Deborah Fish

Evaluation and Impact Manager

I am the Evaluation and Impact Manager for the Access and Participation Plan, which means that I spend my time working to make sure that the work done by teams around the university is supporting students into and through university effectively.

At the university, we are using a Theory of Change model to evaluate, which means we discuss what we want to achieve in each of our projects and then test whether we are achieving this through surveying students, tracking their progress and talking with them directly through focus groups and interviews. I work to create these Theories with project leads, support them in collecting data, and support in understanding what that data is telling us.

Evaluation is best when done collaboratively, and many universities are facing similar challenges regarding evaluation of projects. For this reason, I am a member of the North West Widening Participation Research and Evaluation Group, and the Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) Sector Network.

Email: Deborah.fish@liverpool.ac.uk.