WILTSHIRE COLLEGE ACCESS AGREEMENT 2016

Transcription

1 WILTSHIRE COLLEGE ACCESS AGREEMENT Context 2. Fees, student numbers, fee income and fee rises in subsequent years 3. Access and student success measures 4. Targets and milestones 5. Monitoring and evaluation arrangements 6. Equality and diversity 7. Provision of information to prospective students 8. Consulting with students

2 1. Context Wiltshire College is a large general Further and Higher Education College with five main campuses across Wiltshire. The campuses are at Salisbury, Chippenham and Trowbridge, a land based campus at Lackham (near Chippenham) and a specialist motorsport engineering campus at Castle Combe race track (also near Chippenham). Higher education courses are offered at all campuses and reflect the specialisms that have built up to reflect the locality. Each campus has dedicated higher education facilities including study and social areas. There are (in 2014/15) just under 750 higher education students studying at the College. The College had a Quality Assurance Agency Integrated Quality and Enhancement Summative Review in March 2011 and the published report confirms confidence in the College s management of higher education and identifies several areas of good practice. The good practice that may most influence an applicant s choice would be good specialist resources, excellent tutorial support and excellent examples of work based learning. The College has very high levels of retention and success with 90% of students completing and achieving their intended qualifications. The College makes higher education available to many students from non traditional HE backgrounds; in 2014/15 40% are from households with income of less than The College has particularly strong links with employers throughout its range of courses, from further to higher education, in work based learning and courses bespoke for employers. The higher education courses are all vocational in their nature and include either work placement or commissioned employer projects. As a result of this graduate employment rates are very high; in 2013/14 72% of graduates either gaining employment or progressing to further higher education study. The higher education portfolio of courses includes franchised and validated or licensed courses. This agreement covers courses for which the College is the registering institution.

3 2. Fees, student numbers, fee income and fee rises in subsequent years Table 1. Full time course list and fees for 2016 Course Fee Course duration FD Animal Science and years Management FD Game and Wildlife years Management FD Agricultural Management years Foundation Degree in Applied years Computing BSc. Social Work years HND in Criminal Justice years Foundation Degree in Early years Years and Childhood Studies HND Health and Social Care years HND Business years Foundation Degree in years Motorsport Engineering HND in Sports Development years and Coaching HND in Agricultural years Engineering HND in Equine Management years HND in Music years HND in Travel and Tourism years BSc (Hons) Applied Computing year top up BSc (Hons) Motorsport year Engineering top up BSc (Hons) Animal Science and year Management top up BA (Hons) Early Years and Childhood Studies year Table 2. Part time course list and full time equivalent fees for 2014 Course Duration Full time equivalent fee 2014 FD Animal Science and 3 years 4125 Management FD Rural Environmental 3 years 4125 Management HNC in Mechanical Engineering 2 years 4500 HNC in Electrical / Electronics 2 years 4500 Engineering HND in Electrical / Electronics 1 year 2250 Engineering HND Mechanical Engineering 1 year 2250 HNC Business 2 years 4500 HNC Computing 2 years 4500 HNC in Criminal Justice 2 years 4500 HND Business (top up) 2 years 4500

4 Permitted real terms fee rises. The College will increase the fee levels in the table above in line with permitted real terms fee rises as determined by the Government. 3. Access and Student Success Measures Assessment of access and student success record The College has always attracted non traditional entrants into higher education in significant numbers. By any measure the College s further education student population could be described as displaying characteristics of non-traditional HE students. In 2009/ Wiltshire College FE students were in receipt of Educational Maintenance Allowances, which placed the College 39 th nationally out of 371 Colleges (source: LSC 2011). Approximately 31% of the College s directly funded HE students come from households with income of less than (Access Agreement monitoring return 2013/14). Student success rates are very high at 90% achieving their qualification aim. There are no particular distinguishing features about different populations achieving more or less successfully. Students from low income backgrounds and students on part time courses achieve equally well as their peers. The success of the College in attracting and supporting non traditional students is due to the nature of Further Education Colleges (FECs) delivering Higher Education. FECs have very well developed student support mechanisms, class sizes are usually relatively small and there is very good access to tutorial support. For non traditional HE students these characteristics are extremely important to help success. The College invests significantly in engaging with the local community in many ways to attract students to all of its courses and includes very close collaborative working with local schools. Student success expenditure Students from under-represented backgrounds need extra tutorial/mentoring support to succeed in higher education. The College delivers very high levels of tutorial/mentoring support to all students, but there are extra one-to-one sessions arranged for students from under-represented backgrounds. The standard entitlement is for an individual tutorial once per term, but for students from underrepresented backgrounds this is increased to two per term with an opportunity for further mentoring. The College is expecting to have a population of 578 direct funded students in 2016/17. We assume about 30% will come from under-represented backgrounds therefore 145 will be eligible for the extra tutorials, ie there will be 145*3=578 extra tutorials offered. The standard substitution rate for a member of staff is 35, so the extra spend amounts to This has been rounded to in the table below. Collaborative outreach The College works with the neighbouring FE Colleges who also offer College Based Higher Education to raise awareness and aspiration of non traditional HE participants. There is an annual marketing campaign which aims to appeal to those who are having to question very carefully the cost of higher education, so the focus is on staying at home, studying locally and possibly part time. Although the

