Widening Participation

An issue for institutions and Bioscience units

What is Widening Participation?

At its simplest widening participation is about 'increasing the number of successful university students drawn from disadvantaged or deprived backgrounds or from appropriate groups in society under-represented in the current student population'.

Overall widening participation involves:

• raising knowledge about and aspiration to participate in higher education;
• influencing the individual's decision to participate in higher education
• helping individuals make an informed choice of course and institution best suited to their needs;
• encouraging and facilitating entry to higher education;
• supporting inclusion and successful continuation in higher education;
• facilitating exit from higher education to employment.

It should not be confused with increasing participation which is about getting a greater proportion of the 18-30 age-group to participate in higher education. Neither widening nor increasing participation can be seen as isolated from other issues like maintaining high retention rates, maintaining standards and maintaining high post-university employment in graduate-level jobs.

Why Widen Participation?

In a fair society there should be equal opportunity to participate in higher education irrespective of background. The Widening Participation agenda promotes a more inclusive society with fewer excluded groups. Some bright and able individuals are not developing their full potential because they do not access higher education. Thus widening participation is a government priority and it is likely that the funding of universities will be influenced by their delivery of government priorities

Widening participation involves issues which are best addressed at different levels. At Bioscience department/unit level; at Bioscience faculty level; at institutional level and even at the level of consortia of institutions. It is important to identify the level at which a particular issue is best addressed. It is also important to discover what initiatives have already been started at an institutional level so as not to duplicate effort. Most universities have a Widening Participation Office - are you in touch with yours?

This Widening participation section of the Centre for Bioscience web site helps Bioscience units to address the issue of Widening Participation. It focuses particularly, but not exclusively, on matters which may be addressed at the Bioscience unit level rather than the institutional level.

These pages address the issue of widening participation through the following questions:

• Are you familiar with your institution's widening participation policy/strategy?
• What widening participation targets are there and how are they monitored?
• What funding is there for widening participation activities?
• What steps can be taken to raise aspirations in which target groups?
• What steps can be taken to facilitate the admission process?
• What steps can be taken to promote inclusion in student life?
• How can you enhance student success and retention?
• How can you promote employability?
• Have you considered ethnicity and disability in the context of widening participation?
• What are the particular problems for widening participation in bioscience?

How is the Centre for Bioscience supporting your unit in widening participation?

Widening Participation Forum (2002), The objectives of the forum were:

• To exchange experience with the issue of widening participation;
• To gather data on how different institutions are responding to widening participation;
• To compare current practice within institutions; and
• To devise strategies for raising awareness of issues surrounding widening participation.

Projects

Through its Teaching Development Fund the Centre has funded the following projects

• Widening student participation in the biosciences: a three centre study
• A virtual approach to promoting the biosciences in secondary schools
• Developing new teaching and learning methods for enhancing the relevance of bioscience education at universities and in schools within local communities

Funding

The Centre is offering £100 for accepted case studies on Widening Participation - Diversity and Inclusivity

General links

Higher Education Academy Widening Participation pages, which include the Widening Participation Research service

Aimhigher - information for students considering higher education and Subject Centre Briefing note on Aimhigher

Action on Access - A Partnership for Widening Participation in Higher Education and a very useful source of information

Information about Foundation Degrees

Department for children, schools and families - student support, a website for students in England & Wales who want to go into Higher Education.