Summary of 2020-21 to 2024-25 access and participation plan

The University’s access and participation was originally approved by the Office for Students in September 2019. In April 2022 all universities were asked to submit variations to their approved plans to consider the priorities of the new Director of Fair Access and Participation. While much of the plan for the period 2020-21 to 2024-25 was therefore written in 2019 some aspects were amended in 2022. The University expects to submit a completely new plan in 2023.

What is an access and participation plan?

Access and participation plans set out how higher education providers will improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups to access, succeed in and progress from higher education.

View Access and Participation Plan 2020/21 to 2024/25

Key points

Our vision is to enable transformation, supporting students to gain skills, knowledge, insight and confidence to transform their lives for the better. As such, we recognise the critical importance of supporting students from underrepresented groups and are committed to implementing a strategic approach to ensure we contribute to the elimination of gaps in access and student success at the University and nationally.

The focus of our access and participation plan is on improving outcomes for specific groups of students. Section 1 of our plan assesses our performance and identifies which groups of students has most scope for supported improved outcomes in four areas: access (entering higher education), continuation (completion rates), attainment (levels of performance), and progression (the proportion of students entering employment or further study).

We examined various groups with characteristics underrepresented in higher education, including intersections of those characteristics, and set ourselves challenging targets. These targets are described in section 2 of our plan and summarised below. Small population sizes can make it harder to discern trends over time for many of these groups but our regular monitoring indicates that we making progress against at least some of our targets though more work is needed in others.

Fees we charge

At the University of Gloucestershire, the maximum home undergraduate fees charged are:

• £9,250 for full-time students per year
• £1,155 for part-time students per 15-credit module

View a full list of fees for courses at the University

Financial help available

We offer financial support to students from underrepresented groups. This helps students access higher education and continue studying until their course is completed. The support includes:

• Awards for care leavers
• A financial assistance fund
• Awards for ‘sanctuary’ students
• Support for outbound exchange students
• Support for students taking placements or internships
• Targeted awards for students from selected partner schools

More detail is available in section 3.5 of our plan.

Information for students

We ensure prospective students, applicants, and students have good information to help their progress through the University in a variety of ways, including:

• Prospective students receive information on fees and financial support at in-person events, such as our open days, through our website, and direct communications.
• Applicants receive detailed information through visits to the University and direct communications.
• Current students receive information about fees and the financial support available through our student portal, MyGlos, as well as direct communications.

Information on fee’s and loans and the University

What we are aiming to achieve

Our strategic aim for access and participation is to reduce and remove barriers, challenge perceptions and provide continual support to all students to ensure we are fostering, enabling and promoting equality of opportunity and outcomes at all stages of the student lifecycle. More details are available in section 2.1 of our plan.

We have analysed our performance and determined 5 key targets for our access work, 9 which cover continuation and attainment, and 1 which focuses on progression. While a summary of these targets follows, full details are in section 2.2 of our plan:

• Closing the gap in access between students from the most deprived local areas in England and the least deprived local areas, students from areas of low and high participation in HE, and 18-year-old entrants with an Asian ethnicity.
• Recruiting a higher proportion of UK-domiciled young, ethnic minority students and black students specifically.
• Addressing low rates of good first degree attainment for black students, male students from the more deprived local areas in England, students from local areas in England which are most under-represented in HE, mature students, and students with a declared cognitive or learning difficulty.
• Eliminating the gap in continuation between students from local areas with low and high participation in HE, between young and mature entrants, and between black and white students.
• To reduce the gap in progression into highly skilled employment and/or further study between students with a declared mental health condition and those without any declared disability.

What we are doing to achieve our aims

We have identified a comprehensive suite of activities to achieve our vision and strategic aim for access and participation. This includes:

• Working in partnership with schools and colleges identified as having high proportions of students from groups underrepresented at the University of Gloucestershire.
• Facilitating attendance at Academic Conferences by students in target schools, offering taster days and campus visits, and delivering Subject Masterclass to spark subject exploration and increase attainment.
• Delivery of Summer Residentials and Summer Schools through our South West Partnership Schools and Colleges. This was opened to schools nationwide in 2022 and promoted especially amongst our target schools in the West Midlands.
• Lead the collaborative UniConnect Programme for our region.
• Promoting and developing our extensive range of Higher and Degree Apprenticeships.
• Decolonising our curriculum to ensure it is relevant and accessible to all the students who study with us
• Improving the Your Future Plan offer to develop all undergraduate students in their career management, skills development, and work experience.
• Offering targeted support to our graduates as they seek to make the often-difficult transition from University to the world of work.

More details about what we are doing can be found in section 3 of our plan.

How students can get involved

We worked with the Students’ Union to gather student input into the design of our access and participation plan. Students are represented on our Fair Access Committee, which is responsible for overseeing implementation of our plan. We also funded the Students’ Union to undertake their own research which led to the creation of the student submission as part of the 2019/20 monitoring return. The Fair Access Committee ensured follow-up actions were taken in response to this submission.

Evaluation – how we will measure what we have achieved

Our programmes of activity are informed by the best available evidence about what works. We collect data and feedback to evaluate our overall programme and inform the design of it going forward. Section 3.8 of our plan sets out our evaluation strategy.

The Fair Access Committee monitors this evidence. The Committee oversees implementation of actions to ensure on-going progress against the targets in our access and participation plan. Where appropriate, we adjust our interventions in the best interests of our prospective and current students.

View evidence from our evaluations

Contact details for further information

You can contact the chair of our Fair Access Committee for further information:

• Dr Matthew Andrews
• Pro-Vice Chancellor Governance and Student Affairs
• mandrews@glos.ac.uk

View Summary of 2020-21 to 2024-25 access and participation plan PDF document