An eighteen month action research project was commissioned into in-house progression opportunities from level 3 programmes to Higher Education (HE) programmes at City College Norwich (CCN), one of the largest mixed economy colleges in the country. Such opportunities exist in a number of discipline areas, but not all of these share the same levels of success. This project investigated how barriers to in-house level 3 to HE progression opportunities might be addressed and successfully overcome. Both academic and support staff were involved in the project and reflected on ways in which they promoted progression with level 3 learners, shared experiences and offered alternative approaches. Strategies to promote in-house progression were put in place. Solutions and identified examples of good practice were disseminated to all staff.

Analysis of the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) data from 2001-2004 provided evidence that the number of applications to and from CCN to HE has remained constant. During this time period almost a quarter of all CCN level 3 learners applications are not placed by UCAS, although over half are either taking Access courses or A levels. Almost half of CCN level 3 learners who apply for HE do so to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Norwich. Those who apply to other local HEIs do so because the course does not run at CCN. Such courses are medicine and very specialised academic disciplines (e.g. development studies.) The University of East Anglia (UEA) is considered to be an expert in both these fields.

Qualitative data found that learners were not going on to HE because of fears of debt, a desire to earn money and a lack of awareness of HE courses available.

More research is needed to establish why the number of UCAS unplaced learners is so high. Another area to investigate is the aspirations of level 3 learners. More needs to be done to inform the learner about finance and HE. Level 3 learners need to feel valued and to be encouraged to believe that HE is for them. This could be built into group tutorials. More learners could be encouraged to consider vocational courses as an appropriate option for HE rather than the more traditional academic courses.

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