17 minute read
Yorkshire and the Humber
Best Practice
University of Bradford
BEST PRACTICE CASE STUDY Fair and open applications
Contextual admissions put the applicant’s academic achievements and potential in the context of their individual situation. Information factored into the process might include the person’s socio-economic circumstances such as where they were brought up or which school they attended. Spending formative years in care could also be considered as an important consideration, and refugees and asylum seekers and those returning to study are also able to make use of the scheme..
The University of Bradford implemented this approach from 2019 entry as part of its continual efforts to increase its positive influence on social mobility. Individuals whose situation may have limited their pre-application academic performance will be eligible to receive an offer one A Level grade below the standard offer (for most programmes) and will also be eligible to receive an additional eight UCAS points from attendance at outreach events. The institution also has a well-run ‘widening participation’ programme which targets five main demographics:
>Mature students >Care experienced students >People from low participation neighbourhoods (POLAR4 Q1/2) >Refugees / asylum seekers >White, working class boys
The programme sees the University working closely with schools and colleges on various initiatives designed to increase the engagement from these applicant groups.
The University works creatively to engage with these often hard-to-reach groups. For example:
>The University works in partnership with rugby league club Bradford Bulls to learn from white, working class boys about how it could better engage with them. >It supports and is involved in festivals which attract people from across the city, including refugees and asylum seekers. These events are an opportunity to meet and inspire members of what is an under-represented group on campus. >Bradford is one of eight universities who participated in a pilot to develop a framework for the assessment of care leavers. It is also part of the Care Leaver Covenant – a strand of the government’s ‘keep on caring’ strategy that supports people leaving care to become independent.
The University works closely with the Go Higher West Yorkshire collaborative outreach consortium, and is part of the Office for Students’ UniConnect programme, which offers activities, advice and guidance on the benefits and realities of going to University through local hubs.
Best Practice
CASE STUDY Covid-19 response
At the University of Bradford, staff and students came together to support each other and to support their local communities.
The University’s first priority was to support its students through the period of disruption to ensure their safety, health and wellbeing and to ensure that they were all able to continue with their learning, and not become academically disadvantaged. As University of the Year for Social Inclusion 2020, it recognised that the impact of the situation could affect under-represented or vulnerable groups disproportionately and therefore took steps to target additional support so that all students had fair and equitable opportunities to complete their studies. Measures included:
>Learning, teaching and student support were moved online and although the campus was physically closed, the University remained open. All student services continued to work remotely to support students. >Special arrangements were put in place to accommodate extenuating circumstances so that students were not academically disadvantaged. >Emergency regulations were put in place to enable students at Levels 3 and 4 to progress, and to provide a ‘safety net’ for students at Levels 5 and above to ensure that the disruption caused by Covid-19 did not impact on their overall degree outcomes. >The academic calendar was amended to ensure that students had sufficient time to complete assessed work, and could still progress or complete broadly within their expected timescales. >A range of self-access mental health and wellbeing tools were provided and telephone, email and video-call support was available for any student who experienced mental health issues, including those self-isolating. >The University partnered with Morrisons to provide a food bank delivery service for students who were self-isolating and unable to obtain food for themselves (and their families as required). >An extended laptop loan scheme was put in place for students without their own IT equipment to enable them to continue studying and laptops were delivered to those students who needed them. >The University continued to support students in financial hardship through its hardship and crisis funding and supported an increased number of students financially. >It linked up its students with a range of new part-time work opportunities which arose in response to the COVID-19 crisis, mainly in retail, distribution and the care sector. >Although the University does not own or manage any of its own accommodation, it supported students who were experiencing issues with private accommodation, including funding emergency accommodation where required. >It set up a ‘virtual campus’ to support students remaining in Bradford, and provided a continued sense of community for students who returned home. It included online exercise classes from its gym, store cupboard cooking tips from its chefs, quizzes, an online book club, online mindfulness classes and daily spiritual tweets from its multifaith chaplaincy team.
