Measuring the effectiveness of a mathematics support service: an email survey

Over the last decade the ‘mathematics problem’ (students lacking basic mathematical skills on entry into higher education), and proposed solutions of this problem have been widely debated. One method to help combat this issue has been the introduction of mathematics support centres across higher education institutions. This article describes the results of an e-mail survey distributed to 40 universities to gain information regarding their mathematics support provision, with particular focus on how universities measure the effectiveness of the support available. With ever increasing pressure for impact to be validated, this article will give a contemporary standing of the current mechanisms adopted by mathematics support centres (nationally and internationally) used to determine effectiveness.