Families And Higher Education Decision-making - FAHED

Please note on 1st October 2006 the Community Access Programme became the REAP: Researching Equity, Access and Participation Group. This is an archive site. Please click link to go to the REAP Website.

Project Aim
FAHED Past and Present
FAHED Cycle
Visit Days
Lancashire Compact

Project Aim

FAHED is an action research project that aims to introduce the idea of higher education to the parents of pupils in years 9 and above who have a history of low participation in higher education. The project works with both parents and their children to encourage discussion at home and generate a long-term view about family concerns, and engender mutual understanding of factors that influence future learning plans.

FAHED Past and Present

The FAHED Project was funded as part of HEFCE Widening Particpation - Lancashire Compact (1999-2003)

In 2004 the project will focus on:

FAHED Cycle

The FAHED Cycle consisted of a course for parents, a course for young people, a joint campus visit and follow up interviews with parents to explore barriers and perceptions of higher education.

text description of FAHED Cycle

The FAHED cycle consists of two strands - a 6 week discussion course entitled Your Child's Future for parents, and a 4 week discussion course for pupils.

Both courses incorporate a visit day to Lancaster University. This is designed to complement the knowledge that parents and pupils obtained during the discussion based courses. In the full FAHED cycle the campus visit is followed by interviews and focus group discussions are carried out with parents and pupils.

Throughout the duration of the FAHED project cycles were undertaken with families who had little or no experience of higher education. These included cycles focused on the needs of parents with religious, cultural and social concerns. A cycle was also developed to address the concerns of parents of young people with a disability. At the end of each cycle we maintained contact with the schools, pupils and parents with a series of follow-up activities designed to keep the issue of higher education alive.

FAHED Visit Days

Visit days are an important element of the FAHED cycle. They provide parents, pupils and teaching staff involved in the FAHED project to have first hand experience of a university campus. Typically the days incorporate tours of the campus, a range of departmental activities, talks on topics of interest such as Undergraduate Admissions, Educational Studies Admissions, Finance, Student Support Services and the Students' Union, and activities with student societies.

The Lancashire Compact

The Lancashire Compact was one of the regionally HEFCE- funded widening participation projects (1999-2003). It was a collaborative project involving:

Edge Hill

Lancaster University

St Martin's College

University of Central Lancashire

The Lancashire Compact aimed to raise aspirations for, and awareness of, higher education amongst young people and adults in Lancashire. It worked in partnership with schools, colleges and other organisations throughout Lancashire to deliver motivational and awareness-raising activities to encourage progression for all those in the region who demonstrated the ability to benefit from higher education.

The four main strands of the Lancashire Compact were:

• Working with families with no history of participation in higher education by encouraging active involvement from parents in the process of widening participation.
• Working with young people in schools, colleges and neighbourhoods where under-representation in higher education was identified.
• Working with adults to provide appropriate pathways for them into higher education.
• Sharing resources between the four insitutions to enhance widening participation and strengthen links with schools and colleges. One outcome of this strand was a good practice guide (INSERT pdf version) Large print version available on request.

Throughtout the Lancashire Compact the FAHED cycle was delivered to the schools listed in the table below:

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