Best Practice
University of York
The University of York’s founding values come from a Quaker tradition of social justice - they talk about ‘amelioration of human life and conditions’ and caring about opening up opportunity for higher education ‘more than almost anything else’. These values are now reaffirmed in the University’s commitment that ‘the University of York exists for public good’.
The University of York puts this commitment into practice by: > Contributing to innovation and economic dynamism in our place. > Opening up opportunity to participate in a more dynamic economy for those experiencing disadvantage. > Using its convening power to support both of the above and to build partnerships to deliver them.
Examples of these partnerships include: > BioYorkshire and innovation - a collaboration with Askham Bryan College, FERA, local authorities, York & North Yorkshire LEP and local businesses which is at the core of Devolution Deal proposals submitted to Whitehall.
> York Central - a collaboration with City of York Council, Network Rail, Homes England, York & North Yorkshire LEP and Science Museum with a vision of an innovation district and ideally a future venue for an Accelerator.
> Good Business City - a collaboration with City of York Council, the NHS in York and Aviva which is committed to good practice and acts as a magnet for others to join.
> Higher York - a partnership with York St John University, Askham Bryan College, York College and City of York Council which sets out a city skills strategy to respond to Covid and build a skills pipeline for innovation.
> IntoUniversity collaboration with the University of Hull with an outreach centre in the most disadvantaged parts of Hull, building pathways into HE from primary school up.
> Collaboration with North Yorkshire County Council in building pathways for careexperienced students into University of York.
BEST PRACTICE CASE STUDY Next Step York
Rich Winter is sure of one thing. Had it not been for Next Step York he would not have gone to university. “It’s that simple,” says the Doncaster-born graduate now working for global professional services firm RSM.
Rich, whose father is a joiner, had always aspired to work with his head rather than his hands, but, as A Levels loomed, he began to realise that he might not make the grades to get to a good university.
So, he began to explore an apprenticeship route to accountancy, securing a place with Deloitte to train in audit. It was then that Next Step York visited his school. “It was a lifeline. It gave me hope that I could get into a Russell Group university.” But both his school and his parents urged him to take the apprenticeship route, with no debt and a guaranteed job at a time when good jobs were scarce.
At that point, while Rich knew he wanted to work in finance, he was undecided about the specific role. A three-year degree course would provide him with the time he needed to make that decision. The apprenticeship route risked closing his options.
His experience of Next Step York – with its residential summer on campus, peer group
Best Practice
mentoring, and practical insights into research, referencing and writing – gave him the confidence to go against the grain and ignore the advice of his teachers and parents. And that confidence – along with lasting personal friendships – stayed with him throughout his time at York. “I was the only one who wasn’t nervous on the first day, because I was in familiar surroundings and after doing the scheme I felt I knew more about university life than other students from wealthier backgrounds who had friends and family who had been to university. If anything, I felt like I had an advantage over them.”
The decision to go against the advice of teachers and parents also inspired him to make the very most of his experience at York, throwing himself into the wider world of university life, securing work experience and internships with investment banks along the way, to ensure he was in the strongest possible position to get a job. By the final year of his Economics and Finance degree, he had become the President of the Economics Society and had secured a graduate place with RSM.
Today, with an ACA qualification under his belt, he is part of a niche team within corporate finance advising on corporate disposals and acquisitions. Reflecting on the degree and his four years working in Leeds, one thing is clear; “I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for Next Step York. That is the cold, hard truth.”
It is also the reason he is passionate about social mobility. “I am the social mobility champion at RSM in Leeds. I want to help students from similar backgrounds to me as much as I can. We are working on a variety of programmes and initiatives that help bridge the gap and ensure equal opportunities for all. I am sure my friends Matt and Loui will agree, it’s for us to help give the next generation of students more access to opportunities than we had.” STUDENT CASE STUDY Milda
From the age of seven, Milda Ambrazeviciute knew that she wanted to go university to study Mathematics; but life had other plans for the little girl from Lithuania whose family came to the UK when she was five years old.
