Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform (SPHEIR): final summative evaluation report

SPHEIR – Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform – was FCDO’s principal programme for higher education (HE). This report is the final summative evaluation of the programme, which launched in 2016 and closed in April 2022.
SPHEIR aimed to improve the quality, relevance, scale, accessibility and affordability of higher education and the performance, governance and influence of HE systems and institutions in FCDO focus countries, in order to promote inclusive growth and development. A further aspect was ensuring that graduates (young men and women) meet the needs of the labour market and are better prepared for both employment and entrepreneurship. SPHEIR had an implicit and explicit objective to mainstream gender, and, through addressing accessibility and affordability, aimed to tackle issues of equity, poverty and exclusion.
SPHEIR funded eight partnerships across many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Myanmar, Jordan and Lebanon. Between them, the partnerships include over sixty organisations: universities, educational NGOs, professional bodies, the private sector and research units. SPHEIR has been managed by a consortium led by the British Council. The total value of the portfolio of SPHEIR grants was £30.05 million while the total value (SPHEIR grants plus matched funding) of partnerships was £39.37 million.
The external evaluation of SPHEIR ran alongside the programme from its very early stages of implementation through to its completion in 2022. The early phases of the evaluation included an inception phase which established evaluation design. The Baseline Report and the later Formative Process Evaluation focused on the programme design and delivery. Subsequent phases have focused on emerging outcomes and impacts (the Mid-Term Evaluation and this Final Summative Evaluation).
The SPHEIR summative evaluation is underpinned by a number of approaches, including flexibility and adaptation, theory-based approach, utilisation focus, and gender equality and social inclusion.
The summative evaluation design adopted a mixed approach for data collection. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources. This enabled the triangulation of data across different sources of information. Secondary data collection primarily focused on SPHEIR programme and partnership documents. Of greatest significance were programme documents including the partnership quarterly reports, partnership annual reports, mid-term and final evaluation reports, blogs, and lessons learned documents at both partnership level and Fund Manager levels.
Primary data collection focused on different groups of beneficiaries including students, graduates, lecturers and educators, senior governance and admin staff of HEIs, employers or employer representatives, and SPHEIR partnerships (both partners and lead partners). The Fund Manager was also consulted. Gender disaggregation was incorporated into data collection tools by recording the gender of the respondent in surveys and interviews.