Common use of Expenditure on access measures Clause in Contracts

Expenditure on access measures. We are committed to ensuring that money is not a real, or perceived, barrier to participation. We are equally committed to making sure that studying at university remains about the ability to learn. This is why our expenditure is focused on student support, outreach activity and retention. OFFA countable expenditure for 2017-18, including the financial student support package, amounts to 19.1pc of additional fee income. Our expenditure on fee waivers and bursaries for new and continuing students in 2017-18 will be £1,366,502. Table 3: Division of expenditure on fee waivers and bursaries Fee waivers 44,842 Bursaries 1,321,660 Students who have concerns about their finances will be able to seek advice from the University’s Student Money Advice Service (SMAS). The SMAS will provide information about the financial support available from the government, forms of financial support available from the University, as well as other independent bodies. Budgeting advice is also available to help students manage their finances as wisely as possible. Any students unsure of who to speak to regarding any issue they may have, are advised to contact their student adviser or one of our student money advisers (available on both campuses), who will be able to put them in touch with the right service both within Student Support and Wellbeing services and across the University as a whole. In preparing our Access Agreements we discuss both our approach and the nature of the financial support package with the Students’ Union. These discussions came on the back of a joint Student Union and University project focussing on the affordability of Halls of Residence. The discussions have resulted in a change to the bursary package, namely focussing support on those students with a household income of less than £25,000 and a reduction in the total amount of financial support. The new package will still support over a third of our student body and retains the additional support available to care leavers. The Students’ Union also plays an important role in supporting students and working in conjunction with the University’s other services to assist students in maximising their experience during their time at the University. There is a regular Student Forum where members of the SU Executive meet with the members of the University’s Executive Group and Directors of Service to ensure that the University is addressing the needs and concerns of students. In the course of these meetings and as part of the discussions on the Access Agreement the University and Students’ Union have agreed a student experience package that will benefit all students, as well as an increase in the amount of money in our Student Hardship Fund. We are satisfied that by subjecting this Agreement to an impact assessment via the Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) toolkit, we have executed our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that the activities and approach adopted and outlined address our aim of increasing and addressing the needs of a diverse student body. Moreover, our approach to both the activities and the monitoring and evaluation outlined in this document, as well as the supporting annexes, is governed by the principle laid out in our corporate Equality and Diversity Policy, namely that: “The University supports the spirit as well as the letter of equality law and thus adopts a positive approach rather than simply a compliant one”. Our commitment to this agenda can be seen through the specific activities that are outlined on p.11 of this agreement and in the targets, which we outline in Annex B, that directly correlate to our institutional Corporate Strategy – Twenty-Twenty Vision.

Expenditure on access measures. We are committed to ensuring that money is not a real, or perceived, barrier to participation. We are equally committed to making sure that studying at university remains about the ability to learn. This is why our expenditure is focused on student support, outreach activity and retention. OFFA countable expenditure for 20172016-1817, including the financial student support package, amounts to 19.1pc 29.9pc of additional fee income. Our expenditure on fee waivers and bursaries for new and continuing students in 20172016-18 17 will be £1,366,5022,847,351. Table 3: Division of expenditure on fee waivers and bursaries Fee waivers 44,842 578,601 Bursaries 1,321,660 2,268,750 Students who have concerns about their finances will be able to seek advice from the University’s Student Money Advice Service (SMAS). The SMAS will provide information about the financial support available from the government, forms of financial support available from the University, as well as other independent bodies. Budgeting advice is also available to help students manage their finances as wisely as possible. Any students unsure of who to speak to regarding any issue they may have, are advised to contact their student adviser or one of our student money advisers (available on both campuses), who will be able to put them in touch with the right service both within Student Support and Wellbeing services and across the University as a whole. In preparing our Access Agreements we discuss both our approach and the nature of the financial support package with the Students’ Union. These discussions came on the back of a joint Student Union and University project focussing on the affordability of Halls of Residence. The discussions this year have resulted in a change to the bursary schedule of when we disburse the financial support package, namely focussing support on those students with a household income of less than £25,000 and a reduction in the total amount of financial support. The new package will still support over a third of our student body and retains the additional support available to care leavers. The Students’ Union also plays an important role in supporting students and working in conjunction with the University’s other services to assist students in maximising their experience during their time at the University. There is a regular Student Forum where members of the SU Executive meet with the members of the University’s Executive Group and Directors of Service to ensure that the University is addressing the needs and concerns of students. In the course of these meetings and as part of the discussions on the Access Agreement the University and Students’ Union have agreed a student experience package that will benefit all students, as well as an increase in the amount of money in our Student Hardship Fund. We are satisfied that by subjecting this Agreement to an impact assessment via the Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) toolkit, we have executed our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that the activities and approach adopted and outlined address our aim of increasing and addressing the needs of a diverse student body. Moreover, our approach to both the activities and the monitoring and evaluation outlined in this document, as well as the supporting annexes, is governed by the principle laid out in our corporate Equality and Diversity Policy, namely that: “The University supports the spirit as well as the letter of equality law and thus adopts a positive approach rather than simply a compliant one”. Our commitment to this agenda can be seen through the specific activities that are outlined on p.11 of this agreement and in the targets, which we outline in Annex B, that directly correlate to our institutional Corporate Strategy – Twenty-Twenty Vision.