GM Higher provides a large menu of outreach activities to help learners, aged 13-18, make informed choices about higher education.

We provide learners with an ‘experience’ of what it means to study at university via activities such as subject taster days, mentoring, summer schools and campus visits. We also run workshops and presentations in schools to help learners understand their choices and to equip them with the skills to succeed.

We are part of the National Collaborative Outreach (NCOP) programme. This is a government initiative. It is focused on areas where higher education participation is lower than might be expected given the GCSE results of the young people who live there.

All of our outreach activities are available for NCOP learners. This is a learner whose postcode is located within one of the government’s target wards.

The level of participation of young people aged 18 and 19 in higher education in England varies across the country. NCOP uses research on areas with an unexplained gap in participation to determine where investment can be targeted. It aims to improve the numbers of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds going into higher education.

Our activities are free. NCOP is a scheme that is government funded.

We continue to offer a smaller suite of activities for learners who do not live in an NCOP ward.

Our events and activities aim to raise awareness of higher education and the aspirations of young people, our activities offer these experiences from campus visits to subject tasters.

Our network is a collaboration of all the universities and colleges that provide higher education courses in the region. We strive to deliver impartial information, advice and guidance (IAG).

Yes. We offer HE talks for parents, amongst others.

Check out our events page for info or contact gmhigher@mmu.ac.uk 

Our resources page sign posts you to all the relevant organisations with the latest information about higher education, from student finance to qualifications.

UCAS for parents in under 90- seconds:

www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/ucas-undergraduate-advice-parents-and-guardians

Our My Student Journey page provides an overview of routes and pathways, as a well as our Uni and Me Guide.

You can also find out more about going to university at www.ucas.com

Generally, yes. As part of our monitoring and evaluation, learners will be required to complete evaluation documents on which we collect their school name, year group and postcode. The postcode is collected for the purposes of reporting at ward level, not to identify or contact individual learners.

However, if learners complete a case study form for us, this will include their name, although this is optional and only learners who volunteer for this will complete a case study document.