Outreach and Access. 7.1 As identified in our earlier Access Agreements, Keele University is committed to raising aspirations and awareness amongst all potential student cohorts currently under-represented in Higher Education, to enable them to make informed and effective decisions regarding their further educational and career choices. Given the proven value of the current outreach and access work being undertaken this Access Agreement outlines our plans to further develop and strengthen the current offer in line with recommendations made by the recently published Strategy for Access and Student Success (April 2014).
7.2 As indicated in the Introduction, Keele generally performs well in the HESA Performance Indicators on Widening Participation compared to its benchmarks, and has therefore set challenging targets as shown in Table 7 of the Resource Plan (Targets and Milestones). We have found, however, that in the rapidly changing Higher Education environment these targets have become more difficult to achieve. We are, therefore, keeping them under regular review and will use an evidence-based approach to adjust or expand our outreach and access activities where review demonstrates that to be necessary.
7.3 The University has developed a ladder of engagement (Appendix A) which summarises our existing outreach schemes targeted at different groups including learners, parents/guardians and teachers/advisers.
7.4 Outreach work is strategically embedded across the University. Academic schools and faculties are supported by the central outreach team in the delivery of subject-specific outreach and, where appropriate, WP targeting. In 2013/14 OFFA-accountable funds have been made available to support targeted activity within academic schools, with additional investment in staffing planned over a two-year period to further develop outreach work aimed at Widening Participation.
7.5 The Faculty of Health has recently appointed a full time Faculty Outreach Administrator to support the Faculty's Outreach and Widening Participation Strategy. This will be monitored and, if successful, may be adopted by the other two faculties.
Outreach and Access. Our formative evaluation is well established and considers the quality of the activities and outcomes of sessions we provide. A variety of standardised questionnaires are used before and after events with students and staff establishing not only that the content is suitable and relevant but also that activities raise aspirations and increased motivation to study. During 2013-14 significant progress has been made in developing more robust systems for gathering data and summative evaluation of the longer term impact of our access activities. Key to this work has been the new Student Experience Data Officer who works closely with the Widening Participation team to use relevant data regarding pupil attainment and progression to HE. This is enabling us to establish patterns between engagement in our outreach activities and application and entry to St Mary’s. We will also use the Toolkits and the Higher Education Academy Archive to develop our practice. St Mary’s membership of collaborative organisations also affords opportunities to develop and apply evaluation and monitoring methods to illustrate long term impact. For example, Aimhigher London South Ltd use contacts to develop a range of data sharing protocols with several Local Authorities to map the progression and destinations of students who participate in activities and a centralised database provides AHLS member institutions with a consistent evaluative process to measure both the quality and impact of events. AccessHE are also developing methods of tracking destinations across London for those who have taken part in collaborative activities and have purchased data from UCAS on progression to HE by POLAR quintile to assist in this. The Student Experience Data Officer also monitors and analyses the HESA data on the benchmarks set in our Access Agreement for targets and milestones for access and success. It is expected that this work will be even more fully developed during 2015-16 and we are particularly keen to extend our monitoring and evaluation activity to include employability levels amongst under-represented groups. The work of our Learning Advice team was outlined in section 3 and they will be key in monitoring the progress being made for those students in under-represented groups, some of whom may have been identified pre-entry and progress to St Mary’s. The scholarships officer monitors and evaluates the take up of financial support. Furthermore, the University is currently participating in the S...
Outreach and Access. The University of Suffolk is committed to providing aspiration and attainment raising activities for under-represented groups across Suffolk and Great Yarmouth and encouraging them to apply for HE. This will include continuing to work in a structured way with schools and colleges with low progression rates, as well as with communities with low participation rates, including mature and part-time students. It is proposed that a proportion of the additional fee income will be allocated to specific measures designed to increase access. The University will invest approximately £386,000 in outreach and access in 2017-18. Outreach activity will include: • Growth of long term sustained outreach activity with young people from primary age upwards in carefully targeted schools and colleges in Suffolk, Great Yarmouth and beyond. Schools and colleges will be targeted based on the HEFCE Cold Spots data showing overall low participation; and low participation when the factors of GCSE attainment and ethnic profile have been taken into account. • Maintenance and expansion of intensive outreach activity such as summer schools, taster days, campus visits and family awareness days, that have proven to be most successful in our evaluation and tracking of activity • Further development of subject-specific aspiration-raising events such as the Health and Social Care Conference, STEM activities and Creative Arts Conference • Development of progression agreements and a continued focus on outreach work with students that apply through a progression agreement. Progression Agreements will increasingly include opportunities to provide subject-specific aspiration-raising activity with younger age groups (e.g. Year 10/11) • Outreach activity with other targeted community groups e.g. mature students, military families, ethnic minority groups, care leavers, young carers, those wishing to study part- time and, in particular, parents • Resources, including maintaining outreach staff and the student ambassador scheme • Expansion of the subject specific ambassador programme, where current students contribute to outreach activity to inspire and enthuse young people to consider degree level study by running taster sessions in their subject area • Development of IAG materials on student finance and the UCAS application process, and materials specifically for mature and part-time students, and parents • Activity within and in support of the Equality and Diversity Committee, which reviews and mon...
