Aim Higher

Aim Higher was a national programme by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to address the Government's targets to widen and increase participation in Higher Education. This collection contains documentation relating to financial transactions and summer schools as administered by University College of Northampton and University of Northampton.

In 2003 the Government released a document titled 'The Future of Higher Education' which announced the birth of the Aim Higher programme. This was born from two initiatives referred to as Partnerships for Progression (P4P) and the Excellence Challenge programme.

The aim of Aim Higher was to widen pariticipation in Higher Education by raising awareness, aspirations and attainment among learners from under-represented groups.The Government wanted students to gain academic or vocational qualifications that would allow them to enter Higher Education. They wanted there to be sturdier progression routes into higher Education through vocational courses. Furthermore, the Government aimed to offer students information, advice and guidance to potential students, teachers and family members.

The main focus for Aim Higher was students from lower socio-economic groups and those from disadvantged backgrounds who lived in areas with low Higher Education participation.

The first phase of funding for the national programme was from April 2003 to March 2006, which was used to merge the two programmes mentioned above together. Further funding was then announced for the end of 2006 up until the end of 2008 academic year.

A review in 2007 found that BIS, LSC, HEFCE and Department of Health would invest to fund the 2008-2011 phase of the programme, which would equate to £252,850,000. This included £21,000,000 to fund the new Aim Higher Associates Scheme that began in 2008-09.

The funding that was received before this for Aim Higher was managed amongst schools, Further Education colleges and Higher Education Institutions (such as with the University College of Northampton and University of Northampton) by the central coordnating bodies which were known as Aim Higher partnerships. This allowed a local response to a national problem. In 2008-2011 there were 42 of these partnerships around England, which managed the funding for 4 key areas of Aim Higher, which were the main AH programme, the Summer Schools, Healthcare section and the Associates Scheme.

In November 2010 it was announced by the Minister for Universities and Skills that funding for Aim Higher would cease from July 2011. Aim Higher still continues in Northamptonshire, but it is a localised organisaion as opposed to a national programme. Furthermore, it is a social enterprise that has very limited funding from the Government and acts under a different name 'Aim higher Northamptonshire Ltd.'.

The collection is arranged into two series.

Series 1 contains Financial Transactions.

Series 2 contains Summer Schools documentation.

Whilst the majority of the collection is accessible to everyone some restrictions are in place in order to protect personal data.

We do not expect that there will be major accruals to the collection, but the university will welcome the chance to discuss any further potential donations of records relating to the operation of the Aim Higher initiative at University College of Northampton or University of Northampton.

A detailed catalogue is available at https://northampton.epexio.com/records/AH/01/Edu

Normal copyright restrictions apply

The University of Northampton takes copyright seriously and only makes content available in its Archive Catalogue in accordance with current UK legislation.

All reasonable effort is made by The University of Northampton to obtain copyright holders' consent before publishing the images represented in our Archive Catalogue. We would like to ask that any copyright owners who are not properly identified in our Archive Collections contact us so that we may make the necessary corrections or removals.

We do not expect that there will be major accruals to the collection, but the university will welcome the chance to discuss any further potential donations of records relating to the operation of the Aim Higher initiative at University College of Northampton or University of Northampton.