5 marketing campaign costs a lot more than the 5000 as quoted in the cost table below we have assumed that a proportion amounting to 5000 is aimed directly at non traditional participants. The College also works collaboratively with partner Universities. Because the College s FE population is that population which traditional Universities are trying to reach then all the local Universities offer to come in and give talks on finance, the application process, support for personal statements and support for maths (University of Bath). Compact agreements are in place with several universities so that contextualised applications can be made to support an applicant who may not have the entry criteria for a particular course but has circumstances to have caused this but not to prevent successful study. There is therefore a great deal of collaborative work that the College is involved in but the work is not funded through the Access Agreement. Much may be being claimed by partner Universities but we see this aspect of our work as best practice in preparing all students with all the information they need for successful application and transition to HE. We therefore do not claim any of this expenditure through our Access Agreement. Financial support for students Wiltshire College Bursary scheme The National Scholarship Programme was important to attract and support students from low income backgrounds. The College introduced a bursary scheme in 2015/16 to continue that support to students from low income households of or below, both from internal progressing students and those from elsewhere. The bursary was for 1000, paid in two installments and in 2015/16 was only available to first year students. In 2016/17 the bursary will be 500 but will be available to all years of students, and will continue to be available to students from households with income of less than Wiltshire College bursary scheme for progressing UK/EU students The College has identified the need to attract more of its own level 3 students to its higher education courses. Progression in 2011/12 from full time level 3 to level 4 (HE) was 33%, with 6% to the College s own Higher Education courses. Similarly progression from level 3 Apprenticeships to Higher Education at 4% presents an opportunity to attract more learners from this non- traditional area. Improving our progression statistics into higher education is the focus of the College s widening participation activities. In order to support progression a discretionary bursary, by application, will be made to students progressing from a Wiltshire College FE course to a Wiltshire College HE course for their first year only, and for students who come from a household with income less than The amounts of the bursaries will be 500 for students progressing to a HND, 750 to a Foundation degree and 1000 to a BA/BSc Honours degree. Wiltshire College Access to Learning Fund The College uses part of its Student Opportunity Fund to continue with its own version of an Access to Learning Fund, total budget being Progression

6 The College has a very strong careers provision. However the service is being improved to support the progression of HE students into employment. This is to be done by the development of a dedicated work placement team, making support for securing work placement more systematic. The College determines that the funding of the HE work of this team is Supporting students with disabilities For 2016/17 there are some changes to the way the Disability Support Allowance is being managed. The College is budgeting to fund extra support activities at which previously would have been covered by DSA. This is being funded through the Student Opportunity Fund.

