University Centre Weston is committed to supporting access and participation to higher education. As part of the UCW Higher Education Strategic Plan, the Strategic Aims align directly to the Office for Students (OfS) priorities which relate to access, participation, student success and progression, and demonstrate the strength of commitment UCW has to these areas.
UCW’s Strategic Aims cover all aspects of the ‘student journey’ engaging with the widening participation agenda to successfully recruit non-traditional or disadvantaged students, to provide a supportive, nurturing learning environment and to focus on employability to ensure students have the skills to enter employment.
UCW recognises that some students have to overcome significant barriers to progress and succeed in higher education, and is committed to minimise these. UCW performs well in recruiting students from disadvantaged backgrounds and has a diverse student population. Additionally, there are groups who UCW seeks to offer greater access levels of support and further encourage progress including: BME students, care leavers and young carers.
Due to the diverse nature of the student population at UCW and the strategic aim of providing a supportive and nurturing learning environment, it is recognised that to recruit, retain and enable students to succeed will be a key priority. Significant investment will be targeted towards the support services in order that the needs of all students are met and those from disadvantaged, or underrepresented groups are able to flourish as part of the UCW community.
The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), where UCW was awarded Gold, shows all students achieve good outcomes and UCW is determined to continue to support students in their progression to meaningful employment and/or further study. UCW is also committed to providing opportunities for students to benefit from work-based learning and access to industry experts to expose them to related academic and vocational experiences.
The success of access, participation and support for students will be measured and assessed. The monitoring and effectiveness of these measures will form part of UCW’s key performance indicators. There will be scrutiny of this performance at Governor and College Leadership Board level.
Please click HERE to download the UCW Access and Participation Plan 2019-2020.