King s College London Access Agreement with the Office for Fair Access

Transcription

1 King s College London Access Agreement with the Office for Fair Access Page 1

2 CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Investment and expenditure 3. Assessment of access and retention record 4. Balance of expenditure and student support 5. Key outreach themes 6. Access activities 7. Fair admissions 8. Retention and success measures 9. Employability 10. Benchmarks and milestones 11. Monitoring and evaluation arrangements 12. Provision of information to prospective students 13. Equality and diversity Page 2

3 1. Introduction King s College London is a research-led university based in the heart of London. King's has more than 25,000 students (of whom more than 15,000 are undergraduate students) from nearly 140 countries. The King s College London Investing in strength: strategic review established widening participation as one of eight strategic priorities for the institution in In order to achieve this, the institution has significantly increased resources for widening participation including doubling the size of the central team under the guidance of the Widening Participation Strategy Group. Furthermore, in the past year the College has established a dedicated team for UK schools and colleges liaison. The newly formed schools and colleges liaison department have committed to delivering 350 school interactions during and will deliver high-quality and bespoke information, advice and guidance sessions. The College has more than double the number of higher education fairs that it is attending. 2. Investment and expenditure 2.1 Fee levels in King s College London proposes to charge 9,000 per year home/eu fees for all of its undergraduate and postgraduate ITT programmes from 2014 with the exception of the College s Foundation Degree in Education Studies which will charge 4,500. Fees may be subject to annual review in line with inflationary increases. The College is not proposing to charge part-time students more than 4,501 in a single academic year. The College will reinvest 30% of its additional fee income towards its widening participation, fair access and retention responsibilities. 3. Assessment of access and retention record 3.1 In the reporting cycle we exceeded our milestone for enrolment of full-time first-degree entrants on HEFCE-funded programmes from NS-SEC 4-7 (25% in relation to a milestone of 19%). We also delivered our target for students from low participation neighbourhoods (4%). The College has established a challenging milestone for state school intake (76.3% by ) and has taken action to address this issue as detailed in Section 6. The institution has resourced a new UK Schools Liaison team to deliver high quality advice and guidance to schools across the country. The College also acknowledges that its portfolio of widening participation activities should provide more activities for pre-16 students and our plans are detailed in Section The annual report of the Equality and Diversity Unit in , accounting for all students, shows that Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students made up 37.2% of the total student population and this is one of the higher proportions amongst the College s Russell Group peers. Furthermore, 52.21% of King s students were aged 21 or over and disability disclosure reached 6.8%. The College recognises that mature learners may require additional support in accessing higher education and will provide open evenings for this group in the coming years as detailed in Section The College s Widening Participation Department targets activities across a range of projects in a number of ways including higher education participation data (Polar3), contextualised school performance and whether the student would be the first in their family to access university study. All schemes give priority places to care-leavers. We have also invested in a socio-geo-demographic profiling tool which will allow the College to respond to the unique challenges of ward level data in London and improve targeting of activity, particularly in relation to pre-16 work. All projects have clear evaluation 1 Page 3

4 plans to enable the institution to learn what works. For example, we have introduced three summer schools in 2013 as a result of clear indications of efficacy in our pilot activities of Overall, retention and progression of students from widening participation backgrounds appears good at King s College London. Measures to further scrutinize and improve retention at the College are described in Section 8. The annual report of the Equality and Diversity Unit in also examined academic attainment trajectories for under-represented groups and as a result a new Education and Support Strategy has been developed. The HESA Destinations of Higher Education Leavers shows King s has high employability levels with 90.8% of our cohort of students in a graduate level job six months after graduating. Further information regarding the activities we are undertaking to improve the employability of our students is available in Section 8. The College s Widening Participation Strategy Group has also developed a lifecycle approach as detailed in Section 5.1 to ensure the needs of students from widening participation backgrounds are considered throughout their academic career and beyond. 4. Balance of expenditure We expect the balance of expenditure from additional fee income to be as follows: Page 4

5 4.1 Additional Fee Income Summary King's mybursary King's myscholarship National Scholarship Programme (NSP) King's Stem Enterprise Scholarship King's Living Bursary Access to Professions Award King's Student Fund 2,560,000 1,644, , ,000 72, , ,000 1,107,000 1,107,000 1,107,000 1,107, , , , , , , ,000 2,900,000 4,400,000 4,900,000 5,000,000 5,000, , , , , , , , , , , , ,000 Internships , , ,000 Outreach, Partnerships, Retention & Employability (incl. PGCE/ESDP Bursaries) Total Expenditure Total Expenditure as % of additional fee income 1,515,000 1,128,000 1,256,000 1,233,000 1,533,000 1,533,000 6,227, ,300,000 9,300,000 27% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 4.2 National Scholarship Programme The College will participate in the National Scholarship Programme (NSP) in with matched funding of 3,000 per allocated student. The HEFCE NSP allocation to King s College London for is 380 scholarships at 3,000 each. In terms of matched funding, the commitment from King s is 1.107m, with the total spend on the scheme reaching 2.247m against 661 students. Page 5

