1.4 We propose that the Access Agreement be valid for the intakes of students in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

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1 THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE THE ACCESS AGREEMENT, 2006 TO Preamble 1.1 From October 2006 the LSE proposes to charge Home/EU undergraduates an annual fee of 3000 for all programmes, wth the transtonal arrangements as set out n the Hgher Educaton Act 2004 and n subsequent documents. 1.2 In draftng ths Access Agreement, the LSE has consulted wdely wthn the School s academc and student communty, and a broad consensus has now been reached. We have agreed to spend on student support one thrd of the addtonal ncome that varable fees generate. Student support s taken to refer to all the elements of ths Access Agreement, specfcally our proposed bursary scheme, our other programmes of fnancal support, and our Wdenng Partcpaton actvtes. 1.3 It should be emphassed that our plans are based on the premse that the ncome accrung from the new varable fees wll ndeed reman addtonal durng the perod of the Agreement, and that Government ncome from other sources wll not be reduced. Any such reducton would necessarly threaten these plans and result n a proposal for a new Agreement. 1.4 We propose that the Access Agreement be vald for the ntakes of students n 2006, 2007 and Fnancal support 2.1 Objectves: The School s overwhelmng objectve when desgnng ts new package of fnancal support was to mantan and, f possble, to encourage an ncrease n, the number of applcatons from good canddates from poorer backgrounds. In a very drect sense, t s a package desgned to ncrease access. We were conscous that, although the new natonal arrangements lft the mmedate fnancal burdens on students, they may, e.g. va debt averson, dssuade some from applyng. We therefore wshed, as far as possble, to offset any debt averson, or other fnancal nhbtons, by makng as generous a provson as was practcal. 2.2 The School, therefore, proposes a package of fnancal support made up of two separate but closely related elements: an automatc ncome-related Bursary Scheme, and addtonal non-bursary fnancal support. 3 The Bursary Scheme 3.1 The proposed Bursary Scheme s by far the most mportant component of ths draft Access Agreement, absorbng roughly a quarter of the expected ncrease n ncome from varable fees. Bursares wll be offered automatcally to all students who qualfy for full or partal mantenance grant on the bass of ndvdualsed nformaton on them receved from the Student Loans Company. 3.2 The bursares wll be provded on a sldng scale, and those n greatest need wll attract the largest grants. 3.3 An mportant consderaton s that the maxmum bursary should, f possble, reflect the estmated 'gap' between the lvng costs assocated wth unversty attendance n London and the amount of support avalable to students from the Government. Gven the somewhat mperfect nformaton avalable to us, we expect to offer a maxmum bursary of 2,500 a year to those who have the lowest resdual ncome. Ths would taper to just under 1,700 for those wth resdual ncomes of 21,460, and to zero where the ncome s 33,533 (see the appendx for a more detaled llustraton of how the scheme s proposed to work).

