ADDITIONAL ACCESS AND RETENTION MEASURES Clause Samples

ADDITIONAL ACCESS AND RETENTION MEASURES. Academic support ranging from the personal tutor system to Students’ Union initiatives and in-session support from the English Language Centre is intended to ensure that every student who gains entry to King’s is capable of completing their programme. The College records reasons for withdrawal and is able to monitor variance between different programmes of study. In 2009, only 5 home students claimed finance as the main reason for withdrawal. However, our access agreement proposes an additional investment in hardship funding on the basis that we believe financial hardship might impact on other personal issues experienced by students who withdraw. Academic leadership comes from each of the College’s nine academic Schools developing unique widening participation and fair access statements which identify key initiatives based on the varied academic portfolio and student profiles of the different Schools. These distinctive offerings will also enable new partnerships to support the academic agenda. King’s College London is unusual in its peer group in its development of progression agreements. The College led a Lifelong Learning Network and has embedded several progression agreements with the intention of working with its network of local colleges and schools and continuing to build new pathways to admissions. Partnership takes the form of a variety of strategic partners who will work with King’s in support of the widening participation and fair access strategy. The existing King’s my Bursary and my Scholarship schemes will be phased out as the students graduate: in the meantime the commitments to current award holders will be fully honoured. Existing King’s students who started in 2006-7 or 2007-8 will be awarded a King’s myBursary to match 50% of their total maintenance grant (up to a maximum of £1,350). Existing students who started in 2008-9 or later will be awarded a King’s my Bursary, also based on their maintenance grant, as follows: £2,200 - £3,250 £1,350 £1,500 - £2,199 £1,050 £700 - £1,499 £350 £50 - £699 £100 All King’s students starting full-time undergraduate study after 2006-7 will be automatically eligible to be considered for a King’s myScholarship. 40 new scholarships are available each year, running at an existing steady state of 120 in total. These will be phased out from 2012 as students graduate. King’s myScholarship awards are each worth £1,800 and will be awarded by each of the College’s School Board of Examiners who will select those stu...

ADDITIONAL ACCESS AND RETENTION MEASURES. Indicative expenditure for 2016-17 is shown below highlighting the balance of access and student success activities, whilst at the same time maintaining bursary support to recognise the fact that a significant number of UCLan students enter from low income families. Feedback from students and from the Students’ Union is that such measures encourage low income families into higher education and improve progression rates. 2016-17 OFFA-countable expenditure All of the expenditure noted is “countable” for the purposes of this Access Agreement. Financial support will be provided to students in cash and through payments to support learning. Timely information will be provided to UCAS and the SLC to ensure that applicants and students are aware of the support available. The UCLan Bursary delivers financial support to the poorest students by:  Providing £2,000-worth of financial support in Year 1 for all full time undergraduate students at our Preston Campus paying the maximum £9,000 fee from households with residual incomes of less than £20,000 (with the exception of students already in receipt of support such as NHS- sponsored students and Dentistry students).  Providing £1,000-worth of financial support in Year 1 for all full time undergraduate students at our Preston Campus paying the maximum £9,000 fee from households with residual incomes between £20,000 and £25,000 (with the exception of students already in receipt of support such as NHS-sponsored students and Dentistry students). Additional funds will be allocated to enhance the hardship fund to be administered by the ▇▇▇▇▇▇ Bursary Fund Panel. Through these additional funds, we will be able to provide more targeted financial support to mature students, especially student parents and to students in need, at appropriate points throughout the student lifecycle. Information on the ▇▇▇▇▇▇ Bursary Fund is updated annually and can be found at: ▇▇▇▇://▇▇▇.▇▇▇▇▇.▇▇.▇▇/fundraising/harris_bursary_fund.php. Our approach to financial support is continually evolving, based on discussions with the Students’ Union and on feedback from previous and current First Years, as well as national research and feedback. The Students’ Union favours an approach which continues to provide a high level of support to the very poorest students, but allows for differing levels of support for other students presenting varying needs. Feedback from previous and current First Year students suggests that, although the availability of financ...

ADDITIONAL ACCESS AND RETENTION MEASURES. (a) Target Groups 4.1 For the purposes of this Access Agreement, the University’s additional outreach work and financial investment are aimed particularly at students of high ability and potential from the following groups:  Eligible students entering Newcastle University through the PARTNERS Supported Entry Route (including mature students and those with a range of relevant educational or other personal disadvantage factors)  Eligible students entering Newcastle University through the Realising Opportunities Scheme  Students from low participation neighbourhoods  Students from lower socio-economic groups and/or lower income backgrounds  Students from black and minority ethnic groups (including PGCE entrants)  Students with a disability  Looked After Children/ those from a care background Whilst we have not specifically identified students from state schools and colleges as a WP target group in this Access Agreement, our targeted outreach activities are expected to have an impact on the proportion of entrants from the state sector. Progress will be monitored on publication of HESA performance indicators. 4.2 The additional measures described in this Access Agreement specifically aim to:  Increase the number and proportion of applicants and entrants with appropriate qualifications, ability and potential, from target under-represented groups from all parts of the UK, and contribute to an overall increase in regional rates of progression to higher education  Encourage more students from lower-income or low participation backgrounds to feel confident that they will receive adequate levels of financial support if they choose to study at Newcastle University 4.3 Milestones and targets relating to these aims are shown in Section 6 below. 4.4 Our outreach plans aim to:  Continue and further develop the existing outreach activities supported by the University (including identified activities supported through previous Access Agreements from 2006 to 2011)  Continue key University activities previously funded by the national Aimhigher Programme (including some support for school travel costs)  Build upon current activities that have proven impact, can be significantly scaled up, have clear metrics, and minimise additional burdens for Faculties and Schools, rather than creating new, unproven schemes  Support fair access to the professions, through the provision of information and awareness-raising activities in relevant disciplines  Operate schemes that ...

ADDITIONAL ACCESS AND RETENTION MEASURES. The University of ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ has considered the advice from OFFA in relation to the balance of expenditure on the range of access measures it will employ. In particular we welcome the new emphasis on measures to support retention and student success, and the opportunity to support some of the activity previously funded by the Aimhigher Sussex programme, hosted by Brighton. It is our intention therefore to re‐balance our expenditure in order to provide a more tightly focused strand of financial support and a greater balance of expenditure on outreach and retention. In “steady state” the university proposes to devote £1.41m of its total additional access expenditure to outreach activity and £1.97m to additional retention activity – in total an expenditure of £3.38m on both outreach and retention. This represents a very significant increase on the current “countable” expenditure of £422k for both outreach and retention measures. Expenditure on outreach and retention as set out in this agreement will all be “countable” – that is it is either expenditure counted in our previous access agreement that we will be continuing to make, or it will be expenditure on new measures. The additional resource allocated from this access agreement will enable Brighton’s wide ranging outreach programme to develop and diversify across the following strands: • Partnership with the local community • Targeting support to where it is most needed • Contextual admissions • Curriculum themed support for selective programmes