6 The total offering will therefore stand at 661 NSPs at 3,400 each. Each scholarship will comprise a 1,000 cash bursary (capped by HEFCE) and a 2,400 waiver to be offset against tuition fees or College accommodation. The NSP is set to run until at least , and the College is committed to participating in the programme for the duration of the current Education (Student Support) Regulations. The criteria listed below relate to eligibility for the NSP, but meeting these criteria alone will not automatically select a student as a successful recipient for the NSP, as these are limited in number to 696 in , and additional selection criteria will, of necessity, be applied. In order to be eligible to apply for the King s NSP, students must: have an assessed household income of 25,000 or less; be in receipt of a maximum maintenance grant ( 3,387); be undertaking their first undergraduate degree programme; have firmly accepted an offer of a place at King s; be an English-domiciled home undergraduate student; not be directly continuing from one programme to another (for example from foundation degree or HND on to the final year of an honours degree, or transferring from another HEI or course); not be in receipt of any other fee waiver for tuition fees; not be NHS-funded in year one; 4.3 Access to Professions Scholarship The Access to Professions (ACP) will offer first year financial support of 9,000 to students who: have firmly accepted an offer of a place at King s on an eligible programme (EMDP); are undertaking their first undergraduate degree programme; have been means tested and are in receipt of a maintenance grant; priority will be given to students from partnership schools and colleges; A total of 40 Access to Professions awards will be available each year by These will take the form of cash bursary support, some or all of which can be used towards tuition/halls fees should students wish to do so. Award of these will be subject to the availability of suitably qualified applicants. 4.4 Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme (ESDP) Bursary The Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme is based on the standard five-year Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) programme, but students receive additional support and tutorials throughout their studies. Enhanced Support Dentistry students follow the same curriculum as all other dental students and undergo the same rigorous assessments. Students will also receive financial support in the form of a 9,000 cash bursary paid across the first three years of their programme. To be eligible, students must be: a home, first degree student; in receipt of means-tested statutory maintenance grant; from a partnership school or college. It is anticipated that there will be 10 new awards per year, representing an annual investment of 80,000 by Page 6

7 4.5 King s Teacher Advocate Bursary From 2013, the College will award up to five new bursaries of 2,000 to PGCE students who have chosen to complete their NQT year in one of just over a hundred state schools and colleges in the Greater London area. The College has identified these schools as having a large number of the mostable, least likely students. The scheme prioritises support for those teachers joining schools where engagement with King s widening participation activities has been lowest. These PGCE students become King s Teacher Advocates and will act as ambassadors for the College and its Widening Participation programmes in future years. These bursaries will be disbursed to students in instalments, after they have graduated, and will be dependent upon the student meeting ongoing terms and conditions of the award i.e. WP/outreach work. As the recipients will no longer be current registered students at the time of disbursement, the 10,000 will be reported to OFFA as WP/Outreach costs. 4.6 STEM Enterprise Scholarship The College wishes to support the UK s knowledge economy agenda by encouraging access to STEM subject undergraduate study through a STEM Enterprise Scholarship. To this end, we have devised a scheme whereby up to 60 students a year meeting the criteria below will be eligible for a King s STEM Enterprise scholarship. STEM Enterprise Scholarships will comprise an annual 5,000 cash bursary, totalling 15,000 of support across a maximum of 3 years. Students will have the option to receive this as a cash bursary or to offset some/all of the award against tuition/halls fees, or a combination of these options, if they so wish. Students must: be studying a STEM subject (science, technology, engineering and maths); have an assessed household income of 25,000 pa or less; in receipt of the maximum maintenance grant ( 3,387); be undertaking their first undergraduate degree programme; have firmly accepted an offer of a place at King s on an eligible programme; not be NHS-funded in years 1-3 of their programme; priority will be given to students from partnership schools and colleges. 4.7 King s Student Fund The King s Student Fund will continue to run in to support continued high levels of retention. The College recognises that a wide spectrum of financial concerns and pressures face students throughout the entirety of their studies. For many students, remaining on track to completion can only be achieved with extra financial assistance with the costs of living and the costs of study. The College is particularly concerned with those students who are currently defined as middle income household bracket, as these are the cohorts who are often squeezed by minimal statutory support and little or no discretionary support, and whose households are not always able to assist students financially with their living costs. The College is additionally concerned that mature students with dependent children, students with extra disability-related costs, care leavers and those studying part-time are often most vulnerable to financial pressures and in need of extra help. This is of particular concern going forward as the future availability of supplementary statutory grants for eligible students (e.g. childcare grants) is not assured. The King s Student Fund is intended as a source of extra financial assistance for students in these categories. Whilst HEFCE allocates an Access to Learning Fund to HEIs, and has signalled that this will still exist after 2012, the assessment criteria are stringent and the fund is rarely able to assist students to the extent Page 7