2 4 Other Forms of Fnancal Support 4.1 The automatc Bursary Scheme would not meet all legtmate calls for fnancal support. We propose four addtonal schemes, the frst three of whch would be drected at the specal needs of poorer and dsabled students. Tentatve budgets are gven n Table 1 n secton 5. A pre-entry Dscretonary Support Scheme. Ths would enable prospectve students to apply for addtonal support to meet exceptonal needs once they had been told of ther automatc enttlement. A sgnfcant expanson of the n-course hardshp fund. Accommodaton Awards for undergraduates who lve at home but whose domestc envronment s ll-suted to study purposes and whose academc performance could be enhanced by beng offered addtonal fnancal support to contrbute to the costs of lvng away from home. 4.2 The fourth scheme s an extenson of our recently and successfully ploted Job Shop, whch provdes nformaton to students on part-tme employment opportuntes. The varable fee ncome would allow us to put ths scheme on a more permanent and substantal bass. It would be open to all students, regardless of crcumstances, but would be of specal value to poorer students so we propose that t be part of the Access Agreement. It s concerned prmarly wth student retenton, though t also has the objectve of preparng students for later employment. Although drected at regstered students t may also encourage applcants to choose LSE, and t therefore also has a relatonshp to our outreach actvty. 5 Fnancal mplcatons 5.1 The data presently avalable to us (e.g. from the Student Loans Company) do not permt us to make truly relable estmates of the costs of the above schemes, so estmates have to reman tentatve untl the data become clearer. Also, gaugng the demand for dscretonary fnancal support n the new crcumstances s very dffcult. Because of ths, we need to buld nto our plans a degree of fnancal flexblty to permt transfer of resources between the varous actvtes lsted above. But Table 1 gves order-of-magntude estmates that seem reasonable at present: 6 Dssemnaton of nformaton Table 1 planned expendture on fnancal support K 1 Automatc bursares Dscretonary pre-entry scheme 35 3 Addtonal n-course hardshp 25 4 Accommodaton awards 20 Total 1106 Note: These numbers rest on the total addtonal ncome whch the School can expect from varable fees once the system s mature (n ); we put ths at about 4.2m n current prces. 6.1 LSE wll publsh the outlne of the bursary scheme n the undergraduate prospectus for 2006 entry. Detals of the scheme, ncludng the target audences, how t wll operate and examples of how much ad wll be awarded, wll be communcated to 6 th form cohorts throughout the UK, va a leaflet and coverng letter, n March/Aprl The leaflet wll also be dstrbuted at UCAS fars, careers evenngs and wll be nserted nto all undergraduate prospectuses whch are dstrbuted after the approval of the Access Agreement. Furthermore, detals wll be publcsed on the LSE webste. For 2007 onwards, more detaled nformaton wll be ncluded n the prospectus.

3 7 Wdenng Partcpaton Actvtes 7.1 As was noted above, the School expects ts fnancal support proposals to be a powerful weapon n mantanng and mprovng access for poorer students. In addton, however, we are proposng to put our other outreach actvtes on a much more secure bass. 7.2 Up to now, the School has not felt able to support ts Wdenng Partcpaton actvtes from ts own core resources. Rather, t has tred, wth consderable success, to secure fundng for access ntatves from external donors, as well as takng full advantage of the relevant HEFCE money. Ths has meant that the scale of our WP actvtes has vared from year to year, reflectng our success n attractng external fundng. We wll, of course, contnue to approach external donors actvely to support WP actvtes, and hope that HEFCE money contnues to be avalable. But, for the frst tme, the varable fee ncome allows us to make a fnancal commtment n ths area from our own resources. What we propose here, therefore, s to guarantee fundng for WP actvtes of 200,000 a year (by 2008, the end of the transton perod). We hope to rase enough from external sources to operate on a larger scale than ths, so 200k s a mnmum spend. One clear advantage from ths underwrtng s that we are now able to offer our employees n ths area a much more secure future. 7.3 Objectves: Our WP actvtes wll explctly target varous groups normally thought to be underrepresented n the unversty sector (e.g. poorer students, those from state schools, those from certan ethnc groups, those from famles wth lttle or no hstory n HE, etc). We have two man objectves; The frst s to ncrease the number of people who satsfy the above crtera to apply to study at the LSE; we would also hope that an ncrease n the number of applcants wll also result n an ncrease n the number of regstratons. The second s to help people from the above groups to rase ther aspratons to attend unversty, and to attend unverstes prevously thought beyond ther expectatons. 