Higher Education

Higher Education is of particular interest to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. We recognise that partnerships with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can provide great benefits for schools and their students. Such partnerships can benefit HEIs and communities in general.

For specialist schools HE partnerships can be a tremendous boost to its efforts to develop progression routes for students as well as supporting the aims and objectives of its Community Plan.

More specifically some of the benefits for each party are as follows:

For specialist schools and their students:

• Support towards raising standards and achievement
• Academic support and input for pupils from university tutors and / or students
• Opportunities, through subject-based links, to develop and embed the sense of specialisation and expertise
• Opportunities to access resources and equipment
• Opportunities for students to increase awareness of HE and career options
• Opportunities for pupils to gain experience within a university setting
• Provision of credited pre-entry courses
• Opportunities for Gifted and Talented programmes
• Possibilities of progression agreements with institutions
• Support and training for teachers from university staff (including curriculum development and greater access to research)

For universities:

• Marketing and recruitment opportunities through access to potential students in specialist schools
• Opportunities to meet Widening Participation targets through providing activities for target students from specialist schools (specialist schools are in some cases full of exactly the types of pupils universities are increasingly targeting to meet WP and Access targets)
• Opportunities not only to boost recruitment into HE, and in particular onto courses where there is a shortage of students (eg engineering, humanities, languages, science), but also to work with schools to improve the calibre of students coming through
• Opportunities for staff and students to develop their skills through partnership activities with schools (eg trainee teachers gaining extra experience by with universities and university staff Department gaining first-hand insights into current developments within schools
• Opportunities to work with and through schools to develop relations with communities

The Trust: promoting links between specialist schools and HE

We actively support links between specialist schools and higher education institutions.

In terms of liaison with Higher Education, the Trust is engaged in the following:

• Brokering academic subject-related links and facilitating projects and events involving collaboration between HEIs and schools
• Creating a bridge between the two sectors (for instance through conferences and other events bringing the two sectors together)
• Providing information on developments and opportunities in the HE world
• Providing contacts and making personal connections between the two sectors
• Raising the profile of the specialist schools system throughout the HE sector
• Keeping specialist schools informed of HE sector developments (including providing information, resources and reports etc)

HEIs can now affiliate to the Trust to take advantage of the strong networking opportunities the Trust offers. For more information, follow the link on the right hand panel.