An institutional perspective on strategic issues facing universities in England

5th Annual Action on Access Summit

Widening participation & student success

Professor Edward Byrne ACPresident & Principal, King’s College London

Real ambition needs to be matched with the right language and the right expertise

• Widening participation should be seen as a strategic priority by universities - core to their mission. Universities should be ladders of opportunity

• Welcome emphasis in the Green Paper on social mobility and a more inclusive full life-cycle approach to WP.

• Establishment of a Ministerial Advisory Group on Social Mobility is good news. The membership should include WP Directors with strong insight and track records.

Engaging with the Teaching Excellence Framework

• TEF should be seen not as a threat or a challenge but as an avenue of opportunity for universities and WP practitioners to put student success at forefront of policy agenda.

• The WP practitioner community should be pro-actively engaged within their university and at national level as the metrics on learning gain and progression are developed.

• We should also try to ensure that the TEF interlaces closely with our Access Agreements.

The Office for Students and changes in the funding landscape• Work HEFCE and OFFA have done over the past 10

years should be commended. In particular OFFA has done much to embed a full lifecycle approach in Access Agreements.

• Really important for the sector that the residual Teaching Grant and the Opportunity Allocation Fund is protected in the 2015 Spending Review.

• If BIS officials do take on HEFCE’s formula allocation responsibilities for Teaching Grant, it’s critical that universities have consultative input to ensure sustainability of the sector.

• PGT loan pool is also a critical – we need to take learnings from the PGT national bursary pilot schemes and ensure WP level PGT participation actively grows as the new £10,000 loans come on stream. We should make the case for extending above 30 years old.

King’s response – effective support across the lifecycle

• The work of Dr Anna Mountford-Zimdars for HEFCE on Differential Student Outcomes is valuable and we will be implementing recommendations.

• Collaborative project with the Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team to increase propensity of WP students to access the full range of student services available to them.

• Broadening Horizons funding and support for WP students to take part in study abroad programmes.

• BME attainment project already underway at King’s and embedding inclusive curricula

King’s response – outreach and access to the professions

• Most recently we’ve established King’s Scholars to provide dedicated support to around 900 Year 7-9 pupils in 14 schools across Westminster, Lambeth and Southwark.

• Strong track record of supporting access to highly competitive professions such as Medicine and Dentistry through Extended Degree Programmes.

• Access agreement underpinned by clearly articulated internal strategy

• Our flagship post-16 outreach programme – runs over 2 years. Around 1,000 applicants for the 280 Year 12 places.