As a teenager, just when she should have been concentrating on her exams, her world was turned upside down. Instead of studying quietly for the future, she was forced to focus on the day-to-day struggle of homelessness, a women’s refuge and ultimately admission to hospital.
Having dropped through the gaps in Cornwall’s social care network, Milda fell further as the local mental health services failed her at the worst moment, resulting in seven months as an in-patient when she should have been preparing for A Levels.
Best Practice
“Everything I had was lost,” says Milda, now in the second year of a Mental Health Nursing degree at the University of York. But, with the help of friends – “anyone but the professionals” – she somehow pulled her life together, returning a year later to complete her studies and the chance to fulfil her childhood dream of going to university.
But, once again, the professionals let her down. No one at her school knew the answers to any of Milda’s many questions about support for university study. “I was living on Universal Credit, just about getting by from payment to payment, but really stressed out that I would not be able to afford to study at university,” she said. It was then she discovered the University of York.
She wanted somewhere far from the south of England and a place that understood the needs of people who had been in care. York was the only university she found that had a visible page dedicated to care leavers, and that answered all her questions about financial support and accommodation during the holidays. On top of that, she fell in love with the city of York.
“I had no real expectations of what support I would get, other than being given some money at some point,” says Milda. An email from the University’s dedicated care support team a week before commencement told her not to worry about kitchen utensils – a welcome pack would be provided.
“The first thing I saw when I went to my room was that someone had made the bed for me and that a little chocolate bar had been placed on the pillow,” she added. Even better, she was soon to learn that new bursaries would pay her accommodation. “That saved me £5,000 a year,” she smiled.
Early socials – organised by the University’s care leaver support team led by Fran Hornsby – connected her to other students with similar experiences and proved to be the start of lasting friendships that also helped bring Milda out of her shell.
“I was very quiet about my background at first, but it is hard to hide the fact when almost everyone else goes home at the end of term and you stay behind,” said Milda, who now plays a key role in the working groups supporting new care leavers.
Half-way through her four-year course – she will have a Master’s degree under her belt when she qualifies – Milda feels she has found her vocation in forensic youth care. Her current placement in an adult forensic unit, where “no two days are the same”, is giving her valuable experience in the front line of care for people who are a risk to themselves and others.
“I had such a terrible experience with mental health services. If I can do something to change that and help others avoid what I went through, I will feel it’s not been in vain,” she says. And her advice to other care leavers who may think that university is beyond their reach and the door to social mobility locked? “Never think that. Most universities take care of the big financial worries. Just focus on what you want to do and go where you want to go, and go out and do it.”
Best Practice
York St John University
CONTEXTUAL ADMISSIONS For 2019 entry, York St John University developed and implemented a contextual admissions scheme. This scheme is designed to take into account multiple factors within an applicant’s profile that tend to be barriers to higher education entry.
The scheme considers: the following factors:
> Indices of Multiple Deprivation (where the applicant lives). > Past school performance. > Declared disabilities. > Time in care. > Whether the applicant would be a mature entrant. > Whether the applicant is the first in their family to enter higher education.
Based on their profile, applicants are assigned points and depending on their point score, would be made a reduced offer, or in very limited cases, made an unconditional offer.
This scheme, which was praised by the Office for Students as ‘radical’, has attracted excellent feedback from applicants and their schools. The scheme was developed taking into account a number of experts in mobility and is completely transparent, with full details published on the university website.
For 2021 entry, a scholarship has also been attached to the scheme, for applicants who attract the highest number of points, in order to further boost the accessibility of higher education to those who need it most. York St John also has an admission scheme to support candidates who are transitioning out of military service. STUDENT CASE STUDY In recent years much has been done to improve access to university for care leavers, but York St John University recognises that getting into university is only a small part of the picture. With challenging backgrounds and a lack of external support networks, care leavers need tailored support through their university journey and beyond it.
