Widening Participation (WP) is the term used in the UK to describe the combined efforts of public sector workers, HE professionals and teaching staff to encourage all pupils able of achieving success in HE to consider it a viable option. Historically, our most disadvantaged pupils are less likely to attend and achieve well at HE, despite early indications of potential at school.
Information/Resources about WP
- The starting point for any fact-finding mission regarding the WP issue in the UK has to be the Office for Students website. Here you will find details about current UK government policy, the flagship WP programme, Uni Connect, the publicly available Access and Participation Plans that drive WP activity in most Universities and useful briefing papers about WP concerns.
https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/promoting-equal-opportunities/ - Hosted in London, NEON bills itself as the ‘professional organisation supporting those involved in widening access to HE’. The website includes a useful repository of resources: presentations, reports and research about WP for those working in the UK HE sector.
https://www.educationopportunities.co.uk/ - The flagship UK government programme is Uni connect, previously known as the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP). These regional networks of HE providers provides highly localised WP events and activities, focussed on increasing HE participations for pupils from areas of the UK with historically low rates of progression to HE.
https://www.ofsuniconnect.org/ - The Sutton Trust are one of the most active players in the UK fighting for social mobility and promoting access to life-changing opportunities for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. They run a number of well-regarded programmes and regularly commissions research leading to influential reports.
https://www.suttontrust.com/ - For a nice concise explanation of why WP might be important for those working in HE (or wishing to work in HE) but who might not be clear about what it is, check out this description on the UK’s foremost academic jobs website.
https://career-advice.jobs.ac.uk/career-development/what-you-need-to-know-about-widening-participation/
I created this e-learning course while working at the University of Cambridge. It is designed to provide pupils in Y12 or at a college with some useful advice and guidance about applying to a competitive university course.
This pdf accompanies the e-learning course and is a pupil worksheet with additional activities.
This pdf is for teachers/tutors and provides additional instructions for the elearning course as part of a facilitated session.
This is a literature review of selected WP papers that I wrote a while ago. More a series of personal notes from my reading to inform my WP role while at Cambridge, it has some summary points at the end that encapsulate some of my key thoughts.