Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing funding to incentivise collaboration between universities, colleges and schools; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of doing so on levels of participation in tertiary education.

The department allocated £20 million in 2025/2026 to the Office for Students through the Strategic Priorities Grant for the Uni Connect programme.

Uni Connect brings together 29 partnerships of universities, colleges and other local partners to offer activities, advice and information to help young and adult learners from underrepresented groups to make informed choices about their higher education options.

An independent evaluation of Uni Connect’s impact, conducted by Public First, can be found here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/uni-connect-a-review-of-collaborative-support-in-access-to-higher-education/.