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A life-changing gift: Fundraising for Widening Participation intiatives.

In this post, David Haines, Head of Philanthropy, University Programmes at the University of Edinburgh, highlights how their fundraising strategy for institutional projects includes a specific focus on Widening Participation…

Since joining Edinburgh, a few people have told me that they have the best job in the University. They are all wrong – because, in fact, I do.

Based in the Development & Alumni office, I lead on the University’s fundraising strategy for institutional initiatives, chief among which is Widening Participation (WP). I spend a lot of my working week as the conduit between a community of people who give to WP programmes – most of whom are former students themselves – and the scholars who benefit from their support.

Asking graduates to give back to their alma mater is by no means a new idea; in fact, the practice of making a gift to your old University has increasingly become a considered and thoughtful part of the alumni experience in the UK. Put simply, a large and growing number of alumni want to make their experience at Edinburgh more attainable for someone who might otherwise miss out – and, in doing, so create an environment for learning and teaching that is more representative of the world we live in.

My colleagues and I are rightly asked challenging and thought-provoking questions every day: How will you spend my money? How do you know that it’s really needed? What’s my gift going to achieve? For people considering a gift to a WP project, the answers to those questions are straightforward and compelling:

• We spend the money on students: A huge advantage of our University’s commitment to this agenda is that every penny donated to us can go directly to helping a student for whom tertiary education might otherwise be out of reach.
• We know our audience: Every initiative we run, whether it’s an activity day in a primary school, or a programme designed for mature students at an FE College, is based on longstanding experience and insightful partnership. Our donors know they can trust us to reach the people who need their help the most.
• We see the impact: From long-range outcome studies to a handwritten ‘Thank you’ card from a scholarship recipient, our office works across the University to show donors the outcomes that their gifts are achieving. It’s as inspiring for us as it is for anyone else…

Supporting Widening Participation students to succeed with the School of Mathematics Access Scholarship.

In this post, Grace Sansom, Recruitment Officer in the School of Mathematics, highlights how their School offers scholarships to help alleviate financial pressures, which is one of the most common barriers Widening Participation students encounter. This example complements the third strand of the Widening Participation Strategy, which centres on ‘Support to Succeed’. This strand focuses on the disadvantages Widening Participation (WP) students face during their studies, and therefore may “find it harder…to succeed academically, pastorally, and socially within the University environment.” (WP Strategy 2018-2021 Guiding Principles)…

My role as Recruitment Officer for the School of Mathematics is to attract a talented and diverse cohort of students to study Mathematics at Edinburgh. One key priority that we have identified in our recruitment strategy is the need to support students from Widening Participation (WP) backgrounds, and the ‘School of Mathematics Access Scholarships’ are one of the ways we are working to enable and encourage more students to choose Edinburgh for their undergraduate studies.

For students from WP backgrounds, some of the biggest concerns about attending university are moving away from home, and the cost of financing their studies. Even with loans and bursaries from local funding bodies (such as SAAS and Student Finance England), as well as University of Edinburgh schemes such as ‘The Scotland Scholarship’, it is sometimes not enough. As a result, WP students are more likely to attend a local university and live at home when they study. If they do move away, lots of students find they have to work part-time to make ends meet and therefore have less time to focus on their studies.

All of these factors limit students in their choice of institution, and ultimately gives them an altogether different university experience. It should instead be an informed choice where they have consciously made that decision!

To combat some of this, the School of Maths have created the ‘School of Mathematics Access Scholarships’ to encourage high-achieving students to study Mathematics here and to support them in making the move to university.

The scholarships are aimed at students who are:

• Attending high schools with low progression to Higher Education
• Young people with care experience
• Young carers
• Living in areas of multiple deprivation (identified by postcode)
• Involved in LEAPS or similar Widening Participation programmes.

In addition, eligible students will have evidenced or be predicted to achieve a strong academic performance before starting university.

Scottish Wider Access Programme: Supporting adults returning to education.

In this post, Lesley Dunbar, Director of the Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP), explains how SWAP supports the second strand of the Widening Participation Strategy: ‘Support to Get In’. SWAP offers a strong commitment towards a ‘transparent route into the University for learners undertaking a range of qualifications in a range of settings’. The University is proud to support SWAP (and SWAP East, situated on Buccleuch Place and is a partnership between colleges and universities in the east of Scotland), which aims to support access to higher education for adults returning to education – an important and often overlooked student group. SWAP students are eligible for a context plus flag in Edinburgh’s admissions process and therefore (wherever possible) will be made an offer…

The Scottish Wider Access Programme is a partnership of colleges and universities in Scotland. Our aim is to promote and support widening access to higher education for adults who have been out of education for some time and who, mostly, have qualifications below Level 6. Colleges across Scotland run one year SWAP access programmes to prepare students for entering higher education. Some are specialist, e.g., in Engineering, Medical Studies, Nursing, whilst others such as the Physical/Life Sciences or the Humanities programmes are more general and offer routes into many different degrees. Last year, over 1600 mature students (from as far south as Galloway to as far north as Thurso) studied on a SWAP access programme. Of those who successfully completed the year, over 90% entered higher education. All universities in Scotland offer places to SWAP students.