7.4 Our detaled WP proposals buld on our consderable experence n ths area and are a mxture of ether new or expanded schemes. A bref descrpton of ten schemes s as follows: v LSE Choce (new scheme). Ths s planned to be our man recrutment scheme to attract students from under-represented and non-tradtonal backgrounds n the Greater London area. It wll buld on the experence of the hghly successful LSE Saturday Schools but wll be more forthrght n ts am to recrut to LSE and other excellent nsttutons. The scheme s desgned to ntroduce the students to lfe n such unverstes, nurture ther nterest n ther chosen subject, rase attanment, and gude the student through the applcaton process. There wll be preferental access to the scheme to students from state schools who have no hstory of HE n ther famly. It wll be avalable for up to 150 year 12 and 13 students from the Greater London regon. Access LSE (new scheme). Ths s desgned to encourage more students on Access programmes to apply to LSE. Work s currently beng done to dentfy a number of sutable Access courses wth whch the School could work. Access LSE wll provde sessons on subject choces and applcaton procedures, whch wll be jontly developed, based at both the School and n the partcpatng colleges. It s expected that Access LSE wll be open to Access students from 10 colleges n London and the South East. Student Shadowng (expanded scheme). Year 12 students who are consderng applyng to LSE are nvted to spend ether a mornng or an afternoon accompanyng an LSE student to get a taste of LSE student lfe. The sesson ncludes a lecture, a campus tour and a one-to-one chat wth an LSE student. The shadowng sessons take place from November to March each year and are hosted by Student Ambassadors. Student shadowng wll be open to 100 year 12 and 13 students from around the UK. HEFCE/ESF Summer School (exstng scheme). The School wll contnue to run ts HEFCE/ESF-funded Summer School for Year 10 and 11 students, selected by Amhgher, f fundng contnues to be made avalable for such a venture. Students take one of fve ndvdual courses Busness and Fnance, Government and Poltcs, Identty, Law and Socety, Mathematcs - and also partcpate n cross-course actvty sessons that focus on team buldng and study sklls. The Summer School wll be open to 150 Year 11 and 80 Year 10 students from the London regon.

4 v v v v x x Natonal Mentorng Scheme. Ths new natonal HEFCE-funded mentorng scheme gves students a role model to encourage them to concentrate on ther studes and ultmately contnue ther educaton to Post-16 and, by assocaton, Post-18. LSE students commt 12 weeks per year to the scheme plus an ntensve tranng and selecton process. Mentorng s open to 180 Year 10 and 11 students from under-performng state schools n Tower Hamlets and Westmnster. ACE Days (expanded scheme). ACE Days are an establshed provson by unverstes to encourage Year 9 students to reman n educaton to Post-16 and beyond. The School has successfully delvered ACE Days for the past two years and wshes to expand the provson to 20 schools. ACE Days wll be concentrated n three one-week blocks n Aprl and June each year. Schools can book up to 30 students for a mornng or afternoon sesson whch offers a seres of nteractve sessons led by LSE students under gudance and supervson from the SRO. ACE Days would be open to 300 student n Year 9 and 10 n the Greater London regon. School vsts (expanded scheme). The School wshes to ncrease the number of vsts to schools. These sessons are not necessarly drectly recrutng for LSE, although some sessons wll focus on nformaton about the School. Sessons wll nclude student fnance and budgetng, mock ntervews, applyng to unversty, etc. School vsts wll be made to 30 under-performng schools around the UK. Prmary/transton sessons (New scheme). The School wshes to develop a scheme for Year 6 pupls whch would dove-tal wth the Movng On element of ther Ctzenshp studes. Groups of Year 6 pupls would vst the School and take part n sessons to complement the concept of movng on. Ths experencng of HE, at an early stage of ther school lves, would be desgned to be relaxed and fun, as well as provdng a practcal example of how older students have moved on n ther own lves. The transton sessons would be open to 5 schools ntally. Access and admssons offcers (new development). LSE proposes to employ more Access and Admssons Offcers, to make offer decsons on undergraduate applcatons, thus rasng the lkelhood that admsson decsons across programmes are more transparent and consstent. Furthermore, they wll spend some of ther tme workng wth schools and colleges n order to ncrease the number of applcatons we attract from under-represented groups. Ths work wll be carred out n conjuncton wth the dedcated WP team. LSE Mentorng (new development). We wsh to mprove the support we are able to gve to our students, especally to those from under-represented groups, both durng the transton phase from school and later on n ther unversty career. Ths s partly for objectve reasons and partly so that we can be seen to be dong ths, and thereby ensure that prospectve students from the wdenng access cohort wll know that ther needs wll be addressed once they come here. It s for ths reason, that LSE proposes to ntroduce a mentorng scheme, whereby exstng students wll act as mentors for new students. 8 Job Shop 8.1 We expect to spend about p a on the job shop. 9 Access Agreement Mlestones/Benchmarkng 9.1 Both our fnancal support proposals and our WP actvtes share the objectve of ncreasng the number of applcatons from certan groups, or, at least, to mantan the number of such applcatons at a tme when competton for them s probably gong to become more severe. 9.2 As an example, we have the followng pattern of applcatons from state school applcants over the past three years: Table 2 - applcatons for UG admsson by school/college type Fee-payng Non fee-payng Notes: table excludes unknowns and unclassfables; talcsed fgures are percentages.

