At London Met we are fostering a culture of excellence in evaluation practice. We will ensure that all Fair Outcomes activity is robustly evaluated with a focus on continuous enhancement, impact and the pursuit of a “what works” philosophy.
An evaluative mindset is key to supporting evidence-based practice and informing decision-making. The Centre acts as a hub for staff and students engaged in fair outcomes programme delivery, providing advice and guidance on monitoring and evaluation practice. Over time, the Centre will collate, share and disseminate information to all stakeholder groups at all levels about the effectiveness of activities and interventions as a process of continuous learning.
London Met’s monitoring and evaluation approach is characterised by key principles and pillars below:
- Social justice and equity-oriented considerations – we will ensure that the voice of those with lived experience feature throughout the life cycle of our workstreams, from programme design to evaluation activity. Much of the Centre’s work is a response to the challenge of structural disadvantage within higher education. Historically marginalised groups have neither had a seat at the decision-making table, we will follow the adage “nothing about us, without us.”
- Transparency – we aim to share progress reports and key outcomes periodically to all stakeholders in order to facilitate ongoing collaboration and raise awareness of the Centre’s activities.
- Learning and collaboration – we will actively encourage and promote learning and knowledge sharing by staff across the institution to build confidence in evaluation practice and showcase innovation in practice.
- Students as partners – students have a key role to play in the design and delivery of evaluation activity. The student body is encouraged and invited to contribute, share their insights and discuss methods of evaluation and practices.
- Support and accountability – we will support staff to build confidence in monitoring and evaluation, whilst developing a sense of ownership and greater accountability. This is reinforced by the fair outcomes governance processes, which oversee our Access and Participation obligations, ensuring that as an institution we are making ethical and defensible use of public funds.
- Systems (eg dashboard, value-added score), practices (staff forum to exchange ideas) and procedures (collaborations and research) will enable a quick and timely review of the effectiveness and impact of what we do.