The Kingston University led collaboration was formed in September 2016 and successfully granted £499, 956 worth of funding from the Office for Students under its Catalyst Project fund in March 2017. Working in partnership with five other partners, the collaboration sought to combine a wide mix of universities including a Russell group and a number from the London area to investigate the potential London effect on BME attainment. The institutions involved were University of Wolverhampton, University of Hertfordshire, De Montfort University, University of Greenwich and University College London.

The principal aim of the project was to see if the Kingston University developed Value Added score and Inclusive Curriculum Framework, which demonstrated high levels of success in addressing the BME attainment gap for Kingston, could be transferred to other institutions to address their BME attainment gaps.

The project was managed centrally at Kingston and was delivered by a team of specialists who conducted training and supported the roll-out of these initiatives at the partner institutions

The cross-disciplinary project team met face to face every 2/3 months to share successes and learnings. The development of this community of practice led to the expansion of activities outside the project scope, including the student curriculum consultant programme and the delivery of a special edition of Greenwich’s Compass journal.

The collaboration institutions have agreed to continue this community of practice post-project, with project leads continuing to share ongoing good practice to address the attainment gap.