Access to the Professions: Inspiring and engaging students in secondary state schools.

In this post, Anais Banag, a fourth-year law student at Edinburgh Law School, shares her experience of being involved with ‘Access to the Professions’, a programme that provides secondary state school students with opportunities, encouragement and detailed advice about careers in law, medicine and veterinary medicine careers, as well as guidance on school course choices and the UCAS application process…

When discussing widening participation, attention is often focused on the last two years of secondary school. It is in these two years, principally the last, where the students feel the pressure, and this can be extremely daunting. Access to the Professions (ATTP) subverts these expectations by providing its support and services to students at an earlier, yet crucial, stage in the journey to achieving a career in law, medicine or veterinary medicine. In doing so, they embody the first important strand of the Widening Participation strategy: Aspiration and Early Engagement.

Despite having often flirted with the idea of studying law, particularly after watching gripping episodes of Law and Order, I had never given much consideration to what would be required to become a law student. I had no exposure to law and, in fifth year, when I approached a local law firm with my sparse CV I was turned away. I knew no lawyers, my parents knew no lawyers, and my school work experience had been limited to working in the local council. Common barriers that many prospective law, medicine and veterinary medicine students face are due to these subjects not existing at secondary level, lack of school knowledge, and no school or family connections or sometimes support. It is at this stage that it is very easy for students to discount their aspirations, but, fortunately, I became involved with Edinburgh’s Access to the Professions early on. I had received my results, and was wondering what was possible for me, when I remembered that I had seen their flyer at school.

The importance of early engagement is it that turns a fanciful thought into a real possibility and provides the student with a goal. In fourth year, university seemed very distant but the mere alert of their emails and notification of the opportunities available, kept my dream in my line of sight. What I appreciated most about Access to the Professions at this early stage was that there was never any pressure for me to participate. At first, my engagement was merely passive, but this allowed me to decide if law really was something that I was interested in. Access to the Professions understood that everyone moves at their own pace and that, especially at such a young age, dreams change.

An introduction to the Widening Participation strategy at The University of Edinburgh

In this post, Laura Cattell, Head of Widening Participation and Deputy Director of Student Recruitment and Admissions, introduces the University’s Widening Participation strategy, and explains how it is linked to the national, socio-political context…

Volunteering as an undergraduate student in a low attaining school, I became aware of the barriers that educational and societal systems can have for individuals or groups of people. Years later, after working in the youth justice and education sectors, I moved into a role within widening participation. Working with so many fantastic students over the years has compounded my view that widening participation is not just ‘a nice thing to do’; rather, it is essential to unlock and nurture potential, and to create a wider benefit for the individuals, their families/communities, and for the universities that they attend.

The Challenge

18 year-olds from Scotland’s 20% least deprived communities are more than four times as likely to enter university as those from the 20% most deprived communities. To start to address this challenge, the Commission on Widening Access was established and published its 34 recommendations for the sector in 2016.

The school attainment gap in Scotland persists, and it is extreme for those in the most deprived communities. This situation is exacerbated by a lack of geographic mobility for disadvantaged groups of students. This applies to students from the whole of the UK, although it is particularly pronounced in the west of Scotland.

In the midst of this context, around 22% of children in Edinburgh live in relative poverty (defined as their household income being below 60% of the average income). Edinburgh is an affluent city and it ranks in the top Scottish quartile for incomes, but it is in the poorest Scottish quartile for indicators of poverty. In the most deprived areas of Edinburgh, the proportion of households living below the poverty threshold rises to 33%. This level is comparable to the rate recorded in the most deprived parts of Glasgow and almost double the rate recorded across Edinburgh’s least deprived areas.

How are we doing?

These stark statistics point towards the complexity of widening participation and a need to understand our challenges both locally and nationally. This year, The University of Edinburgh met the Commission for Widening Access targets of 10% of our intake coming from the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland three years ahead of schedule. Our students from SIMD20 (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) represent 11% of this year’s UG intake. This is a positive step, but only a part of the solution. The greater challenge will be to ensure that these students are well supported at the University and go on to thrive in our academic community. Furthermore, disadvantage and under-representation goes beyond this government target. Some of our most important work focuses on learners who have been in the care system, those who are estranged from their families, and those returning to education later in life.

Of course access to University is only part of the picture. Critical to our strategy is our belief that it is never enough to simply encourage and support students into The University of Edinburgh. We want to them to succeed in their studies, reach their potential, have a chance to participate fully in every aspect of University life, and then to progress onto the career or postgraduate study of their choice. And that’s why our Widening Participation strategy focuses on the whole student journey. There are four mutually supportive strands to the strategy: Aspiration & Early Engagement, Support to Get In, Support to Succeed, and Support to Progress.