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University tutoring: one investment, benefits across generations

University tutoring partnerships offer a practical way for universities to meet ambitions for meaningful student work experience while helping to address educational inequalities. Through paid tutoring roles and emerging credit-bearing modules, students gain valuable professional skills and community engagement, while schools benefit from evidence-based academic support.

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Universities UK and its partners have pledged to give every undergraduate access to meaningful work experience by 2035. 

As reported in The Times, the ambition includes placements, internships and opportunities to apply learning in the workplace. The challenge is how universities will deliver this across subjects and for students with different circumstances. 

University tutoring partnerships

University tutoring partnerships offer a compelling answer. They can provide paid, purposeful experience for students while helping regions tackle educational inequalities that limit opportunity.

That connects directly to Andy Burnham’s devolution agenda. His education proposals envisage local leaders, schools, colleges and employers shaping technical education around local employment needs, strengthening routes into work alongside academic pathways. 

Closing regional attainment gaps must be a central objective of that agenda. Giving places greater control over skills and employment will fall short of its promise if young people cannot access the opportunities being created. Strong foundations in English and maths underpin progression into apprenticeships, technical training and university alike. Improving school outcomes should be an explicit priority, with targeted tutoring among the interventions used to deliver it.

At The Tutor Trust, we already partner with 14 universities. Deepening those relationships, including through the development of credit-bearing modules, is central to our ambition to connect students’ development with the needs of local schools.

For almost 15 years, we have paid undergraduates to work in schools through our distinctive tutoring model. More than 2,500 have gained this experience to date, taking on meaningful responsibility while supporting young people’s learning. That track record gives us a practical foundation for helping universities deliver their work-experience ambitions.

Tutor Trust and the University of Salford

Our partnership with the University of Salford shows what this means in practice. In 2025/26, university sourced funding enabled students to deliver tutoring to almost 600 young people across 22 local primary schools.

Tutors reported increased confidence and stronger community connections, while lead tutors described improvements in leadership, teamwork and collaboration. 

Fatima Begum, who is studying Business Management with Entrepreneurship at UoS said, 

Tutoring with the Tutor Trust has been an incredible journey for me. It has improved my communication, patience, and adaptability skills that have directly translated into my personal and professional life. Meeting other students and tutors has created a supportive network that motivates me to keep learning and growing alongside them"

We are working with Salford to establish a credit-bearing tutoring module. This would allow students to tutor as part of their degree, connecting practical experience with academic learning, structured reflection and assessment. Developing these modules is a practical route to embedding meaningful work experience within university education. 

Tutors responsibilities are substantial, they must prepare, communicate clearly, respond to feedback and adapt when an explanation does not work. They develop relationships with pupils and school staff, exercise judgement and take responsibility for their work. These experiences build capabilities with value across careers.

Payment matters too. Students who need to earn should have access to work that develops their future prospects. In 2025/26, 42% of our newly recruited tutors came from widening participation backgrounds. Paid tutoring brings earning and professional development together, making participation more accessible to students who cannot afford unpaid opportunities. 

These partnerships give universities a direct role in improving educational opportunity beyond their campuses while developing their own students’ capabilities. They also create opportunities for academics, teachers and tutors to share insights about learning and evaluate what works. This is civic purpose expressed through sustained local partnership.

The benefits of tutoring

The Fair Education Alliance’s Report Card 2026 puts the disadvantage attainment gap at ten months by the end of primary school and nineteen months by the end of secondary. Beneath that national picture lie stark geographical differences. The Education Policy Institute’s 2026 annual report found a secondary-school disadvantage gap of 10.8 months in London, compared with at least 19.3 months in every other English region.  

Tutoring offers an evidence-based response. In a randomised controlled trial across 105 primary schools, the Education Endowment Foundation found that Year 6 pupils receiving 12 hours of Tutor Trust tuition made three months’ additional progress in maths compared with pupils in control schools. Pupils and teachers also consistently reported increased confidence. 

For schools, this means focused support that reinforces classroom learning, gives pupils time to revisit difficult concepts and helps them participate more confidently. As a proudly northern charity, we believe expanding access to that support should be a core component of the response to regional educational divides.

The benefits extend into the communities around those schools. Our tutors earn while making a valued contribution locally, building relationships and a stronger sense of belonging in the places where they study. Last academic year, 80% of tutors said they felt more connected to their local community. 

Tutoring also provides a pathway into teaching, giving students direct experience of working with young people and the opportunity to discover an interest in an education career. Our latest tutor survey recorded an 11% increase in respondents who would now consider teaching as a career. Supporting today’s pupils can help inspire tomorrow’s teachers.

There is a strong economic case too. Public First modelled the National Tutoring Programme’s benefits for 2021/22 and 2022/23, linking improvements in grades to higher projected lifetime earnings. It estimated £4.34 billion in economic benefits, equivalent to £6.58 for every £1 spent. Those projected returns concern the wider national programme, but they demonstrate why tutoring deserves serious consideration as a long-term investment in opportunity and prosperity. 

The future

Realising these benefits requires sustained investment in recruitment, training, safeguarding and ongoing support. Schools need consistency, students need preparation and pupils deserve excellent tuition.

Universities should embed tutoring within their work-experience offer and develop credit-bearing modules with schools and experienced providers. Mayors and local leaders should bring these partnerships together around regional priorities. National government should back their expansion with funding targeted towards the pupils and places with the greatest need, including communities further from a university campus.

We want to work with universities and regional leaders ready to build this approach into their plans for student experience, educational opportunity and local growth.

If devolution is to strengthen regional prosperity, closing educational gaps must be one of its measures of success. University tutoring partnerships offer a practical way to turn that ambition into action.
 

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