Common use of BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION Clause in Contracts

BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION. 1.1. The fees York St ▇▇▇▇ University will ensure that we invest in delivering an exceptional experience for our students and support delivery of the University’s widening participation and retention aims. The University has a strong reputation for its programme quality, graduate employability and excellent links with business and the professions. The University’s success is demonstrated by the significant growth in demand for places, with a 40% increase in applications in the last two years alone. We will provide additional support to many of our students from lower income backgrounds through fee waivers and scholarships, as well as through outreach and retention activities. This Access plan represents an outstanding set of measures to ensure that access, retention and graduate employment success are delivered. 1.2. York St ▇▇▇▇ University has a long-standing history of providing educational opportunity to those who would not otherwise enjoy the benefits of an HE experience. This is underpinned within our mission statement. The University “is committed to the provision of excellent, open and progressive higher education that embraces difference, challenges prejudice and promotes justice … Building on this foundation the University commits itself to provide widely-accessible opportunities for lifelong learning, underpinned by scholarship and research.” 1.3. The University is either on or above benchmark in most key performance indicators relating to widening participation and has a track record in both continuation and completion rates amongst its students. 1.4. York St ▇▇▇▇ has a distinctive role as a provider of learning opportunities for a wide range of audiences in its region and is an effective partner in widening participation. The University led the Aimhigher partnership in its sub region and will continue to sustain significant areas of activity amongst low participation audiences in collaboration with other partners and to roll out best practice into other regions and areas of work. It is a partner in Higher York which has maintained its FE/HE and York City Council partnership in York, beyond the Hefce funding support for lifelong learning networks. Higher York works with a wide range of groups with a focus on aspiration raising, progression and employability. 1.5. The University places an emphasis on widening the pool of applicants and ensuring success for groups and communities currently under-represented in higher education. Through this agreement we will want to maintain this work but also to ensure that we retain students from under-represented groups preparing them for employment on graduation.