5 9.3 As for other target groups, we hope that the combned ncentves of the bursary scheme and the wdenng partcpaton ntatves wll ncrease the number of excellent applcants from state schools. We am to ncrease applcatons from state schools by fve percentage ponts by It s worth underlnng, however, that we wll not ncrease the ntake of students from such groups unless the applcants meet our hghly compettve entry crtera. 9.4 As far as quanttatve mlestones to ndcate success or falure for other under-represented groups among applcants are concerned, we look to concentratng on socal class and neghbourhood. For socal class we propose to take the fgures for UK applcants for entry n 2005 as the baselne and to ncrease the numbers from these target groups by the same proporton as for state schools. We thnk ths s feasble because most of our wdenng partcpaton actvty s n London. The neghbourhood factor s less easy because we have no fgures for applcants, only for students. We are nvestgatng how to proceed, and f we are able to do so we shall apply the same proporton there too. In both cases we shall formally let you have the 2005 baselne and the targets when the data s avalable. We wll also contnue to montor the future structure of our student body (proportons of those from state school, or from lower soco-economc groups, etc) on an annual bass to see whether there are sgns of success. 9.5 For our WP actvtes we have a target fgure of pupls or schools to be reached for each of the 10 schemes detaled above. In , we am to reach over 700 students plus student groups n a further 30+ schools. We plan to ncrease these numbers to 1000 and 50 by We cannot make a sensble comparson wth our current WP schemes as some of the proposed schemes are completely new. 9.6 LSE plans to run three WP schemes whch focus on encouragng applcatons to LSE or other Russell Group/94 Group type nsttutons, rather than merely rasng general aspratons. It s possble, therefore, to set mlestones for the number of applcatons we hope to generate from these schemes: LSE CHOICE: of the 150 students on the scheme, we antcpate that students wll apply to Russell Group nsttutons, wth of these applcatons beng made to LSE Access LSE: of the 10 Colleges targeted va ths scheme, we antcpate that Access students wll apply to LSE Student Shadowng: numbers takng part n student shadowng vary from year to year. However, we antcpate that 80-90% of those students takng part each year would make an applcaton to LSE. 9.7 As the remanng Wdenng Partcpaton schemes are aspraton-rasng rather than recrutmentfocused, t s consderably more dffcult to set applcaton mlestones to these actvtes. The descrptons of the schemes (under 7.4) assgn reach mlestones to the actvtes. 9.8 Data on the demographc composton and on the ntentons of all partcpants on our WP actvtes wll be collected, va regstraton forms and feedback questonnares. Partcpants wll be surveyed at the begnnng of the schemes, to determne ther ntentons, and at the end of the schemes, to determne the outcomes and ther Unversty choces. The data, when processed, wll be presented to the Wdenng Partcpaton Steerng Group (a sub-group of Councl) for dscusson on progress towards objectves. The Student Affars Commttee (a Commttee of Academc Board) wll consder progress towards LSE's objectves to ncrease applcatons from state school students, students from lower soco-economc groups and from low partcpaton neghbourhoods, and wll montor the structure of the student body. 3 March 2005

6 Appendx Proposed bursary scheme Income Band Student Bursary Maxmum numbers Amount Total Cost < ,025,933 6, , , , , , Resdual ncome "Gap" Bursary