8 of their need, as it faces significant budgetary cuts year on year. To this end, the College intends to provide additional hardship funds (the King s Student Fund) that will assist those students in financial need who are unable to access additional help from other sources. The fund will initially be set up at 100,000 per annum from This fund will be open to all new undergraduate home students starting their programme in 2012 or later. Applications will be means tested and awards will range from 100-3,000 and can be used to offset College expenses or contribute to the costs of study, travel and living. 4.8 King s Living Bursary The King s Living Bursary continues to play an important part in student retention. It has allowed students to reduce their dependence on expensive alternative sources of funds such as credit cards, private bank loans and overdrafts as well as allowing them to commit themselves more fully to their studies, by reducing part-time work hours, and improving both completion and achievement levels. For these reasons, the College is keen to continue to offer a supplemental bursary scheme for 2014 onwards. Students will be able to offset their bursaries against accommodation or tuition fees, allowing them to reduce student loan borrowing, should they so choose. The King s Living Bursary for undergraduate and ITT students is based on assessed household income and eligibility for maintenance grant, which students must be in receipt of, in order to qualify for a bursary. The Bursary amounts have been increased, and the new levels will apply to all students starting in 2012 or later under the new fee regulations as follows: Household Income Maintenance Grant King s Living Bursary 0-25,000 3,387 1,500 25,001-42, ,386 1,000 Further information regarding financial support and means testing assumptions is available on Page Widening participation themes and activity King s widening participation work is underpinned by the following key themes: A lifecycle approach Access to the professions Collaboration and partnership Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Students as partners in widening participation Target groups We have chosen to detail activity in each area to demonstrate the progressive and sustained approach within these themes. Our flagship widening participation programmes, K+ and K-Link are detailed separately as they cut across each of the six themes. King s College London will also seek to develop a physical home for widening participation activities in the heart of our university. A suite of five rooms in Somerset House is currently under consideration for development. The Learning Centre will provide a locus for outreach activities at the university. Having carefully considered the range of activities available King s College London will review and improve the range of pre-16 outreach activities on offer to ensure our learner progression framework is strengthened in this area. Page 8

9 5.1 A lifecycle approach In order to widen participation effectively, King s College London has adopted a long-term, learnerfocused framework that addresses the needs of non-traditional students throughout their journey into university and beyond. Stage 1 Pre-16 outreach Stage 2 Post-16 outreach Stage 3 Fair admissions Stage 4 Positive student experience Stage 5 Successful graduates We will deliver aspiration-raising activities for local students that encourage higher education participation. King s outreach programmes will support informed choice-making through impartial guidance. We will deliver targeted outreach work with students in London and beyond to improve access to King s College London and other universities. Activities will seek to enhance attainment and preparedness for higher study. We will ensure that King s College s recruitment, selection and admissions processes are fair, transparent and identify the talent and potential of students from all backgrounds. We will provide excellent student and education support services that seek to address the oncourse needs of students from widening participation backgrounds. We will deliver tailored support to improve the employability and career outcomes of students from widening participation backgrounds. 5.2 Our flagship programme: the K+ scheme The new K+ scheme was fully launched in 2012 after a successful pilot in The scheme seeks out and supports the brightest young people in London and greater London, regardless of background, to achieve their full potential and access education at the best universities in the city and beyond. The ethos of K+ is Discover Yourself, Distinguish Yourself and the programme consists of a structured range of activities and events, delivered over two whole academic years. The programme has four strands that seek to build academic resilience, personal confidence and cultural capital whilst allowing the students to develop relationships with positive role models. The programme currently has 650 students enrolled and students join the scheme early in Year 12 (age 16). Each student is assigned a current King s student as an e-mentor for the duration of the programme. Students can choose from a range of academic taster sessions, master classes and summer school programmes that seek to both raise attainment and encourage the students to explore subjects beyond their current syllabus. K+ culture strand is based upon the idea of London as our classroom and makes use of the numerous cultural institutions in and around King s College London. K+ students have recently participated in activities with Tate Modern, The Courtauld Institute and the Thames Explorer Trust. Such activities build the confidence and cultural capital of the young people participating. KCLSU societies provide activities for the K+ scheme and other widening participation activities. Recently, students on our programmes have attended student opera in Brixton and participated in Afro-Caribbean Society events and festivals such as Diwali. The K+ programme also engages with employability issues prior to entrance. We have a series of activities and work in close conjunction with the commercialisation institute of the College to offer students the opportunity to participate in entrepreneurial workshops and a Lion s Den 2 competition. The K+ students have the 2 Page 9

