Common use of Targets and Milestones Clause in Contracts

Targets and Milestones. 6.1 The University will continue to encourage applications from well-qualified applicants from groups that are currently under-represented and to admit a greater proportion of them within the framework of our admission policy and without compromising entry standards. Experience demonstrates that outreach activity (particularly that focussed on younger age groups, as advocated in OFFA guidance) will not be reflected in the composition of the student population for some years. 6.2 The University recognises the value of HESA performance indicators and benchmarks, but notes that the benchmarks have severe limitations in a Cambridge context in that they take insufficient account of the University’s entrance requirements, both in terms of subject combinations and levels of attainment.21 6.3 Guidance from the Office for Fair Access sets out three key areas to be addressed by Access Agreements. These are outreach, admissions and retention. Accordingly the University proposes to measure its progress against four corresponding targets: to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from UK state sector schools and colleges so that they fall within a range of 61-63%; to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from low participation neighbourhoods to approximately 4.0%; to meet XXXX benchmarks on retention; to offer a commitment to the minimum number of places available on summer schools at the University. 6.4 The University has selected the four targets described above because they are measurable, do not rely on information which is unavailable (or inconsistently available) at the point of application, and are possible to influence without compromising either the principle of needs-blind admissions, or entry standards. We will nonetheless continue to consider such other data as is made available by UCAS and HESA and its usefulness in measuring our progress.

Targets and Milestones. 6.1 7.1 The University will continue to encourage applications from well-qualified applicants from groups that are currently under-represented and to admit a greater proportion of them within the framework of our admission policy and without compromising entry standards. Experience demonstrates that outreach activity (particularly that focussed on younger age groups, as advocated in OFFA guidance) will not be reflected in the composition of the student population for some years. 6.2 7.2 The University recognises the value of HESA performance indicators and benchmarks, but notes that the benchmarks have severe limitations in a Cambridge context in that they take insufficient account of the University’s entrance requirements, both in terms of subject combinations and levels of attainment.21attainment.23 6.3 7.3 Guidance from the Office for Fair Access sets out three key areas to be addressed by Access Agreements. These are outreach, admissions and retention. Accordingly the University proposes to measure its progress against four corresponding targets: • to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from UK state sector schools and colleges so that they fall within a range of 61-63%; • to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from low participation neighbourhoods to approximately 4.0%; • to meet XXXX HESA benchmarks on retention; • to offer a commitment to the minimum number of places available on summer schools at the University. 6.4 7.4 The University has selected the four targets described above because they are measurable, do not rely on information which is unavailable (or inconsistently available) at the point of application, and are possible to influence without compromising either the principle of needs-blind admissions, or entry standards. We will nonetheless continue to consider such other data as is made available by UCAS and HESA and its usefulness in measuring our progress. 7.5 The University’s principal objective is to increase the proportion of our UK undergraduate intake from schools in the UK state sector. 7.6 Research conducted by the University24 suggests that the proportion of students nationally educated at state schools securing examination grades in subject combinations that reflect our entrance requirements and the achievement level of students admitted to Cambridge stands at around 62%. The University’s objective therefore is to increase the proportion of those students admitted from the state school sector so that they fall within a range of 61-63% by 2016-17 and remain at that level thereafter. As noted at Section 2.6, government policy may have a bearing on this objective. Given the uncertainty regarding application trends in light of the new financial arrangements our minimum objective for 2012 entry was to maintain our existing intake profile; thereafter however we sought to make progress at an average rate of 0.7% pa (but taking into account the probability of year on year fluctuations). The graph below shows progress since 2000 and the upper and lower projections allowing for a 1.0% fluctuation either side of the planned position.

Targets and Milestones. 6.1 7.1 The University will continue to encourage applications from well-qualified applicants from groups that are currently under-represented and to admit a greater proportion of them within the framework of our admission admissions policy and without compromising entry standards. Experience demonstrates that outreach activity (particularly that focussed on younger age groups, as advocated in OFFA guidance) will not be reflected in the composition of the student population for some years. 6.2 7.2 The University recognises the value of HESA performance indicators and benchmarks, but notes that the benchmarks have severe limitations in a Cambridge context context, in that they take insufficient account of the University’s entrance requirements, both in terms of subject combinations and levels of attainment.21attainment.47 6.3 7.3 Guidance from the Office for Fair Access sets out three key areas to be addressed by Access Agreements. These are outreach, admissions and retention. Accordingly the University proposes to measure its progress against four corresponding targetseight targets across those three areas: to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from UK state sector schools and colleges so that they fall within a range of 61-63%; to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from low participation neighbourhoods to approximately 4.0%; to meet XXXX benchmarks on retention;  to offer a commitment to the minimum number of places available on summer schools at the University;  to launch a long-term, progressive and collaborative outreach project in the eastern region;  to embed the DfE-piloted STEP Mathematics Correspondence Course within University provision. Admissions  to admit UK resident students from UK state-sector schools and colleges so that they fall within a range of 62-64% of the total intake, reaching the top of that range by 2019-20; 46 We have chosen to link our provision to government support arrangements; this will be reviewed should these arrangements change significantly. 6.4 The University has selected the four targets described above because they are measurable, do not rely on information which is unavailable (or inconsistently available) at the point of application, and are possible to influence without compromising either the principle of needs-blind admissions, or entry standards. We will nonetheless continue to consider such other data as is made available by UCAS and HESA and its usefulness in measuring our progress.

