In collaboration with the Sutton Trust and other university partners
Application Mentoring has been designed specifically to support young people to overcome barriers to accessing university. By providing personalised online support from an expert mentor and an easy-to-use framework for developing an outstanding application, it equips students with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed.
Approach
The gap in progression rate to high-tariff universities between state and independent school students remains extremely wide. This inequality cannot be explained by differences in attainment alone. In fact, the quality of applications has been shown to have a significant impact on offer rates, even when students achieve the same grades. There are particular disparities in the quality of personal statements written in the state and independent sectors.
To address this, Application Mentoring helps students to:
Boost academic capital
Understand the subject they are applying for;
Develop their academic suitability for specific courses;
Analyse their reasons for wanting to study a subject;
Effectively evaluate their skills and experiences.
Prepare for the transition from school to university
Participants develop an awareness of and skills relevant to university-level study. 95% of mentees felt that the programme helped them understand subject-specific forms of analysis needed to succeed at university level.
Key features
Mentoring takes place via OSCAR, our fantastic online platform.
OSCAR provides students with access to over 70 subject-specific pathways developed by academics and teachers, enabling students to produce applications highly targeted to their chosen course.
Students are paired with expert, subject-specific mentors specially trained to support students with UCAS applications.
Mentors support students with drafting & editing the personal statement and also act as contact for wider queries about choices and university life.
Impact
An independent study by Professor Steven Jones and the Sutton Trust found that, from a sample group of 44 students who received mentoring for their UCAS applications from Causeway on OSCAR, 100% received an offer from a Russell Group university, as opposed to 73% from a control group with similar grades.
Analysis of UCAS STROBE data of student destinations demonstrates that, controlling for attainment:
Mentees are more likely to apply for Higher Education and higher-tariff institutions.
Mentees are more likely to receive an offer from a Higher Education institution and more likely to receive higher-tariff offers.
Mentees are more likely to progress to Higher Education and higher-tariff institutions.
