The Office of Fair Access (OFFA) has approved the University’s Access Agreement for 2017-18, to ensure talented students from all backgrounds can benefit from a Liverpool degree.
At ‘steady state’, the University is committing a total of £15.6 million, 30% of its additional income to support students from poorer backgrounds.
This includes £10,576 million on bursaries and scholarships, £1.56 million on access and outreach work, £3.2 million on student success and £111,000 on progression.
Widening Participation
The agreement strengthens the University’s commitment to widening participation and articulates the University’s long-term priorities for widening participation, which include:
- A student lifecycle approach
- Greater collaboration and partnership at every level
- Evidence based practice
- Monitoring and evaluating the success and retention rates for all student groups
- Ensuring Access Agreement expenditure supports all areas of need within access, student success and progression
Gaynor Glover, Interim Head of Widening Participation and Outreach, said: “ The University of Liverpool is proud of our commitment and success at Widening Participation, continuing our long history of facilitating access to university for students irrespective of their background, or family history.
Social mobility plays a key role in our strategic vision and is a central theme of the institutions plans for the future.
We recognise that Widening Participation does not end with access to university, and so while maintaining our commitment to pre-entry students, we have increasingly strived to support our students during their studies and into graduate positions. This is done through substantial financial support package and numerous initiatives and services aimed at enhancing student success”
Social Mobility
The University has consistently been in the top five highest spending Russell Group universities in terms of Access Agreement expenditure.
The University is currently ranked first in the English Russell Group for the recruitment of students from Low Participation Neighbourhoods; second for the recruitment of students from State Schools and Colleges; and third for the proportion of students recruited from Lower Socio-Economic Groups.
Through the Widening Participation Team in 2016/17 the University is committed to projects that will engage with over 10,000 local disadvantaged students, often on multiple occasions, ranging from Primary School up to Sixth Form students.
This September a record numbers of students will enter the University through the ‘Scholars’ supported access programme, exceeding the target set out in the previous Access Agreement.
Current access agreements for all Universities are available at: https://www.offa.org.uk/access-agreements/