My MSc and PhD project seeks to explore the influence of widening participation evaluation practices within English Higher Education on practice and policy decisions. The research will use multiple-methods including documentary analysis of policy documents and semi-structured interviews with policy-makers, widening participation managers, practitioners and evaluators to pragmatically develop plausible theories of evaluation influence within the higher education sector. My research is conducted with support from the Office for Students and seeks to build collaborative partnerships with higher education institutions and policy-makers to ensure findings are practically significant and add value to existing guidance to improve evaluation practice in the sector.