Widening Access. GCU has a strong tradition of widening access to higher education for individuals regardless of their backgrounds, and aims to unlock talent, raise aspirations and promote social mobility. Strategy 2020 ensures that widening access is central to the University’s vision, and sets out our commitment to delivering a distinctive student experience which supports students through their learning journey and into employment. GCU is a leading institution for recruitment of Scottish entrants from widening access backgrounds, as evidenced by data published by the SFC in November 2014. The recruitment is matched by a strong track record in terms of student retention (see Figure 2, Page 5). All institutions Glasgow Caledonian University % from 20% most deprived % from 40% most deprived % students from SEC 4,5,6,7 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Figure 1: Scottish‐domiciled entrants from MD20%, MD 40% and SEC 4 ‐ 71 2012‐13 40% 41% 33% 29% 21% 13% Underpinning Strategy 2020, the University’s supporting strategies and policies, such as Strategy for Learning, Student Experience Framework, and Student Transition and Progression Roadmap outline the key actions and activities that we are engaged in to deliver on our commitment to widening access. We are committed to the Supporting Professional Admissions and have established a new working group to ensure that our contextualised admissions approach implements best practice in supporting widening access. GCU has significant research expertise in widening access and articulation, and has applied this knowledge to inform policy development and to provide enhanced opportunities for access. Each of our key widening access initiatives has an associated evaluation strategy in place to assess impact and inform future developments. 1xxxx://xxx.xxx.xx.xx/communications/Statisticalpublications/2014/SFCST062014.aspx Access and outreach initiatives at GCU Founded in 2008, The Caledonian Club has worked with 9,000 nursery, primary and secondary school pupils, almost 3,000 parents and over 250 GCU student mentors through an early intervention model programme of activities which is designed in partnership with schools to enhance the curriculum and help to build confidence and key life skills in Club members and student mentors. In 2013‐14, the Caledonian Club worked with over 2,200 children from nurseries, primary and secondary schools and 385 parents from local Glasgow communities and our GCU London Club engaged with 300 pupils fro...
Widening Access. The core purpose of the University of Glasgow at Dumfries is to create a world class, research-intensive university environment in niche areas matched to the Dumfries and Xxxxxxxx location, thereby serving regional and national stakeholders whilst working in an international context. Our vision for the Dumfries Campus is for it to be a centre of world- class interdisciplinary teaching, research and lifelong learning. Its areas of specialism include: environment, culture, health, wellbeing, social policy, education and tourism. Our objective is for activity on the Campus to reach the highest academic standards and to support the social and economic needs of the region. We seek to do this from a position of institutional strength that makes it possible for the University to engage with the considerable partnership and collaboration opportunities that are to be found on the Xxxxxxxx Campus. University of Glasgow also receive SFC strategic funding which helps support our infrastructure, in particular the Xxxxxxxxxx-XxXxxxx building – this funding is fully utilised. UofG will account for use of this funding through the consolidated annual self-evaluation progress report on Xxxxxxxx to SFC in October covering the preceding academic year. Maintain and develop our portfolio of WP schools outreach and adult learner programmes alongside our partnership and collaborative work to widen access to UofG, but also the rest of Scotland. We will expand the findings of our SFC funded Impact for Access project ‘Engaging with MD40 pupils in High Progression Schools’, which has significant relevance to the Dumfries and Xxxxxxxx context. Enhancing and streamlining a fair and accessible learner journey, while ensuring that all young people are able to select from a range of fairly distributed, high-quality post-school opportunities which best match their aptitude and ambition, is a challenge recognised by The Xxxxxxxx Campus partners as being best tackled collaboratively. Reflecting that, we will continue to support the multi-partnership approach delivering the ‘Planning for Your Future’ (PFYF) programme which is unique to Dumfries and provides a 3- day residential experience targeted at S3 pupils, who are considering their senior phase choices. Our presence in Dumfries also allows us to support other key Scottish Government initiatives. For example, by offering Articulation places in partnership with Scotland’s Colleges, particularly Dumfries and Xxxxxxxx College, appropriately ...
