Teesside’s Meteor goes from strength to strength

The University of Teesside’s pioneering Meteor Scheme has been selected by a national government funding body as a model of best practice for the way it encourages young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to progress to higher education.

And the team behind the programme, first launched Meteor in 1999 to inspire primary children in six Middlesbrough schools to think about the benefits of further and higher education, has been spreading the word about the Teesside success story through a series of events nationwide.

The award-winning scheme has been given support from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to publicise the Meteor framework to other UK Universities and plans a major event at the University of Teesside in the Spring. Delegates from other universities will be invited to see the scheme in action and discuss the best way to encourage young people from families with no experience of higher education to sign up for degrees.

The team has also developed a toolkit and consultancy services for those higher education institutions who wish to examine the Meteor model in detail, and possibly adapt it for their own institutions.

Since its launch eight years ago, has expanded massively and now includes teenagers in secondary schools throughout Teesside – and each year the core of the Meteor programme is topped-up by 400 Year 6 (the top year) from 14 Teesside primary schools.

'For the University of Teesside to have been selected by HEFCE as a model of good practice is quite a feather in our cap,' said one of the founders, Pat White, now Deputy Director of the Centre of Lifelong Learning at the University.

She explained: 'One of the things that makes Meteor stand out is that the University keeps in touch with the pupils involved until they leave school.'

Apart from summer schools, which were quite revolutionary in 1999, Meteor pupils:

• take part in a mini-graduation ceremony at Middlesbrough Town Hall
• are visited regularly by student ambassadors in their classrooms
• participate in curriculum-support activities
• receive Christmas cards and other correspondence from the University
• and even enjoy a Festive Fun Day for Meteor children and their parents.

John Selby, Director of Widening Participation at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), says the Middlesbrough scheme is special, adding: 'Meteor is distinctive because it focuses on one of the key transition points in a young person's life - the transition from primary to secondary education. It is vital that we keep youngsters engaged with learning at this point, in order to help them succeed later.

'The key to the programme's success, as the Meteor research shows, is that sustained interventions by a university can make a positive impact on the lives of young people in relation to higher education choices and attitudes to learning.'

He was referring to recently published research from the Higher Education Information Services Trust (Heist) which reported:

• The Meteor scheme’s success in raising aspirations and improving performance of young people involved is that the involvement is long-term and that it encourages young people to start contemplating their future at an early age.
• Meteor activities taking place outside the classroom appear to have the greatest impact and are the most memorable, especially those held on the University campus such as summer schools and the Meteor graduation ceremony at Middlesbrough Town Hall.
• Parents are particularly positive, with most having no experience of anyone in their family entering higher education. 98% of parents surveyed said: 'I value the University working with my child'.

Gary Crawley, Schools and Colleges Liaison Manager for Pre-16 Pupils at Teesside, says: 'The key to Meteor’s success, which we hope to share with other universities, is that it has not been a one-off event in the children’s lives but a series of sustained interventions by the children’s local university from the age of ten until they leave school. The children involved really do grow up with the University of Teesside and we are now enrolling our first students from Meteor’s pilot year.'

Robert makes a meteoric return

Robert Hodgson, pictured, first came to the University of Teesside aged 11 as part of the Meteor scheme. He was a pupil at Ayresome Primary School at the time and is now a first year student on the BA (Hons) English and Media degree at Teesside, marking his transition from Meteor pupil to University undergraduate.

Robert, 18, from Acklam, Middlesbrough, is the first in his family to go to University. He said: 'I remember coming to the University for the first time. It was massive, a much greater building than my primary school. It had all this technology for the future and made me think about going to the University when I was older. I also remember going to the disco in the Students’ Union and my first ‘mini-graduation’ at the Town Hall. Teesside was my first choice and I think Meteor is a good scheme. It makes it feel that Teesside is your local university, that you are clever enough to go to there, or other universities.'

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