Access and participation plans

Access and participation plans set out how higher education providers will improve equality of opportunity for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access, succeed in, and progress from higher education.

They detail the intervention strategies and activities that providers will make to address risks to equality of opportunity over a four year period, and how they will measure and evaluate their impact. A university or college must have an access and participation plan if:

• they are registered with the Office for Students in the 'Approved (fee cap)' category
• they want to charge above the basic tuition fee cap.

What should a plan include?

A provider's access and participation plan sets out:

• the risks to equality of opportunity that the provider has identified as relevant to their context, informed by the access and participation data dashboard and the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register
• ‘intervention strategies’ or the actions providers will take to challenge risks to equality of opportunity and the outcomes they expect to achieve
• how the provider plans to evaluate the impact of their work
• the investment providers plan to make on access and participation work.

Providers also publish a summary of their plan, which sets out key points in an accessible way.