Targets and Milestones. 6.1 7.1 The University will continue to encourage applications from well-qualified applicants from groups that are currently under-represented and to admit a greater proportion of them within the framework of our admission policy and without compromising entry standards. Experience demonstrates that outreach activity (particularly that focussed on younger age groups, as advocated in OFFA guidance) will not be reflected in the composition of the student population for some years. 6.2 7.2 The University recognises the value of HESA performance indicators and benchmarks, but notes that the benchmarks have severe limitations in a Cambridge context in that they take insufficient account of the University’s entrance requirements, both in terms of subject combinations and levels of attainment.21attainment.27 6.3 7.3 Guidance from the Office for Fair Access sets out three key areas to be addressed by Access Agreements. These are outreach, admissions and retention. Accordingly the University proposes to measure its progress against four corresponding targets: to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from UK state sector schools and colleges so that they fall within a range of 61-63%; to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from low participation neighbourhoods to approximately 4.0%; to meet XXXX benchmarks on retention; to offer a commitment to the minimum number of places available on summer schools at the University. 6.4 7.4 The University has selected the four targets described above because they are measurable, do not rely on information which is unavailable (or inconsistently available) at the point of application, and are possible to influence without compromising either the principle of needs-blind admissions, or entry standards. We will nonetheless continue to consider such other data as is made available by UCAS and HESA and its usefulness in measuring our progress. 7.5 The University’s principal objective is to increase the proportion of our UK undergraduate intake from schools in the UK state sector. 7.6 Research conducted by the University28 suggests that the proportion of students nationally educated at state schools securing examination grades in subject combinations that reflect our entrance requirements and the achievement level of students admitted to Cambridge stands at around 62%. The University’s objective therefore is to increase the proportion of those students admitted from the state school sector so that they fall within a range of 61-63% by 2016-17 and remain at that level thereafter. As noted at Section 2.6, government policy may have a bearing on this objective. Given the uncertainty regarding application trends in light of the new financial arrangements our minimum objective for 2012 entry was to maintain our existing intake profile; thereafter however we sought to make progress at an average rate of 0.7% pa (but taking into account the probability of year on year 26 We have chosen to link our provision to government support arrangements; this will be reviewed should these arrangements change significantly 27 xxx.xxx.xx.xx/xxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/ 28 xxx.xxx.xx.xx/xxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx/ fluctuations). The graph below shows progress since 2000 and the upper and lower projections allowing for a 1.0% fluctuation either side of the planned position. 7.7 Currently HESA performance indicators and other national datasets relating to socio-economic background do not take adequate account of the entry requirements of individual institutions. Whilst they take some account of attainment, they do not do so in sufficient detail for highly selective institutions such as Cambridge where the average candidate admitted has 2.5 A* grades with specific subject entry requirements. For the present we have adjusted our HESA low participation neighbourhood benchmark in line with the results of our research in relation to state school entry and will use this as our target. We considered that to maintain the pre-2012 entry level would prove to be demanding in the first year, but we aimed to make annual progress thereafter (with allowance for statistical variation) to 4.0% by 2016-17.

Targets and Milestones. 6.1 The University will continue to encourage applications from well-qualified applicants from groups that are currently under-represented and to admit a greater proportion of them within the framework of our admission policy and without compromising entry standards. Experience demonstrates that outreach activity (particularly that focussed on younger age groups, as advocated in OFFA guidance) will not be reflected in the composition of the student population for some years. 6.2 The University recognises the value of HESA performance indicators and benchmarks, but notes that the benchmarks have severe limitations in a Cambridge context in that they take insufficient account of the University’s entrance requirements, both in terms of subject combinations and levels of attainment.21attainment.17 6.3 Guidance from the Office for Fair Access sets out three key areas to be addressed by Access Agreements. These are outreach, admissions and retention. Accordingly the University proposes to measure its progress against four corresponding targets: to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from UK state sector schools and colleges so that they fall within a range of 61-63%; to increase the proportion of UK resident students admitted from low participation neighbourhoods to approximately 4.0%; to meet XXXX benchmarks on retention; to offer a commitment to the minimum number of places available on summer schools at the University. 6.4 The University has selected the four three targets described above because they are measurable, do not rely on information which is unavailable (or inconsistently available) at the point of application, and are possible to influence without compromising either the principle of needs-blind admissions, or entry standards. We will nonetheless continue to consider such other data as is made available by UCAS and HESA and its usefulness in measuring our progress.