The impact of the Sutton Trust’s Summer Schools – a summary

Report Overview

A summary of the report produced by the University of Bristol examining the impact of the Sutton Trust Summer Schools.

Key Findings

• The summer school programme reaches its target group: over 90% of attendees met
  the programme’s academic criterion and at least one of the socio-economic criteria.
  Just under half of all attendees met all four of the socio-economic and academic criteria.
• Summer school attendees were more likely to engage with the university application
  process overall: 93% ended up applying to – and 84% registering at – university,
  compared to 88% and 68% respectively of unsuccessful applicants to the programme.
• Summer school attendees were also considerably more likely to apply to – and end up
  at – leading universities than students in one of five control groups. Over three quarters
  (76%) of summer school attendees matched in the UCAS database went on to a
  leading university1, compared to 55% or less of students in the control groups who did
  not apply to the scheme but who had similar academic and socio-economic profiles.
• Summer schools particularly increase the likelihood of students attending a summer
  school university, and especially their host university: of those who applied, 23% went
  to a summer school university2, compared with 13% of unsuccessful applicants to the
  scheme and 7% in the control group.
• Summer schools make the biggest difference to the poorest students. Attending a
  summer school substantially narrows the gap in application and registration rates for
  those meeting all the Sutton Trust eligibility criteria, in receipt of Education Maintenance
  Allowance, from low participation neighbourhoods and with non-graduate parents. In
  some cases, the summer schools reduce completely the gap between the success of
  the more affluent students and those from non-privileged homes.