Our promises, published before we can prove them.
These are our commitments. From our first graduating cohort, we publish the real numbers here every year, including the ones that embarrass us.
Forward by the Numbers
These are our promises, not our results.
Measured from first enrolment to conferral, founding intake onward.
Campus, hybrid and online paths priced and disclosed up front, no hidden fees added later.
In a role connected to the programme's published employment thesis.
Logged contact between each student and an assigned mentor throughout the programme.
Students who leave are exit-interviewed and the reasons are summarised publicly.
Forward has not graduated a cohort yet. Every figure above is a public commitment we intend to be held to, not an achieved statistic.
Last updated: Founding intake, pre-launch
Year-one scorecard
Most of these commitments can't be measured honestly until Forward has graduates. Where a figure can already be measured, it is reported as-is, including "Missed."
| Commitment | Target | Actual | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median time to degree | 4.0 years | , | Not yet measurable |
| Estimated total cost per delivery path | Published before enrolment | Published for all 91 programmes | On track |
| Target graduate employment rate | 85% within 6 months | , | Not yet measurable |
| Mentor contact frequency | Every 2 weeks, minimum | Every 23 days, founding-intake average | Missed |
| Retention promise | 90% year-one to year-two | , | Not yet measurable |
Radical transparency, including on our AI
Some of Forward's assessment is AI-assisted, backstopped by human academic panels. We even publish where our own AI marking disagrees with human panels, broken down by the kind of work being assessed.
| Assessment type | AI / human agreement | Cases reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Objective / auto-gradable work | 97% | 412 |
| Written coursework and essays | 81% | 268 |
| Studio and design critique | 68% | 94 |
| Capstone and thesis defence | 74% | 51 |
Lower agreement on studio critique and thesis defence is expected: these are the most subjective assessments we run, which is exactly why a human panel has final say on them.
Published per pathway, from the first cohort
Completion, progression and employment are published per pathway, per year, from the first cohort onwards, whichever way the numbers fall. If one pathway performs worse than the other, that will be visible here rather than averaged away.
| Measure | Path One · Term Model | Path Two · Block Model |
|---|---|---|
| Completion rate | Not yet measurable · first cohort in progress | Not yet measurable · first cohort in progress |
| Progression rate | Not yet measurable · first cohort in progress | Not yet measurable · first cohort in progress |
| Employment within six months | Not yet measurable · first cohort in progress | Not yet measurable · first cohort in progress |
Published service promises
The faculty model turns three of our commitments into service levels a student can hold us to from week one. Each one is owned by a named role, not by the institution in general.
Subject answer turnaround
1 working day
From a student question reaching a course instructor to a substantive reply.
Marking turnaround
72 hours
From submission to a returned evaluator decision against the published rubric.
Programme mentor calls
Every 2 weeks
Scheduled human contact with a named mentor, whatever a student's engagement level.
Methodology notes
- Every commitment above was published before Forward enrolled a single student, so none of them can be quietly rewritten to fit whatever the outcome turns out to be.
- "Not yet measurable" is used only where no honest figure exists yet. It is never used to hide a bad result, bad results are reported as "Missed" instead.
- AI/human agreement is measured on a sampled, re-marked basis by an independent academic panel, not by the same system that produced the original AI mark.
- Figures are refreshed on a regular publishing cycle and archived, so past versions of this page remain checkable against what we say today.
- Outcome measures are disaggregated by pathway. A student who transfers between pathways is reported under the pathway they spent the majority of their study in, and the transfer is counted separately.
See the rest of what we publish
Applicant geography, retired programmes and co-op placements live on the accountability page.