Ant Sutcliffe
Head of Higher Horizons Uni Connect Programme 

I have been a huge supporter of 4wardFutures since their inception, helping to fund the development of award-winning programmes alongside our team.

Higher Horizons is part of the National OfS Uni Connect Programme and covers Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire. Higher Horizons delivers a sustained and progressive programme of outreach activity to 142 targeted schools and colleges across the region. Since 2017, Higher Horizons, which has funded delivery hubs at Keele University, University of Chester, Harper Adams University and Staffordshire University, have delivered over 2500 activities to young people who are the most underrepresented demographics within Higher Education.

With over 120,000 engagements with young people, at Higher Horizons we know that 46.5% of those we engage with enrol at university, compared to just 18% of their demographic peers.

EPIC Games

In 2020 4wardFutures were successful in a joint bid with The Faculty of Education at Cambridge University to Epic Games for funding through their Mega Grant Programme to develop their Gaming 2 Developer project.

Epic Games, Inc. is the world-famous American company behind such popular games as Fortnite, Gears of War, Unreal Tournament and Infinity Blade, not to mention their renowned Epic Store and Unreal Game Engine used by millions of developers worldwide. As an unquestionable leader in the gaming community and a godfather of sorts to multiple game studios, Epic uses its MegaGrant program to support the community and help smaller and newer companies/studios create innovative educational programmes.

Greater Manchester Higher

Is a collaborative network The partnership is a part of the Uni Connect programme, which will deliver a nationally coordinated approach to working with schools, universities, and colleges to help people access higher education.