What is an Access and Participation Plan (APP)?
An Access and Participation Plan is a strategy that shows how a higher education provider (HEP) will:
- Help students from disadvantaged backgrounds get into higher education (HE)
- Support them to stay on their course and succeed
- Help them to progress into jobs or further study after graduating
HEPs in England must have an Access and Participation Plan if they want to charge higher tuition fees (above £6,165). These plans are approved by the Office for Students (OfS).
APPs are important because they:
- Help make sure that all students, no matter their background, have a fair chance of going to university.
- Ensure that HEPs invest in outreach and support to engage and recruit student groups who are underrepresented in HE.
- Make sure support is well-targeted and based on evidence, and that progress is monitored.
- Are not just about getting into higher education – they are also about helping students succeed and move on confidently.
You can find all the APPs that have been approved by the OfS here.
What do we mean by “equality of opportunity”?
Equality of opportunity means making sure every student – no matter their background – has a fair chance to access, succeed in, and benefit from HE. This includes reducing the effects of unfair barriers and supporting learners who might face extra challenges because of things like:
- Where they live
- Family income
- Ethnicity or race
- Disability or health conditions
- Being the first in their family to go to university
- Experience of care, being estranged from their family or being a young carer.
What are the risks to equality of opportunity?
HEPs focus their APPs on students who experience the greatest risks to equality of opportunity. The OfS has created a national Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR) to help providers understand and act on these risks.
Examples of risk from the EORR include unequal opportunity for learners to
- Receive information and guidance to help develop ambition and expectations or make informed choices about HE options.
- Develop the knowledge and skills required to be accepted onto HE courses that match their expectations.
- Access a sufficiently wide variety of HE course types.
- Access, complete their course or obtain a good grade because of an increase in cost pressures.
Why are APPs, equality of opportunity and the associated risks important in the context of this call for evidence?
They are all central to how HEPs identify priorities for outreach, and design and deliver provision. APPs drive how universities work with local schools and colleges.
To date, Uni Connect delivery has not been strongly linked to partner HEPs’ APPs. This proposal is for HEPs and Uni Connect Partnerships to work more collaboratively where regional risks can be identified using the EORR, and addressed through partnership working. This may change the priorities for outreach projects in the region. This collaborative work will complement institutional APP work.
Regional APP themes
Key shared objectives of the local HEPs in the new proposed region include increasing the proportion of students, in particular from:
- ethnically diverse backgrounds
- areas of high social deprivation
- areas/schools with low levels of progression into HE
In addition to targeting mature learners, care experienced and students with disabilities.
Prepared by:
Hilary Stevens
Access and Participation Policy and Strategy Manager
University of Exeter
hilary.j.stevens@exeter.ac.uk
and
Charlotte True
NSSW Manager