Universities: Admissions

(asked on 6th June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with universities and their representative bodies on extending their outreach activities for disadvantaged groups of young people between the ages of 11 and 16.


Answered by
Sam Gyimah Portrait
Sam Gyimah
This question was answered on 11th June 2018

This government is committed to widening participation to higher education for students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups. We want everyone with the potential to have the opportunity to benefit from a university education, regardless of background or where they grew up.

In our first guidance to the Office for Students (OfS) we have asked them to challenge higher education (HE) providers to drive more progress through their Access and Participation Plans. Prior attainment is a critical factor in entering higher education and we are asking providers to take on a more direct role in raising attainment in schools as part of their outreach activity. The OfS have also established the National Collaborative Outreach Programme to target areas where progression into higher education is low overall and lower than expected given typical GCSE attainment rates.

Through the Higher Education and Research Act, we have introduced a Transparency Duty requiring higher education providers to publish data on application, offer, acceptance, dropout and attainment rates of students by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background. This will hold the sector to account for their record on access and retention of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and shine a light on where they need to go further.

Officials and I are in regular contact with the OfS, including the Director for Fair Access and Participation, and the higher education sector to discuss issues around widening access.

Reticulating Splines