7 Expenditure Table 3. Expenditure on access measures Activity Awareness raising activities of HE for FE level 3 students Cost in 2015/16 year Cost in 2016/17 year Cost in 2017/18 year Cost in 2018/19 year 22,000 24,000 25,000 26,000 Collaborative outreach work with FE partners 8,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 Evaluation activities 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 ACCESS SUB TOTAL 33,000 32,000 33,000 34,000 Improving retention through improved tutorial support targeted at students from under-represented backgrounds 17,000 20,000 20,000 20,000 Improve physical infrastructure for HE 20,000 20,000 20,000 20,000 DSA changes requiring extra funding to support disabled students (not OFFA countable expenditure, included so that reconciliation with the spreadsheet is possible) Wiltshire College ALF replacement budget (not OFFA countable expenditure, included so that reconciliation with the spreadsheet is possible) 10,000 10,000 10,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 RETENTION SUB TOTAL 62,000 75,000 75,000 75,000 Progression expenditure, work placement support 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 PROGRESSION SUB TOTAL 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 Wiltshire College Progression Bursaries 15,500 27,500 27,500 27,500 Wiltshire College Bursary 25,000 25,000 25,000 25,000 Extra fee income (annexe B, table 6b) 265, , , ,500

8 Proportion of extra fee income (expenditure that is OFFA countable) 54.8% 49.5% 45.5% 44.7% Specific activities funded through the Access Agreement are as follows; The funding of trips to UCAS fairs and University open days and taster sessions for the College s level 3 students to help raise awareness of higher education Host an annual Higher Education Convention, to include attendance at themed workshops on finance and choosing course and institution, at the Trowbridge campus which is attended by Level 3 students from all College campuses and local sixth forms (West Wiltshire). Attendance is usually about 1200 The College hosts an annual Careers Fair at Salisbury for College students and local school students. Attendance is usually about 700 Delivering Year 12 presentations on local HE opportunities and attend Year 12 Careers and Next Step Conferences Working with local school partnerships (i.e. the West Wilts Alliance) to support activities which raise awareness of HE to years 9 11 Arranging HE Taster sessions to provide opportunities to enable both school and college students to experience HE in an FE setting and local provision Annually there are Information sessions for parents/guardians of College year 12 students about HE choices, application process and finance The College has designed, implemented and maintains an interactive online Careers information resource. The resource is open access and many schools access it from their intranets The College hosts a Careers conference biannually and attendance and feedback are very good. Keynote speakers in the past have included Paul Redmond from Liverpool University Extra tutorial support for students from under-represented backgrounds as described above Improving the learning spaces for HE students The intention of all the activities described above is to raise awareness, raise aspiration, increase applications and improve retention and success in higher education. The total number of potential applicants exposed to one or more of the outreach activities above is about This number has been arrived at by adding the number of sixth form attendees at various events and the College s own full time level 3 students (about 4500). For the life of this agreement the College will aim to maintain this level of exposure. 4. Targets and milestones The College s higher education population can already be described as non-traditional compared to the sector. 31% of students are in the lower household income (2011/12) band (less than 25000) and 39% (2011/12) are part time. The College has set targets (see annex B) to encourage more of its level 3 students (full time, part time and apprentices) to progress to higher education. Wiltshire has, relative to other parts of the

9 country, low population numbers for BME. The College has set targets to attract more BME students into its portfolio of courses from Monitoring and evaluation arrangements The College has established an Access Agreement Monitoring Group. This group includes representation from the Equality Assurance Group to ensure that there is a good fit between the access and Equality and Diversity strategies. Data relating to actual spend and participation in access and outreach activities is considered to evaluate their success and value for money. Data relating to spend on bursaries and NSP awards is considered with, for example, data on retention. Focus groups with students on level 3 courses are held to determine the success of the progression bursaries in influencing behaviour. All students complete questionnaires with questions relating to their awareness of additional support measures and their view on the success of those measures. The College has used scaled questionnaires at all of its outreach events from 2014/15. Attendees at, for example the HE Convention, are asked to feedback how far they felt that the event had helped them become more aware of HE opportunities and how far they had moved because of their participation in their likelihood of considering applying. The Guidance service managers conduct focus groups with students about the support that they offer. Scaled questionnaires will be introduced in these focus groups again about how the students perception of HE has changed and how their likelihood of applying has changed. Through these processes the College collects objective evidence of how effective its outreach activities have been. The evidence is analysed by the Access Agreement Monitoring Group. To summarise, data relating to the following will be collected and analysed; Student background (household income, postcode, ethnic origin, qualifications on entry) and retention and achievement Spend on bursaries and the NSP programme and retention Level 3 student awareness of support HE students perception of the effectiveness of specific support for non traditional students (the extra tutorials) We would like to be able to prove that the measures we have in place attract and retain non traditional students. The data collected in 2013/14 was used to set benchmarks for measuring performance in subsequent years. The College submits its Annual monitoring Report to OFFA annually. The report is prepared by the Assistant Principal for Higher Education and is formally considered by the College HE strategy Group, the Senior Leadership Group and the Senior Management Team. This monitoring process will continue. In addition the monitoring return will be discussed with the Student Union annually. The Student Union has been, and will continue to be, consulted on changes to the College s Access Agreement.

