UP2UNI is a small but busy organisation that selects its project work carefully. Activities fall into three main areas:
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Primary Reseach
Exploring Key Stage educational choices and transitions, and the potential impact on adult life. |
Practitioner Engagement
Working with schools and colleges to get best value for students from their CEIAG resources. |
Working For Change
Disseminating our findings to a wider audience, including policy makers, employers and the public. |
UP2UNI was the direct result of 'Getting Them In', a practitioner research project run by Susan and Peter in 2003. Twenty years later, the scope of our work has broadened, but we retain the aims and values of the original project - designing and delivering research that can be embedded into practice in schools and colleges, thereby maximising the benefits for students. During 2018/2021 we worked with the Ark Academy Trust to carry out an ‘evaluation with impact’ of Professional Pathways, an enhanced BTEC programme developed for Ark sixth forms. Our report, 'Fulfilling the Potential of BTEC Learners' showed how the programme can achieve parity of outcomes for BTEC and A level learners when making their post-18 decisions and transitions. Our report was launched just as the government announced its intention to defund the BTEC National Diploma. This triggered a second report 'Opening doors, building futures', which explores the lifelong impact of BTEC through the experience of adults who took a BTEC Diploma between the 1980s and 2010s.
“Participants in UP2UNI reported high levels of satisfaction…..the pre-workshop discussion ensured that the majority of participants’ needs were addressed..…the process provided an effective mechanism for raising participants’ awareness about what they needed to know..…there was clear evidence of participant and institutional changes in practice.” (Houghton and Moser, REAP, Lancaster University, 2007.) 
You can download the full report below.
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As former practitioners ourselves, we believe educational research should be designed to make a difference.
In Getting Them In, 14 teachers from four schools and colleges worked with us to create research tools, gather data in their institution, and analyse findings. Practitioners praised the project for giving them research skills, developing their knowledge of students' needs, and having a direct impact on their practice . In Fulfilling the Potential of BTEC Learners, almost 600 students and alumni from 13 Ark schools took part in surveys, interviews and focus groups. The research methodology was designed to facilitate an iterative dialogue that could feed into course development as the research was taking place. At the end of the project, dissemination sessions for Ark teachers, tutors and senior staff helped them to embed findings into practice. |
"We believe that proper evaluation is the cornerstone of success in new initiatives. This evaluation has been a model in that respect. Not only has it provided incontrovertible evidence of the success of Professional Pathways, but regular contact between the researcher and ARK colleagues has meant that the programme has been continuously improved during the life of the project." (John Hillier, Commercial Education Trust, 2021) 
You can download the full report below
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UP2UNI is a COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY, registration number 07715249
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