10 opportunity to attend a week-long non-residential summer school or to participate in the Mission Discovery Space School. Summer school programmes have been introduced as a result of the research into the impact of AimHigher summer schools. Students participating in the K+ scheme are given special consideration in the King s admissions process. A statement regarding this admissions consideration is detailed on the King s College London Widening Participation website. In the current admissions cycle, 31% of applicants from the pilot K+ scheme have obtained offers from King s College London and others continue to receive offers. Further evaluation of the scheme is detailed in Section Supporting subject knowledge in schools: K-Link The 'K-Link' scheme creates sustainable relationships between targeted London schools or colleges and academic departments at King's. The scheme enables sharing of understanding about challenges in raising aspirations and attainment in a particular subject and encourages both sides to work together, with the support and expertise of the central widening participation department, to build solutions. All schools in the scheme are offered a visit from a King's academic to discuss appropriate activities for their pupils, two academic-led sessions for pupils in school or at King's, attendance at school careers or higher education events and an invitation and support to take part in all relevant existing programmes offered by the widening participation and schools liaison teams at the College. Currently, three schools are paired under the scheme and we will seek to double this number by the end of the academic year. 5.4 Collaboration and partnership For many years King s College London has invested in partnerships with key organisations working to improve higher education participation. Our key partners for are detailed below: Strategic partner Activities Realising Opportunities A national collaborative Partnership of 12 research-intensive universities delivering a compact scheme for Year 12 students. The Sutton Trust Summer school for 100 students from across the country delivering four subject strands. Into University Aspiration-raising work with 240 students from 8 primary schools at the Lambeth centre and including visits to King s. Harris Federation of Schools Delivery of science-focused activities and supporting information, advice and guidance in Harris academies. Page 10

11 The Helena Kennedy Foundation Three scholarship awards for Helena Kennedy Foundation students. Teach First Financial support and continuing professional development opportunities for King s graduates joining the scheme. London Citizens Development of reading clubs with pre-11 students on local social housing estates. UNITE Up to five accommodation and living bursaries for care leavers. St Paul s Way Trust King s ex-officio membership of trustee board and curriculum support. In we will seek to engage a key new partner, The Brilliant Club, which has worked closely with King s College London Graduate School to develop the Researcher Programme. Currently 49% (125) of PhD students participating in this scheme are from King s students. The scheme places researchers in low-participation schools and colleges and we will seek to build upon this strong basis for partnership. 5.5 Realising Opportunities King s College London is a member of Realising Opportunities (RO), a national collaborative Partnership of 12 research-intensive universities working together to promote fair access and social mobility of students from under-represented groups. The Partnership was awarded the Times Higher Education, Widening Participation Initiative of the year 2011 and in October 2012 featured as an example of good practice in Alan Milburn s report University Challenge: How Higher Education Can Advance Social Mobility. The Realising Opportunities programme provides support for students through interventions designed to raise aspirations and enable them to demonstrate their potential for success at a research-intensive university. These interventions are offered both at their local participating university, and nationally. The programme includes a National Student Conference and each student is provided with ongoing support and encouragement by a student e-mentor who is an undergraduate student from one of the 12 universities. Successful completion of RO, which includes a robust academic element, will result in additional consideration given to applications through UCAS from all 12 universities. Realising Opportunities has a robust evaluation framework which incorporates contextual data, student aspirations and the tracking of students through the UCAS process. In 2013 an academic research team will be appointed to provide an overarching Academic Study for RO. For the first time the Partnership has set a joint target with regard to progression to research intensive universities, detailed in Section Sutton Trust Summer Schools The Sutton Trust Summer Schools are free, residential, subject-specific courses, usually a week in duration, which provide bright students from non-privileged homes a taste of life at a leading university. The aim is to demystify elite universities and to equip students most of whom will be the first in their Page 11

