University of Worcester Access Agreement projects.
Staff guide to application for access agreement project funding
The Access Agreement commits UW to a five-fold expansion of the Widening Participation Programme. The Access and Retention Strategy Group has the responsibility to ensure that the funding allocated by the Access Agreement is used to fund activities that address recruitment and awareness-raising of students from groups that are particularly under-represented; whether at UW or in the department, degree programme or subject area.
The Access agreement commits UW to spending on outreach and retention activity that promotes access to Higher Education of Under-represented groups. These include:
· Young entrants from low participation neighbourhoods;
· Entrants from socio-economic class (low)
· Static learners in local schools with poor HE progression rates;
· Level 3 students in partner FE colleges;
· Learners with vocational qualifications;
· Disabled students;
· Learners leaving care;
· Black and minority ethnic groups with particular emphasis on specific subject areas.
The focus of a considerable proportion of University of Worcester spending on outreach will be used to support and develop collaborative work with partnerships.
Applications are sought for innovative and exciting projects that will contribute to commitments made in the Access Agreement.
Application for Access Agreement Project Funding
All applications for funding under the Access Agreement will need to be approved by the Access & Retention Practitioner Group.
Departments wanting to apply for funding should put together a project overview and send it to Val Yates before the deadlines advertised in the Access & Inclusion section of the University website. A template for the project outline can also be found here.
You will need to provide details of how you will be addressing the targets and outcomes of the Access agreement. (The latest Access agreement can be found on the Access and inclusion pages on the University of Worcester website).
The following is intended to help with your application for access agreement funding.
The project outline asks for details in the following categories:
1. Underrepresented Groups
The University of Worcester Access agreement 2012/13 lays out the institutions targets for improving progression, retention and achievement for learners from underrepresented groups; groups that are currently underrepresented at a national level in higher education.
· People from low income backgrounds
· People from lower socioeconomic groups
· People from low participation neighbourhoods
· Some ethnic groups or sub groups
· People who have been in care
· Disabled people
You will need to identify which of these underrepresented groups your project will be targeting.
Departments are recommended to make use of the applications and admissions data to help identify groups which are under-represented in a subject area, course or department. The data may identify groups which make a low proportion of applications to University of Worcester. Activities to raise awareness of the subject area may be appropriate in these cases. Alternatively the data may show groups where the ratio of applications to intake is low. These groups may benefit from attainment-raising activity, or activity to guide students with UCAS applications. The data may also highlight groups who struggle to continue once recruited to a course. Activities targeted at retention of these groups may be appropriate.
2. Performance outcomes.
The University is working towards the following outcomes between the academic years 2012/13 and 2016/17.
· 3% increase in young full time undergraduate entrants from socio economic groups (low) from the current proportion of 37% to 40% by 2016. 4% increase from 12 % to 16% for young full time first degree entrants from low participation neighbourhoods.
· Reduce the non-continuation rates for young full time first degree entrants currently 8 % down to 6 % a target 3% below our current locally adjusted benchmark, and achieve a 1% reduction in non-continuation rates for mature students from 10% to 9%. We will continue to improve our continuation rates for students from low participation neighbourhoods reducing the figure from 10% to 9%.
· Increase the proportion of applications from people living in low participation neighbourhoods from 18% to 20%.
· Continue our success in encouraging applications from disabled learners achieving a 1% increase in enrolled students in receipt of DSA and an overall proportion of 11% for all disabled students.
· Increase the proportion of mature students from low participation neighbourhoods with no previous HE experience to 10% which is our current benchmark. This represents an increase of 4% for the period covered by the access agreement.
You will be asked to report how your project will contribute towards these targets.
3. Operational Outcomes.
3.1 The University continues to recruit a significant proportion of its students from its immediate sub-region where participation rates are falling and where, despite some pockets of urban and rural deprivation, there are relatively few low participation neighbourhoods. Where we have previously focused a considerable proportion of our resources in the sub region of Herefordshire and Worcestershire we will now look to establish a wider geographic area in which to develop our outreach programme.
3.2 The access agreement acknowledges the greater impact that can be achieved by working collaboratively through formal partnerships, and the benefits to developing partnerships to ‘grow’ a larger pool of potential learners through sequenced and progressive outreach activity. We will seek to establish 10 such partnerships with schools and 14 with FE Colleges throughout the period of the access agreement, we will target work with schools and colleges where progression rates are low or where there are significant proportions of students from disadvantaged backgrounds working through a comprehensive system of staff and student teams offering a structured programme of activities through years 6-13. The Outreach partnerships with schools and colleges will enable schools to access the full range of outreach activity below, and in addition bespoke programmes of activity.
· Compact agreements – ten agreements will be established, it is envisaged they will be developed alongside the partnership programme. A general compact which includes participation in outreach activity and achievement of agreed learner outcomes will be complimented by subject specific agreements where possible.
· Focused mentoring activity – Thinksmart. Increase the current level of Thinksmart learners from 80 to 300.
· General Mentoring programmes- 300 mentors supporting 3000 students in schools, colleges and other appropriate settings.
· 250 Learners from primary schools, where possible linked through the partner school programme to participate in the University Learning through Sport Programme.
· Children’s storytelling festival – increasing from 5 Schools to 15.
· University of Worcester Theatre in education Programme – 3500 learners participating.
· Independent advice and guidance to individuals considering returning to education
· Impartial HE IAG professional support for practitioners and teachers in schools and colleges.