Over 60% of students at York St John University come from one or more backgrounds that is underrepresented in Higher Education. This is a real strength that makes a campus a diverse and inclusive place to study. The university’s unique contextual offer scheme for applicants helps us to build on that strength. It looks at academic potential and also at factors that prove to be barriers preventing students from attending university. Care leavers automatically receive a reduced offer, and if someone is both a care leaver and the first in their family to attend university, they will receive an unconditional offer.
This is just the beginning of the support offered at York St John to help care leavers succeed. A student who has been in care has personalised one to one support from the point they apply through UCAS to the point they graduate. They will be prioritised in accommodation applications and offered year-round accommodation if they need it. There is financial support available too, with an annual bursary to all students who have been in care in the past 3 years, or up to the age of 25.
Frequently when coming to university, care leavers find a stable community and begin to thrive for the first time. There is a risk that this can lead to a desire to avoid facing up to the fact that the university experience is for a limited amount of time. York St John is addressing the issue with an innovative scheme to connect care leavers with the University’s engaging careers service, Launchpad. Launched in 2019, the scheme was developed in recognition of the
Best Practice
fact that care leavers face significant challenges on graduation, as they lose all support they may have been receiving, and do not have the option of returning to a family home. This makes careers decisions even more crucial, and means students need to be encouraged to think about life post-degree as early as possible. The scheme works by splitting the care leavers bursary into two payments. The first is automatic, the second is conditional on them engaging with York St John’s Launchpad Careers Service. This involves registering with the service and either attending a one to one careers appointment or attending a careers workshop or event in Semester 2.
Feedback from students has been extremely positive with comments including:
> “I found this very insightful and surprisingly enjoyable. The information provided was thorough and definitely gave me ideas for when I graduate.” > “There were some things I knew in brief detail but he explained things about course searching and work experience so I understood what is available a bit better.” > “Helped me solidify my plans for the future – and also helped me through some difficult decisions.”
BEST PRACTICE CASE STUDY
York St John University, working with Mind the Gap, has launched a new Performing Arts course for adults with learning disabilities and/or autism. The course will give students a Certificate in Higher Education in Performing Arts equivalent to Level 4 or the first year of a University degree. This is the first of its kind in the UK. Mind the Gap, England’s largest learning disability performance and live arts company, has been running arts training programmes for people with learning disabilities and/or autism via its Academy since1998. Many are accredited but to be recognised and validated by a higher education institution is a first. “The validation from York St John University is a huge coup for Mind the Gap,” says Academy Director Charli Ward. “It really cements the company as a beacon for learning-disabled creatives and further strengthens our reputation within the industry.”
The three-year course will study classic and contemporary theatre, dance techniques, music production, and music composition. Students will learn choreography skills, explore physical theatre, develop skills in devising theatre and participate in workshops led by industry professionals.
“York St John University is committed to widening participation in higher education,” says Professor Matthew Reason, Director of the Institute for Social Justice at York St John. “Through this unique partnership with Mind the Gap we are able to challenge some of the presumptions about who education is for and who can access higher learning. We are hugely proud to be working with Mind the Gap on this ground-breaking initiative.”
The course starts this year and is in high demand.
“We’re delighted with the response to the course, though we’re not surprised by it,” Charli continues. “All our courses are hugely popular and highly respected.”
Mind the Gap’s Academy has more than doubled in size over the past few years from 30 students a week in 2012 to almost 70 a week in 2020, making it the largest of its kind in the UK. It runs a weekly one-day course in dance, music, and theatre and a weekly four-day Performance Academy course for advanced students which are currently recognised through Arts Award at Bronze and Silver levels. It also runs a weekly participatory course in partnership with Leedsbased disability consultants Totally Inclusive People, and a Youth Academy in partnership Bradford Council.