12 families to go on to higher education with the knowledge and insight to make high-quality applications to prestigious universities. King s College London will hold its inaugural Sutton Trust Summer School in August 2013 with 100 students from across the country. Subject to review and evaluation of efficacy the College hopes to repeat the activity in Routes into Languages King s is a member of the Routes into Languages consortium of London universities. The College will continue to offer activities, such as Languages and Careers Days for students in Key Stage 4 and 5, which improve participation in the study of languages. Currently, four King s students act as language ambassadors and this will be further supported in the coming years. 5.8 Access to the professions As the largest provider of healthcare education in Europe, the College has a responsibility to improve access to the professions in this area and beyond. 5.9 Extended and enhanced degree programmes Two programme-based approaches have been developed at King s College London to enhance access to the professions for under-represented groups. Since 2001, King s College London has offered a six-year Extended Medical Degree Programme (EMDP). The ethos of the programme is to level the educational playing field ; it enables students with academic potential, who may not achieve the A-level grades required by conventional medical degree programmes, to study medicine. The EMDP is structured so that the first two years of a conventional medical degree are spread across three years, enabling students to receive extra academic and pastoral support in the yearly years of the course, to support a smooth transition from sixth form to university. The majority of EMDP students are the first in their family to attend university, and are from low-income families and around 90% of students are from black or minority ethnic backgrounds. In , we will seek to further embed the new Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme 3 launched in The ESDP is based on the standard fiveyear Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) programme, but students receive additional support and tutorials throughout their studies. Numbers on the programme are due to expand in coming years. We are reviewing the scope introduce other enhanced degree programmes at King s and Law or Pharmacy may be potential next steps Outreach for medicine and dentistry The Outreach for Medicine project works with over 500 eligible non-selective state schools across London, Kent & Medway, reaching around 5,000 students annually. Events for pre-16 students include one-day Medical Activity Days and Key Skills Workshops. Events for post-16 students include a Medicine in Action lecture series: a year-long programme of lectures given by King's research academics and clinicians introducing students to a range of disciplines, primarily within Medicine. Also available is Group Mentoring, a series of interactive evening workshop, and a weekly Journal Club. Evaluation of the sixth form OfM programme showed that around 85% of those who took part intended to apply to King s, with the majority interested in studying medicine. The OfM calendar culminates in Med-View: a four-day intensive programme specifically for widening-participation candidates within London studying in their first year of A-level, or an Access to Medicine course. 3 Page 12

13 5.11 King s Health Partners Widening Participation King s Health Partners is one of England s five Academic Health Sciences Centre. It brings together the university and three NHS Foundation Trusts. The King s Health Partners envisions itself as the leading AHSC in the UK in widening access to educational and training opportunities for prospective students in all health-related fields. In order to achieve this, the KHP have developed a widening participation group to bring together outreach practitioners across the university, hospitals and trusts. Planned events include an on campus expo to showcase various routes in healthcare careers Supporting access to teaching From 2013 the College will award up to five new bursaries of 2,000 to PGCE students who have chosen to complete their NQT year in one of just over a hundred state schools and colleges in the Greater London area. The College has identified these schools as having a large number of the mostable, least likely students. The scheme prioritises support for those teachers joining schools and colleges where engagement with King s widening participation activities has been lowest. These PGCE students become King s Teacher Advocates and will act as ambassadors for the College and its Widening Participation programmes in future years. Furthermore, having analysed numbers of King s graduates progressing to the TeachFirst programme the College has decided to encourage participation in this scheme by offering ten bursaries of 500 to students joining the scheme. This is in order to enable students to access the summer institute without experiencing financial hardship. In return the TeachFirst graduates will also become King s Teacher Advocates and are offered various professional development opportunities. In , we will build upon the success of our 2012 Teachers Conference and repeat the event. The 2012 Teachers Conference engaged 86 teachers of which 75% were from state schools and colleges. Another conference is already planned for November Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths STEM is a key theme across our widening participation endeavours and embedded in activities such as the Sutton Trust School. Furthermore, a number of King s academics are engaged in Interests and Recruitment in Science (IRIS), a collaborative research project addressing the challenge that few young people (women in particular) choose education and careers in science, technology and mathematics. We will utilise the outcomes of this research to refine our activity in The King s Factor The King s Factor is a mathematical initiative, offering a complementary experience to classroom study. The club is targeted at students taking A-Level who relish and enjoy mathematics. It gives Year 12 and Year 13 students the opportunity to tackle challenging maths problems which enrich and develop their mathematical thinking, as well as bringing them together with students and teachers from other schools and colleges who share an enthusiasm for mathematics King s College London Maths School The College is supporting the development of a specialist sixth-form mathematics school, 5 which is expected to open in September 2014, and will enjoy close links with our faculty. The school will recruit intensively among young people who currently do not have access to high-quality sixth-form Page 13

