1. Evaluating the Access Covenant at a post-92 university
All about the numbers?
Dr Rachel Spacey
 Research Fellow
Evaluating the Access Covenant at a post-92 university
Rebecca Sanderson
Research Assistant

2. Access Covenant
“…a particular emphasis on students from rural, coastal and dispersed communities in South Lincolnshire”

3. Evaluation of the Access Covenant
Mixed methods
Interviews with staff
Survey of all students
Interviews with students (hopefully longitudinal)

4. Recurring concerns about data

5. They don't see the full story
I don't have the data to answer that
Anonymity and all that
"It's the ones that don't walk in through the door that I worry about..."

6. Assumptions GDPR problems It's for their own good
Data informed is the future
There's no other way
GDPR problems
It's difficult to ask
Informed consent
Stigmatising

7. Solutions? Practical Problems Better training? Transparency?
Ethics and Information compliance
Willingness to collect/ provide data
Systems
Practical Problems
Better training?
Transparency?
Robust ethics process?
Investment in IT systems?
Student engagement?

8. Questions?

9. References
Askinadze, A. and Conrad, S. (2018) Respecting Data Privacy in Educational Data Mining: An Approach to the Transparent Handling of Student Data and Dealing with the Resulting Missing Value Problem. In: 2018 IEEE 27th International Conference on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE), Paris. Available from [accessed 20 February 2019]. 
Department for Education (2017) Greater Lincolnshire Area Review. Final Report. Available from:  w_Report_FINAL.pdf  [accessed 20 February 2019]. 
Harrison, N. and Hatt, S. (2010) “Disadvantaged learners”: Who are we targeting? Understanding the targeting of widening participation activity in the United Kingdom using geo-demographic data from Southwest England. Higher Education Quarterly, 64(1),  
Holland, N., Houghton, A-M., Armstrong, J. and Mashiter, C. (2017) Accessing and assessing appropriate widening participation data: an exploration of how data are used and by whom.  Studies in Continuing Education, 39(2),  
Lincolnshire Research Observatory/ Lincolnshire County Council (2008) Lincolnshire: A Changing and Challenging Landscape. Lincoln: Economic Regeneration Department.   
Morgan, M. (2019) We need more big data now [WONKHE]. Available from: [accessed 20 February 2019]. 
Open Data Institute (2018) ODI survey reveals British consumer attitudes to sharing personal data. Available from: reveals-british-consumer-attitudes-to-sharing-personal-data/  [accessed 20 February 2019].
Sela K. (2018) GDPR and ethical challenges to evaluating widening participation activities: A case study. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 20(3),  
Stevenson, J., O' Mahony, J., Khan, O., Ghaffar, F. and Stiell, B. (2019) Understanding and overcoming the challenges of targeting students from under- represented and disadvantaged ethnic backgrounds. Report to the Office for Students. Available from: February 2019]. 
University of Lincoln (2016) University of Lincoln Access Agreement Academic Year 2017/18. Available from: 0 February 2019].