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Despite significant amounts spent on widening access to higher education (HE), there is sparse evidence of what works. Evaluation of multi-intervention programmes is challenging because it is difficult to elucidate which elements of programmes are important (and why). Here we present results from focus groups and surveys at different time points on a multi-intervention programme based at a UK university. At the start of the programme, attitudes towards studying at - and belonging in - HE were already positive. Confidence in how to apply to and fund HE was relatively low at the start of the programme and increased significantly during it. In contrast, the perception of being able to afford to participate in HE was relatively low throughout. Focus group data also suggested that information on application and funding was helpful and additionally highlighted concerns over affordability and the social side of HE. Information, advice and guidance (IAG) elements of multi-intervention programmes therefore appear to confer significant benefit to students in understanding how to apply to and fund HE. Whilst aspiration raising seems not to be a critical aspect of widening access, focus on attainment and away from aspiration raising should not be done at the expense of excluding IAG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increased longevity, many people fail to save the funds necessary to support their retirement. In an attempt both to elucidate and remedy this failing, research exploring the “future-self continuity” hypothesis has revealed that temporal discounting is decreased and saving increased when connections between one’s current and future self are strengthened. Here, we explored the possibility that a basic component of mental imagery – spatial visual perspective – may be an important determinant of people’s decisions to spend now or save for the future. The results of two experiments supported this prediction. Rates of saving were enhanced when a distant-future event was generated from a third-person vs. first-person vantage point, an effect that was mediated by visual bodily awareness during mental imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]