14 mathematics provision. Our intention is to help increase substantially the number of such young people who are well prepared, at age 18, to study maths and STEM subjects in high-ranked university departments. The draft admissions criteria for the school take explicit note of candidates prior school and its maths provision. In conjunction with this, the College is providing mathematics outreach activities for Key Stage 4 pupils from schools with very disadvantaged intakes. This will increase the number of pupils who are in a position to apply, and undertake the school curriculum successfully, but also provides substantive maths tutoring for a large group of pupils who wish to study maths at sixthform level, plus CPD for teachers in these schools. Our plans for the school include a major expansion of such outreach activity so that it can serve as a hub and source of longer-term support for KS4 and sixth-form mathematics provision across London Switch on to STEM In , King s College London will seek to deliver a programme of science sessions for select groups of Year 9 students who show promise in the STEM area. Schools will be able to book cohorts of 10 students on to the sessions and the day will also include introduction to higher education and campus experiences. At King s College London we recognise Year 9 as a critical juncture for KS4 qualification choices Students as partners in widening participation The College considers students as partners in widening participation. Over the past year we have cohosted debates and consultative events to assist in developing our approach to access and retention at the College. King s College Students Union outreach activities are overseen by a Widening Participation Co-ordinator whose role involves advising and supporting students in setting up and delivering projects in the local community. Current projects include Getting into Medicine sessions by the Bangladeshi Society, after-school and Saturday school activities provided by Team Up Society, and law mentoring delivered by the Pro-Bono Society. The Paediatrics Society is particularly active in running Teddy Bear Hospital. Most of the activity is focused on younger age groups. In we will continue to fund the role within the students union with an emphasis upon developing, monitoring and evaluating the outreach work undertaken by King s student 5.18 Work with target groups Whilst many of existing programmes such as K+ take into account indicators of target groups including BME and Disability the College recognizes the need to respond to particular groups by developing bespoke projects Dedicated pre-16 IAG In response to school and colleges requests we will seek to establish dedicated provision for younger year group information, advice and guidance in order to deliver sessions for students in Key Stage 3 and 4 and their parents & carers Care leavers In we will seek to fulfil our Buttle Trust UK action plan points. The College will also further support work co-ordinated by Highgate School to improve progression to higher education by care leavers called the University Access Programme for Looked After Children. Page 14

15 5.21 Mature students Considering the recent downturn in mature student applications to higher education, the College will develop a series of information and advice sessions to be held in the evenings and on Saturday mornings to give guidance with regards to entering higher education as a student over the age of 21. We will explore links with local further education institutions to enhance this new activity strand. 6. Fair admissions 6.1 In 2013 the College approved and published an updated fair admissions policy. 6 This policy is consistent with good admissions practice in higher education, as defined in the Quality Assurance Agency s Code of Practice and the Schwartz Recommendations for Good Practice, and complies with current legislation affecting the admission of students. 6.2 All applications are considered on their individual merits and treated in a fair and equal way, utilising a holistic approach to all information provided to the College. The College is committed both financially and philosophically to the recruitment of the students with the greatest academic ability and potential, irrespective of their social, cultural or economic background. 6.3 The College is establishing pilot contextualised admissions schemes in our most competitive courses to understand better GSCE attainment in relation to school performance. The Admissions Department is establishing which of the datasets available via UCAS are the best predictors of degree performance in order to ensure that the admissions process gives these datasets appropriate weighting. The institution is actively engaged with contextual data at a national level as the Director of Admissions is a member of the UCAS Contextual Data Group. 7. Retention and success measures 7.1 The College s retention rate is consistently high for the sector, at 93.1% in the most recently available dataset. The King s Teaching and Learning Strategy states that excellence should be available to those who can benefit from it, irrespective of their social and economic background, and that appropriate opportunities for learning should be available for all students, responsive to their diverse identities and needs. In the College will seek to further enhance strategies that improve retention and progression of under-represented groups. 7.2 K+ seeks to build academic confidence and resilience prior to entry. As the first cohort of K+ graduates enter the College, we will consider appropriate bridging arrangements that assist with academic transition and the settling in process. 7.3 The King s College personal tutor scheme continues to offer pastoral and academic support to students. New guidance has been developed and training that focuses on equality and diversity issues is underway under the auspices of the King s Learning Institute. 6 Page 15

16 7.4 Peer-to-peer mentoring has been highlighted as a powerful transition tool in the Department of History. The College will seek ways in which to extend this scheme across schools and departments, particularly where retention may be an issue of concern. 8. Employability 8.1 The King s Employability Strategy aims to develop an enhanced framework of opportunities for coand extra-curricula activities in relation to employability, with specific emphasis on work placements, study/work abroad and leadership education. Study abroad and internships opportunities are widely available both on-course and in vacations. From 2015 onwards we have established a 300,000 fund to open up study abroad and internship opportunities to widening participation students at King s College London. Students have the opportunity to carry out accredited internships as part of their degrees at the College and we will seek to ensure financial issues are not a barrier to participation in these options. Furthermore, the careers service does not approve or promote any unpaid vacation internships. 8.2 The King s Professional Skills Programme enables students to develop transferable skills that enhance their employability via a number of key seminars. Furthermore, the King s Experience provides opportunities for students to improve their employability by recognising activities student undertake alongside their formal studies. Students can also take participate in the joint KCLSU and King s Leadership Award programme. 8.3 King s College is also is part of The Careers Group, University of London; the largest Higher Education service in the country. Through the Careers Group we also have a special online diversity community called Reach 7. This community is designed for students who feel they face barriers to reaching their potential for any reason e.g. social background, disability, age, gender and sexual orientation. 8.4 The Widening Participation Department now works with over 300 student ambassadors and e- mentors. The experiential learning of our volunteers will be accredited via a King s London Award as part of our curriculum innovation agenda. 8.5 In the coming year, working closely with the on-course careers service, we will engage a student consultancy group to carry out a piece of work looking at engagement with on-course careers provision by students from widening participation backgrounds. 10. Benchmarks and milestones 10.1 As stated in previous years, we will be focusing in particular on the widening access indicators in the table above that we believe are most robust and which we are best placed to monitor early in the recruitment process (namely state schools and colleges, LPNs and K+ target schools and colleges). 7 Page 16

