Wales

Best Practice

Cardiff Metropolitan University

BEST PRACTICE CASE STUDY

Cardiff Met’s Open Campus initiative was created to foster civic engagement, improve public health and increase access to education. Open Campus is a collaborative partnership comprising Cardiff Met School of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Education Partnership (Cardiff Met’s initial teacher education and research partnership with Cardiff University, Oxford University and over 30 schools in the Cardiff Capital region), Cardiff Met Sport (the University’s sports services) and Sport Cardiff (Cardiff Council’s Sport Development function operated by Cardiff Met).

Open Campus delivers sport, physical activity, outdoor play, nutrition, health and wellbeing education and participation opportunities on Cardiff Met’s Cyncoed Campus and the project welcomes over 6,000 children a year from across the Cardiff Capital region and particularly from the City’s most deprived areas. The project aims to: > create and sustain new partnerships that promote collective decision making and action amongst education, sport and health providers to increase the quality and quantity of sport, physical activity and health provision on campus and within the local community;

> improve the student experience by enhancing ‘The Cardiff Met EDGE’ (a core offering that enables students to develop Ethical, Digital, Global and Entrepreneurial skills, experience, knowledge, confidence and resilience) designed to enhance graduates’ > employment and wider life chances; and > use the University’s human, financial, physical and intellectual capital to make Cardiff a world-leading city for sport, physical activity and health, improving the social cohesion and wellbeing of communities in Cardiff and across Wales.

The Open Campus initiative is integrated with the Cardiff Met curriculum and provides opportunities for students in sport and education to gain work experience including undertaking collaborative applied research in partnership with key stakeholders.

The project is being evaluated to inform continuous improvement and it is already clear that the initiative has contributed to improved graduate outcomes and greater engagement in education by both children and their parents.

Open Campus delivers sport, physical activity, outdoor play, nutrition, health and wellbeing education and participation opportunities on Cardiff Met’s Cyncoed Campus

Best Practice

STUDENT CASE STUDY

Cardiff Met is committed to ensuring that everyone with the desire, determination and skills to access higher education should be able to do so. One way the university does this is to provide opportunities for adult learners in their own communities, targeting those who have not previously had the opportunity to study in HE. Cardiff Met understands how important it is to work closely with local communities to help raise aspirations and encourage people who think university is ‘not for them’ to start thinking about the opportunities available.

Cardiff Met has an excellent track record of recruiting students from the lower quintiles in the deprivation scale, and has consistently recruited over 40% of students from the lower two quintiles in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Ruth O’Hanlon Ruth, a 31-year-old mother of five, had very low expectations of herself until she was introduced to an Adult Community Learning Hub in Ely in Cardiff which transformed her life.

“I only ever believed that I could ever be a mother and a housewife… The learning hub has enabled me to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It has equipped me with life skills, built my confidence and integrated me into a community that I now feel more part of.

“Doing courses at the Hub has been beneficial… the flexible environment that the staff provide has been a lifeline to a parent like myself. By doing free courses at the Hub, I have been able to confidently progress further, with the aim to attend university. This would never have been possible without these courses. “I have been able to show my children that anything is possible with the right support and structure. I feel it has given a better opportunity in life as a steppingstone towards university. I believe that community courses break down barriers in the community, enable people to have hope and a better life and help to educate our children who are our future. I believe that I could not have learnt what I have learned today, had this been in a college, structured environment.

“I have undertaken a number of courses including Accredited Psychology: Cardiff Met Widening Access, Mentoring Programme, Safeguarding in Health and Social Care, Food and Hygiene, Child Psychology, Welsh, Designing a Game, Counselling Skills, English and Maths.

“I am continuing my journey and hope to enrol on the BA/BSc Social Science degree at Cardiff Met once I have completed my foundation year.”

I have been able to show my children that anything is possible with the right support and structure. I feel it has given a better opportunity in life as a stepping-stone towards university.

I only ever believed that I could ever be a mother and a housewife… The learning hub has enabled me to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It has equipped me with life skills, built my confidence and integrated me into a community that I now feel more part of.