10 6. Equality and diversity The College conducts Equality Impact Assessments on all proposed significant revisions to policy and procedure. The 2014 Access Agreement was impact assessed on 30 th March 2013 and no negative consequences on the College s responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 were identified. The changes to the Agreement for 2016 are considered minor therefore the existing impact assessment is deemed to be appropriate. 7. Provision of information to prospective students The College is committed to ensuring that prospective and current students have clear, accurate and easily accessible information on which to make choices. For 2015 this information is available on the College s website at and in hard copy. The College HE Admissions Team ensures that in dealing with all applicants through the selection process that information about fees and financial support is communicated clearly and consistently. The College will provide timely and accurate information to HEFCE, UCAS and the Student Loan Company and any successor bodies. 8. Consulting with students The draft Access Agreement has been discussed at two campus Student Union meetings in March HE and level 3 students were present in both meetings. The feedback was positive. The students liked the balance between access activities and financial support. The level 3 students felt that the progression bursaries may make some of their peers consider higher education more favourably as an option.

11 Document Information Document title Wiltshire College Access Agreement 2016 Version 1.0 Status Approved First Issued April Review date April Review date April 2015 EDI assessed March 2013 Maintained by HE Strategy Group

12 Table 7 - Targets and milestones Institution name: Wiltshire College Institution UKPRN: Table 7a - Statistical targets and milestones relating to your applicants, entrants or student body Reference number Please select target type from the drop-down menu Description (500 characters maximum) Is this a collaborative target? Baseline year Baseline data Yearly milestones (numeric where possible, however you may use text) Commentary on your milestones/targets or textual description where numerical description is not appropriate (500 characters maximum) T16a_01 T16a_02 T16a_03 T16a_04 Other statistic - Other (please give details in the next column) Other statistic - Other (please give details in the next column) Other statistic - Other (please give details in the next column) Other statistic - Other (please give details in the next column) To increase internal progression from Wiltshire College fuill time (level 3) to Higher Education To increase internal progression from Wiltshire College (full time and part time) level 3 to Wiltshire College Higher Education To increase progression from Wiltshire College work based learning level 3 apprentices to Higher Education To increase progression from Wiltshire College work based learning level 3 apprentices to Wiltshire College Higher Education T16a_05 Other statistic - Other (please give details in the next column) To increase BME representation on College HE courses No No No No No Other (please give details in Description column) Other (please give details in Description column) Other (please give details in Description column) Other (please give details in Description column) 33.3% 34% 35% 36% 37% 37% 2.8% 5% 5.5% 5.5% 6% 6% 8 students 20 students 20 students 20 students 22 students 22 students 0 students 8 students 10 students 10 students 10 students 10 students 4% BME students 5% 6% 7% 7% 8% Base year is 2010/11 against which we have been monitoring Base year is 2010/11 against which we have been monitoring Base year is 2010/11 against which we have been monitoring Base year is 2010/11 against which we have been monitoring New target for 2015/16. Context is a county statistic of just over 1% BME population. Notes Alongside applicant and entrant targets, we encourage you to provide targets around outreach and student success work (including collaborative work where appropriate) or other initiatives to illustrate your progress towards increasing access, student success and progression. These should be measurable outcomes based targets and should focus on the number of beneficiaries reached by a particular activity/programme or the number of schools worked with, and what the outcomes were, rather than simply recording the nature/number of activities. Table 7b - Other milestones and targets. Reference Number Please select target type from the drop-down menu Description (500 characters maximum) Is this a collaborative target? Baseline year Baseline data Yearly milestones (numeric where possible, however you may use text) Commentary on your milestones/targets or textual description where numerical description is not appropriate (500 characters maximum) Optional commentary on milestones. This box is character-limited to 1000 characters; however, we are happy for you to upload additional supporting information as a separate Word/pdf document.