Widening Access. Context: Dumfries and Xxxxxxxx College has a good record of widening access. 14% of credits achieved in 2017- 18 were by learners who had declared a disability and over 2.8% were care experienced, which exceeded our agreed target by a significant margin. However, we face a number of challenges, which impedes our ability to realise our full potential to contribute to the government’s ambitions. Although there are relatively high levels of deprivation across the region, this is masked by the dispersed nature of the population. This means that in any one area there is not the concentration of deprived individuals that would feature in the SIMD. However, the level of rural deprivation is illustrated by the fact that Dumfries and Xxxxxxxx has one of the lowest average wage economies in Scotland. Feedback from our current students has indicated that on a number of occasions students have lost housing benefit as a result of studying full time at college. By receiving a bursary, they have found themselves in financial difficulties and the Department of Work and Pensions staff have advised these students to give up their studies, as studying would result in the return of housing benefit. Students studying at college have highlighted significantly lower levels of income whilst studying than if they were unemployed and not studying - this is another barrier facing our students. What we will do: The college strategy is to use technology as an enabler, allowing remote access from home, school, partner learner centres and work. We are continuing to invest in technology to deliver learning remotely but this investment is limited due to budget constraints. Through a recent restructure a Head of Curriculum now has a specific responsibility regarding school-college transitions and senior phase pathways to develop strategies and actions for improving and increasing learner pathways from school to college. The college will continue to work with partners to identify innovative solutions to overcome barriers of distance and travel time, but these should not be underestimated in terms of limiting choice and opportunity for young people. We will continue to support the wellbeing of our students through all the support services and partnership services offered by the college. We will continue to implement a number of courses that encourage participation from all groups of learners including those whose situations are compounded by socio-economic disadvantages. This bro...
Widening Access. General: Heriot-Watt is a university which is committed to rigorous selection of students on competitive merit, and is by history and ethos averse to social exclusivity and every other form of discrimination. For a university of our type, and with a recruitment catchment for Scottish students mainly in the southeast of the country, we have already made good progress towards a student profile that is socially inclusive. In particular, over the period 2012-2016 the University achieved step changes – “intensified” its performance – in terms of entrants from SIMD20/40 (the 20% and 40% most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Scotland as identified by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) and also in entrants articulating with full credit for Higher National qualifications achieved at Colleges in Scotland. Our Strategy 2025 re-affirms our commitment to inclusion and wider access. Building on our experience and track record, we will seek over the next three years and beyond to achieve further progress in all aspects of widening access, recognising the long-term aspiration voiced by the First Minister for fully “equal access” and the targets and milestones identified in the report of the Scottish Commission on Widening Access. Our next steps are expected to come through steady sustained progress rather than further step changes. Our principal strategies will continue to be: o effective outreach – to target schools, colleges and communities, to increase aspiration and motivation to access Higher Education, and help applicants make informed choices and support them through the transition to university; this includes significant collaboration with other institutions, which is only likely to increase, as is focus on and relationship-building with those schools and colleges where there is most synergy and mutual benefit; o best practice in admissions – including contextual admission, recognising nuances in the achievement of formal qualifications in disadvantaged as compared with relatively advantaged circumstances, and other indicators of potential to excel on an individual basis; implementation in 2019 of access thresholds, a clear declaration of ambitiously set minimum entry requirements which provide a guaranteed offer of a place to SIMD20 and care-experienced applicants; use of clearer and more consistent language in guidance explaining issues around access and admissions including progression from college from university o “smart” target-setting – to help ensu...
Widening Access expands the already strong admission pathways into UTS for school leavers and mature aged students to help Low SES and Indigenous students gain access to university.
Widening Access. We have included the historical contextual data from a study carried out in 2011, which demonstrates the performance of the University College in widening access. This was included in the Access Agreement 2012-13 updated where applicable, and shows a good record on widening access as measured by the parental background of students, social class and family income. Our 2012/13 Access Agreement includes provision for a Student Experience Data Officer which will enable this data to be tracked and updated. Figure 1 below demonstrates the number of full time undergraduate students whose parents have no background in higher education (HE). Figure 2 shows the same data excluding those that did not know or did not give information. This shows that half of all undergraduate students fall into this category. This means that the majority of students are first generation into HE.
Widening Access. 3.1 Widening access to our University GCU has a strong tradition of widening access. Our Widening Participation Strategy highlights the University’s commitment to the recruitment, progression, completion and employability of students who are under‐represented in higher education and we promote equality and diversity throughout the student experience from induction to graduation. We believe an important advantage of modern higher education, particularly for students from widening access backgrounds is the opportunity to be exposed to many different international and cultural perspectives on society, so as to equip them to be able to compete in the labour market as global graduates. Our University Strategy clearly states that we aim to deliver access and excellence, which means we will seek to make year‐on‐year improvements in our key quality indicators whilst ensuring we retain our strong commitment to access. This commitment to widening access will be a key element of our new Learning and Teaching Strategy which will be developed in 2012‐13. Our student profile reflects our commitment to widening access: 34% of entrants come from disadvantaged backgrounds (NS‐SEC 4‐7) compared to a Scottish average of 27% 97% of entrants come from state schools compared to a Scottish average of 88% 73% of entrants are first in their family to attend university UK full‐time undergraduate (HESA, 2010‐11) Sector Modern GCU 0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% Figure 1: % of entrants that were from MD20 in 2009‐10 GCU is a leading institution for progression of students from non‐traditional backgrounds to a university education, as evidenced by the fact that 40% of our Scottish undergraduate entrants are from the two lowest quintiles of Multiple Deprivation (MD40%). Over 20% of our Scottish undergraduate entrants are from the lowest quintile (MD20%), compared to the modern university average of 16% and the overall sector average of 13%.
