The Extended Project Qualification: An Opportunity for All?
Principal Investigator(s): Dr Carol Brown, Professor Helen Walkington
Contact: cbrown@brookes.ac.uk
Project start: September 2023
Project finish: October 2025
Funded by: Nuffield Foundation
About us
The Extended Project Qualification: An Opportunity for All? is a two-year programme of research funded by the Nuffield Foundation. It is being conducted by a multidisciplinary team at Oxford Brookes University led by Dr Carol Brown and Professor Helen Walkington.
This project will investigate access to, and outcomes for, the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).
The EPQ is an independent project, equivalent to half an A-Level, undertaken by approximately 45,000 sixth form students annually. It was introduced in 2004 with the intention of supporting students to develop skills that would be useful in their future studies, supported by one-to-one teacher mentoring.
The EPQ has become associated with academic success in A-Level and degree outcomes, which is attributed to the development of learner agency, self-awareness, and academic engagement. However, the extent to which the EPQ has affected the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged learners, for example through access to the qualification in different types of schools and colleges, is less clear.
The project will investigate inequalities in access, participation, and outcomes and the “levelling-up” potential of the EPQ.
Research impact
The findings will inform policy debates on attainment gaps, widening participation, and equalising opportunities for 16 to 19 year olds. This is particularly important in a post-pandemic climate where educational gaps have widened.
The research will also provide evidence-based recommendations for schools on using the EPQ to support the employability skills and progression of students from different backgrounds.
Leadership
Dr Carol Brown
Interim Programme Lead - Professional and International Education & Faculty Ethics Officer
Professor Helen Walkington
Professor of Higher Education
To explore the spatial patterns of EPQ provision, uptake, and attainment in relation to place-based measures of deprivation, open data for 2018 / 2019 were used to develop an interactive GIS web app.
The EPQ Interactive Map allows users to view separate maps for:
- EPQ Provision
- EPQ Uptake
- EPQ Attainment.
Users can zoom, toggle map layers, and apply pre-configured filters (for example, to show state-sector providers only). Interactive widgets provide additional tools, including access to the underlying data table and selection options for exploring specific areas or individual schools / colleges.
