Resources

What FE Students Wish You Knew 

Presented by Sarah Dirrane (Cosmos) and Louisa Dobson (Inspiring Choices, York St John University) 

Background & Context

Our session set out to explore a deceptively simple question: what do FE students wish we – the people designing and delivering outreach – actually understood about them? 

For a bit of background, I have spent years working closely with students, colleges, and practitioners, trying to move beyond surface-level engagement and towards something more meaningful. This work, led by Cosmos and supported by partners like Inspiring Choices, is grounded in one belief: that outreach should start with student insight, not assumptions. 

So much of the sector still relies on static demographic data to drive outreach – postcode, parental education, eligibility for free school meals. These are important indicators, but they don’t capture the nuance of where a student is mentally or emotionally. They cannot tell you if a student feels confident or overwhelmed. If they have quietly ruled out higher education because no one ever explained the process. If they are desperate to progress but unsure where to begin. 

This recognition is ultimately at the core of the Cosmos FE Student Segmentation. The model draws on over 35,000 student surveys to identify four distinct student mindsets towards higher education: 

• HE Confident – already motivated and informed, generally on track 

• HE Hopeful – positive about HE but lacking knowledge 

• HE Maybe – undecided and unsure whether HE is right for them 

• HE Sceptics – disengaged or disillusioned with HE as a pathway 

These aren’t neat boxes, but brilliant starting points. They are a way of better understanding how different groups of students perceive their options and what kind of support might actually resonate with them. 

Inspiring Choices & Askham Bryan College

Louisa then shared a regional project carried out with Askham Bryan College in York and North Yorkshire. Before designing any interventions, they ran the segmentation tool with their student cohort to understand where students were sitting in terms of confidence, knowledge, and motivation. What emerged was a clear picture, they had higher proportions of ‘HE Maybes’ and ‘HE Sceptics’ compared to national averages. This insight allowed them to design much more targeted activity: building knowledge and confidence for those who were unsure, while also rethinking how they approached students who felt HE wasn’t for them. 

The results so far are incredibly encouraging. Increases in HE confidence were visible across the board, for example, the number of students identified as ‘HE Confident’ rose from 27.7% to 41.8% after targeted interventions. Importantly, they also saw a decrease in the number of ‘HE Sceptics’. This wasn’t just a data shift, it reflected a genuine change in how students were thinking about their futures. 

What struck me during the Q&A was how many people in the room were grappling with the same issue: how to move away from broad interventions that don’t quite land, towards something more precise and relevant. Several attendees asked how the segmentation model could be used in their own settings, not just as a research tool, but as part of the day-to-day decision-making that guides outreach targeting and design. 

Conclusion

The reality is, many FE students are navigating uncertainty and they are not always sure what HE looks like for them. Some feel like they are on the outside of the conversation, whilst others have never had the chance to ask the questions most meaningful to them. So, if we continue building our strategies based on assumptions about what a “disadvantaged” student looks like, or what support “should” work, we’re going to keep missing the mark. 

Segmentation isn’t a magic solution, but it is a very big step towards doing this work with more clarity. It allows educators and outreach teams to ask better questions, design more intentional programmes, and track what is actually working. It is a way of recognising that students are not just a set of labels, they are individuals with different levels of readiness, different motivations, and different barriers. 

For me, this session was about highlighting that complexity and offering a practical way forward. It was very energising to see that it resonated. The questions, comments, and follow-ups all pointed to one shared goal – doing better, not just more. 

Until next time . . .