Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the role of the Office for Students Evidence and Impact Exchange in promoting best practice in universities to address the attainment gap between BAME and other students.

The government has asked the Office for Students to set up an Evidence and Impact Exchange to help transform our understanding of what works in driving access and successful participation among disadvantaged and underrepresented students. The new centre, known as the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes (TASO) in higher education (HE), is an affiliate what works centre, and part of the UK government’s what works movement.

TASO will commission, share and support the take-up of evidence on ‘what works’ to improve access and participation in HE in different settings and for different groups of students, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students. It will act as a central hub for a wide variety of evidence, helping to ensure that HE spend to widen access and participation by under-represented and disadvantaged students has as big an impact as possible.

TASO has already made its first call for evidence, inviting providers to submit examples of impact evaluation across the student life-cycle.