How Succeed selects and assesses summer programs
The complete methodology used across the Summer Programs series: the requirements every organisation must meet before it can be assessed, and the criteria used to judge the organisations that pass.
How Succeed includes and assesses summer programs
Inclusion criteria
The gate. An organisation appears only if it meets all five.
- 1
Runs a program for students under 18
Runs a program for students under 18 in the coming summer cycle, open to school-age students rather than undergraduates.
- 2
Publishes its fee and what the fee covers
Publishes its fee and what the fee covers, so the full cost is visible before application.
- 3
States who teaches and in what setting
States who teaches and in what setting: the staff category, and the venue the program actually uses.
- 4
Publishes safeguarding information for under-18s
Publishes safeguarding information for under-18s that a family can find and read.
- 5
Describes the experience without implying an admissions advantage
Describes the experience without implying an admissions advantage, with claims about certification, contact and university outcomes matching what is delivered.
Assessment criteria
How the included ten are judged, and where each recognition line comes from.
- 1
Teaching substance
Contact hours, group size, and who teaches.
- 2
Access and cost transparency
Whether the full cost is published before application, and whether means-tested places exist and are reachable.
- 3
Practical or applied content
What a student actually does.
- 4
Honest claims
Marketing checked against reality.
- 5
Distinctiveness
What this program offers that comparable ones do not.
Safeguarding is recorded as a factual disclosure: we note whether an organisation publishes information a family can find and read. It is never graded or scored by Succeed.
No organisation pays to be included in this guide, and payment has no bearing on selection. Every organisation featured was sent its profile before publication to check for factual errors, not to approve our judgement of it. Succeed has a commercial relationship with some featured organisations and may earn a commission when a student enrols through the platform. Where that applies, it is stated in the profile itself.