The National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) is a Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded initiative that aims to support the most disadvantaged young people in England to progress into higher education (HE). It runs from January 2017 to December 2020, with a review point in December 2018.

The programme consists of 29 consortia across England, undertaking outreach activity in geographical areas (target wards) where the HE participation of young people is both low overall, and much lower than expected based on GCSE-level attainment. The programme aims to support the Government’s goals to:

• double the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in HE by 2020
• increase by 20 per cent the number of students in HE from ethnic minority groups
• address the under-representation of young men from disadvantaged backgrounds in HE

The measures of overall success will be young people progressing to any course of prescribed HE, whatever the mode of study (HND, HNC, foundation degree, undergraduate degree).