Common use of National Context Clause in Contracts

National Context. The university’s Widening Participation Strategy has been developed in the context of national policy, funding changes and external drivers for change. These changes will impact, in particular, on funding for widening participation work. The strategy has been framed in the light of a likely reduction in the amount of funding available to support widening participation activity in the future. HEFCE outlined changes to the funding for improving retention, learning, teaching and widening access in Future Support for Teaching Enhancement and Widening Participation (HEFCE Guide 2008/28). These changes have increased funding for widening access and reduced funding for improving retention. The reduction has, in particular, impacted on London HEIs, and the university has made a careful assessment of the future focus of activities designed to support enhancement and retention work within available resources. Much widening participation work has hitherto been funded by special project funding through Aimhigher and Lifelong Learning Networks. Funding for Lifelong Learning Networks will end in 2010 and Aimhigher funding, which is being progressively reduced, is uncertain beyond 2011. HEFCE has advised universities to target their increasingly limited resources where they can have the most impact (HEFCE Guide 2007/12, p7). In order to maximise value for money, over the next five years, outreach activities will focus on specific local communities and groups currently under-represented in higher education. For the first time, both universities and Aimhigher partnerships have to achieve numerical targets, with at least two-thirds of participants in widening participation activities being expected to come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds with no previous parental experience of higher education. The university is also required by HEFCE to produce a comprehensive Widening Participation Strategic Assessment, bringing widening participation and access policies together into a single document (HEFCE Guide 2009/1) with an annual progress report as a condition of payment of the HEFCE allocation for widening participation. In framing its Widening Participation Strategy, and associated activities, the university has thus had to make a careful assessment of the balance between sustained support for learners, and activities which maximise the exposure of young people and adults to higher education.