Outreach and Access. In order to support access for students with the potential to benefit from a University of Essex education, we will invest a proportion of higher fee income in delivering outreach activity. In 2015-16 our dedicated outreach team worked with 12,500 beneficiaries from over 130 schools in the eastern region. We recognise the influence that parents, carers, teachers and advisors have on young people and therefore include them in our work where appropriate.
Outreach and Access. We will expand our already extensive outreach to Primary School learners (and their parents/ teachers/advisers) to ensure they recognise university as part of their future. For example, in July 2015, Xxxxx hosted the City of Birmingham Children’s University graduation ceremony for 147 primary pupils, and will do so again in July 2016. In 2015/16 a total of 700 primary school students were hosted on our campus, some in partnership with Enabling Enterprise and others with local Aimhigher University partners. We will also continue our successful numeracy and literacy programmes with local primary schools, including Reading Buddies, a long-term scheme focussed on very deprived parts of the country such as Nechells, Sparkbrook and Small Heath. As well as collaborative working as part of Aimhigher West Midlands, Xxxxx has been delivering intensive and long-term mentoring and tutoring to secondary school learners at all Key Stages. We will expand the number of student mentors and tutors working in targeted regional schools and colleges, both in person and via e-mentoring and mentors. This is one- to-one, highly targeted intervention and provides measurable impact, in-line with OFFA’s guidance. Since much of our activity takes place in some of England and Wales’ most deprived wards, including Yardley, Small Heath and Soho, this work will continue to address the low progression rates of BME and genders into higher education programmes. To encourage access to the professions, Aston University has been involved with the Pure Potential organisation since 2007 and are a Gold Partner of its Access Professions website, highlighting our support of the A2P agenda. We will continue to organise our hugely popular Access to Professional Careers and Beyond Year 12 conferences for Year 11-13 students in partnership with graduate employers and professional institutes. In February 2016 we took more than fifty Year 12 pupils to PwC’s offices for a day of academic and expert practitioner guidance on careers in accountancy and auditing. Pupils attended from Sussex, Essex, Manchester and the West Midlands. The University provides pre-entry careers support and guidance for any school/college requesting the service. ‘Pre-Entry Employability Advisers’ provide on and off-campus support to Year 11 pupils and sixth formers. We commit to continuing this support in 2017/18, providing invaluable guidance in line with the government’s aims3 to support young people through their decisio...
Outreach and Access. In order to support access for students with the potential to benefit from a University of Essex education, we will invest a proportion of higher fee income in delivering outreach activity.
Outreach and Access. The new funding arrangements provide an opportunity to effect a step change in the University’s WP, access and outreach activities. All our activities share common characteristics: Clear aims Appropriate targeting Ongoing relationships 3 Includes spend under both current and new Access Agreements; assumes future student numbers as in current University plans and anticipates increases in the proportion of students from households with a residual household income below £25,000 p.a. due to both economic factors and the impact of widening participation and access activity on the intake. Excludes Government contribution to the National Scholarship Programme. Involvement of parents and teachers Involvement of current University of York students Access to residential provision Mentoring for some participants Our strategy is informed by our own experience and best practice elsewhere, for example in Aimhigher.4 Work with young people at school or college consists of a structured series of interventions at three critical stages. Programmes aimed broadly at Years 6 – 9 are designed to raise achievement and aspiration in disadvantaged populations. Programmes targeted broadly at Years 9 - 11 aim to demystify higher and further education, raise awareness of subjects and routes and the variety of provision, increase the self confidence and self esteem of students involved, and raise aspirations for lifelong learning. They also lay the groundwork for progression to higher education by encouraging appropriate subject choices. Programmes for students in Years 12 and 13 concentrate on the transition to higher education, with a particular focus on building confidence in applying to research-intensive, selective universities. Other work focuses on mature learners and those returning to study. Our range of programmes will serve both national sector and University of York objectives in widening participation. In the period covered by this Access Agreement, we will maintain and develop current work in collaborative partnerships (national, regional and local) and will develop outreach programmes focused primarily on achieving University of York targets. This will involve building on established relationships and developing new ones with a targeted set of schools and colleges, for example those in areas with proportionately high levels of pupils/students from low participation neighbourhoods, under-represented socio-economic groups or with high ethnic minority populat...
Outreach and Access