· A similar targeted programme working with community groups to encourage mature students to enter higher education
· Focused transition support for targeted WP students who are progressing to UW courses of study (including those studying UW courses at partner FE colleges)
A significant proportion of the above work will be undertaken through collaboration with our FE partners so that outreach teams will be formed composed of staff and students working together from the University and partner colleges. Examples of the activities within this programme will include: master classes, revision classes, mentoring, summer holiday education schemes, engagement with parents etc.
Project work which contributes to these operational targets are encouraged. You should include details of how your project will engage with the above.
4. New Activity.
4.1 Guidance on the submission of Access Agreements for 2013/14 reiterates the need for institutions to focus on outreach with a previous success record; however the development of new and innovative programmes where monitoring and evaluation is inbuilt will be positively received.
4.2 This is an exciting time for the University; new opportunities arising from the opening of both Riverside and the Hive will contribute significantly to the successful outcome of the university Access Agreement. The potential to build on our existing programmes working with primary school children through the children’s library, opportunities for family learning and the potential for developing increased outreach with disabled learners will be instrumental in forward planning.
If your project can be classed as new activity you should highlight this in this section on the project outline.
5. Retention and student success.
There are no specific targets relating to retention and achievement activity; this reflects the movable nature of this type of work, however there are some notable areas that should be addressed in order to achieve the performance outcomes in the access agreement.
· Continuation for students entering the university with non-traditional qualifications is below that of the general population in UW.
· Students from Offa countable backgrounds have lower achievement rates than the general population.
· Achievement for BME students is below the general UW rate.
This suggests that the focus of some of the outreach work should target specific groups of learners and develop additional outreach activity that better prepares students for successful HE study.
6. Student Mentor Scheme
The use of University of Worcester students in the delivery of programmes has proven to be an effective way of communicating with young people in the past. In the Access Agreement the University of Worcester has committed to increasing the number of UW student opportunities from 120 in 2011/12 to 500 in 2016/17. The introduction of a University wide scheme for mentoring has been developed as a controlled and measurable way to achieve and manage this expansion.
The term Mentoring in this context will be taken to mean engagement in outreach activities which raise aspirations and awareness of Higher Education among groups which traditionally have a low uptake of Higher Education. This could include work in primary & secondary Schools, FE colleges and certain aspects of community work.
You should include details of how you propose to make use of University students in your project, including details of number of students, type of role they will be undertaking, how many hours they will be used for. Please refer to the Access & Inclusion pages on the university web site for more information on the student mentor scheme. All students employed should be part of the student mentor scheme and must have completed the level 1 introductory training. Your project outline should include details of any further training requirements and how they will be met. The outline should also include provision for the training of staff in recruitment procedures.
7. Project plan & Budget
The project outline should provide:
· A timeline giving key dates for delivery of the project and its outcomes;
· A draft budget for the project, to include staff costs ( including training & travel) and the costs of development, materials and any other costs associated with the project.
8. Monitoring and evaluation.
A joint return for both the WPSA and the Access agreement will be required in January 2013. The purpose of the reporting is to build an evidence base on the impact of WP activity; the data and information we submit in the reports will be published on the OFFA website. HEFCE will use the information included in the return to consider the extent to which the university had met the commitments set out in its access agreement.
The return requires progress against targets to be shown over a period of 5 academic years. This also includes an assessment of progress against each individual milestone.
Guidance from Offa indicates that ministers have placed a greater emphasis on access performance. We will be required to demonstrate progress in achieving our operational targets and in addition the level of impact these have had on the performance targets relating to application, access, progression and achievement.
Details of how you will monitor, evaluate and report on the success of your project should be included here.
In order to ensure quality outcomes, and drive positive developments across all UW Access agreement funded projects effective monitoring and evaluation processes will need to be devised and incorporated within the various project structures. Such processes will also allow tracking of progress and measurement of success for each project against any relevant UW targets and milestones.
Monitoring & evaluation of Departmental outreach activityshould feed into the Access & Inclusion monitoring and evaluation framework, so that the outcomes and impact can be captured and reported as part of our Access Agreement.
Any monitoring and evaluation activity would need to look at the following areas:
· The end-user (learner) experience
· The school/teacher experience
· The UW student mentor experience
· The project delivery team's experience
· The benefit to UW
· The wider regional & national context
Monitoring activity could include:
· Number and profile of schools engaged
· Number and profile of learners engaged (learner level data may be difficult to collect)
· Number of UW students engaged per project, their hours worked, level of work undertaken, level of credit/pay achieved
· Project wastage rates, i.e. number of UW students and number of school/college learners leaving projects prematurely
· Project costs including travel, car hire, expenses, training materials, delivery materials, CRB checks
Evaluation activity & qualitative measures could include:
· Learner: Survey of levels of both satisfaction & engagement; qualitative information on project impact, learner's perceived outcomes, any attitudinal shift resulting; learner-driven future project developments
· School/college Staff: Survey of staff satisfaction level; measurement of staff perceptions regarding projects – are we all on the same song sheet?; record of barriers, queries, concerns from the school perspective that could inhibit current/future participation in projects; suggestions for future project enhancements.
· UW Student: Survey satisfaction levels re effectiveness of training; level of support from UW project staff; strength of schools partnership; ease of delivery within the schools environment; their perceptions re level of learner engagement/progress within the project; suggestions re future improvements/developments for the project.