aimhigher and the Lifelong Learning Networks were both HEFCE national initiatives that provided funding to complex cross-sectoral partnerships of institutions in geographical areas. New partnerships may take a range of forms. In this report collaboration involves institutions coming together around issues of common concern. It may or may not lead to joint projects. Working in partnership requires a structured approach to sharing responsibility to achieve agreed objectives.
This literature synthesis is one of six commissioned by the Higher Education Academy. They bring together the central themes in the research and practice legacy of the Aimhigher Lifelong learning Action on Access and What Works? programmes.
The syntheses draw on the literature in the WASRS archive on a number of publications produced by the HEFCE and on some external sources.