17 10.2 We intend to maintain the proportion of students from lower socio-economic groups (NS-SEC 4-7) over the next five years (the College was above its location-adjusted benchmark for the proportion of young full-time first degree entrants from these groups in ) The remaining indicators either relate closely to our outreach programmes (entrants from King s K+ target schools and colleges) or more generally to work around equality and diversity (entrants from minority ethnic groups) The College is pleased to have developed a shared milestone in relation to higher education progression of Realising Opportunity programme participants in conjunction with other partner universities As detailed in our Access Agreement the College has pursued the use of ACORN data to fine-tune our targeting methods. Widening participation Indicator Baseline (% of full-time first degree entrants, ) 2016/17 intake milestone (% of full-time first degree entrants Students from state schools and colleges Students from low-participation neighbourhoods (POLAR3) Students from NS-SEC Number of entrants from K+ target schools and colleges Students from minority ethnic groups (describing themselves as non-white) Page 17

18 Retention indicators Proportion of full-time first degree entrants continuing from Year Collaborative targets Proportion of students starting the Realising Opportunities programme in Year 12 in 2013 will progressing to an researchintensive university in % Proportion of students starting Realising Opportunities in Year 12 in 2014 progressing to a research-intensive in % The College has established clearly scaled targets for each year to show progress towards the 2017 milestones. They are available in Annex Monitoring and evaluation 11.1 The Widening Participation Strategy Group at King s College London considers the efficacy of widening participation activities. Issues are also considered at the Principal s Central Team meetings, Education Committee and College Council In readiness for , King s College London will develop a robust evaluation framework and toolkit. The College will seek to publish an annual impact report. Turning Point technology continues to provide a useful tool in feedback and improvement of our activities The Widening Participation Department has collaborated with the Systems Development team at King s College London to bring a schools database online. This database will enable practitioners across the university to log their activities and better target their work with schools In order to evaluate the flagship K+ programme, the College has built an innovative longitudinal research project led by two King s academics, Professor Becky Francis and Dr Anna Zimdars. The project will evaluate two stages of K+: the pilot programme and the first full K+ programme. The research addresses the impact that participation in the K+ initiative has for participants, and for Page 18

19 widening participation at King s. The project considers higher education destinations as well as impact in other aspects of participants lives and educational trajectories. The work comprises both qualitative and quantitative evaluation elements and the board to oversee this research and the board includes the external expertise of Dr Kenton Lewis and Dr Tessa Stone of the Bridge Group. 8 The research team will also disseminate findings at academic conferences and professional events. The board has student representation from both current King s students and pupils on K+ as we seek to build student voice into our outreach work The College will be surveying students who received the NSP, and other types of bursary or scholarship, at the end of the first academic cycle (summer 2013) to ascertain how effective students found the additional funding and also whether these influenced students decisions to attend King s. 12. Provision of information 12.1 King s College London provides timely and accurate information to potential candidates through a variety of sources, including print, online, school visits, open days and university recruitment fairs, including funding information. During 2012, the King s College London smartphone app was launched The College s responsibility to provide appropriate information is also included in the Student Charter which is updated each year and available on the College and KCLSU websites The King s College London interactive online prospectus has been significantly revised with increased emphasis on clear entry requirements, equivalences and subject-specific criteria King s College London has developed an admissions portal which enables applicants to track the progress of their applications, thus providing greater transparency as proposed in the Schwartz Report. 13. Equality and diversity 13.1 The College is deeply committed to supporting equal access and fair treatment for all students, and equality and diversity is embedded in institutional practices. The College works to attract and support students from under-represented groups throughout the student life cycle and has a milestone for the protected characteristic of ethnicity In line with its obligations under the Equality Act 2010, the College prepared and published its Equality Act Annual Equalities Report in January 2012 and used this to help inform the development of its Equality Objectives and Action Plan Page 19

20 13.3 Objective 6 of the action plan relates specifically to ensuring all students have equality of opportunity for high attainment and focuses on monitoring attainment levels by protected characteristic and working to address any differentials in attainment levels.. Objective 7 relates to monitoring retention rates by gender and race and putting in place strategies to deal with student under-representation in certain schools/disciplines for these protected characteristics The King s Equalities Unit and the Widening Participation Department are co-located. To further strengthen this relationship we will extend membership of our widening participation decision-making bodies to include the Head of Equality and Diversity. 14. Consultation with students At King s College London we consider students our partners in widening participation. Our engagement has gone beyond consultation. The President of the Students Union has full membership of the Widening Participation Strategy Group. Working with a team of staff and students from KCLSU we have held regular round tables to develop sections of the OFFA agreement. The College also developed a bespoke programme of student consultation, including student focus groups, social media engagement. The outcomes of the consultations are reflected in the accompanying KCLSU statement. Page 20

21 ANNEX 1 Table 1. Summary of financial support assumptions for new students for Household Income 0-25,000 National Scholarship Programme 3, k cash bursary plus 2.4k fee/accommodation waiver for first year King's STEM Enterprise Scholarship 5,000 cash bursary Yrs 1-3 King's Living Bursary 1,500 for each eligible year of study King's Student Fund 10 meanstested discretionary award 100-3,000 Access to Professions Awards 9,000 award for first year ESDP Bursary 3,000 cash bursary Yrs ,001-42, ,000 for each eligible year of study meanstested discretionary award 100-3,000 9,000 award for first year 3,000 cash bursary Yrs 1-3 Total no. available in Total available in scholarships 60 scholarships awards 10 awards (tbc) 2,247, ,000 4,400, , ,000 Table 2. Summary of means testing assumptions Household Income 0-25,000 25,000-42,611 42,611+ National Scholarship Programme King's STEM Enterprise Scholarship King's Living Bursary Access to Professions awards ESDP Bursary King's Student Fund 10 The King s Student Fund will act as a hardship fund. 11 The National Scholarship Programme scholarships of 3,400 will be funded by both the government and King s College London. Page 21

22 ANNEX 2 Table of scaled milestones Baseline 2012/ / / / /17 State school LPN POLAR NS-SEC K+ target schools Ethnicity Progression Page 22

23 OFFA Access Agreement 2014/15 - Annexes B & C Institution name: King's College London Institution UKPRN: Table 5 - Milestones and targets Table 5a - Statistical milestones and targets relating to your applicants, entrants or student body (e.g. HESA, UCAS or internal targets) Number Please select milestone/target type from the drop down menu Description (500 characters maximum) Is this a collaborative target? Baseline year Baseline data Yearly milestones/targets (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) 1 State School (HESA Table T1a) 2 NS-SEC (HESA Table T1a) 3 LPN (HESA Table T1a) 4 Non continuation: All (HESA Table T3a) 5 Ethnicity 6 7 Other (please give details in the next column) Other (please give details in the next column) Proportion of young full-time first degree entrants from state schools or colleges (UK students) No % 70.3% 71.5% 72.7% 74.5% 76.3% Definitions fully aligned to definition in HESA Table 1A Proportion of young full-time first degree entrants from NS-SEC classes 4,5,6 & 7 (UK students) No % 22% 22% 22% 22% 22% Definitions fully aligned to definition in HESA Table 1A Proportion of young full-time first degree entrants from low participation neighbourhoods (based on POLAR3, UK students) No % 3.6% 3.8% 4% 4.1% 4.3% Proportion of all UK full-time first degree entrants continuing from Year 1 (continuing or qualifying at King's) No % 92.7% 93% 93.4% 93.7% 94% Proportion of all UK full-time first degree entrants from minority ethnic groups (students describing themselves as nonwhite) No % 41.7% 42.3% 42.8% 43.4% 44% Number of all UK full-time first degree entrants from K+ target schools and colleges No Proportion of students starting the Realising Opportunities programme progressing to a research-intensive university Yes % 25% 32% 34% 36% 38% Definitions fully aligned to definition in HESA Table 1A and data updated to use POLAR3 quintiles No change made as this already aligns with HESA Table 3a description of current milestone (Column B) corrected to reflect this. Table 5b - Other milestones and targets Alongside applicant and entrant targets, we encourage you to provide targets around your outreach work (including collaborative outreach work where appropriate) or other initiatives to illustrate your progress towards increasing access. These should be measurable outcomes based targets and should focus on the number of pupils reached by a particular activity/programme, or number of schools worked with, and what the outcomes were, rather than simply recording the nature/number of activities. Number Please select milestone/target type from the drop down menu Description (500 characters maximum) Is this a collaborative target? Baseline year Baseline data Yearly milestones/targets (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) 1 2 3