OfS seeks views on regional access partnerships

Partnerships would bring together all universities and colleges with an access and participation plan in a geographical region to coordinate efforts to understand and address risks to equality of opportunity.

A reformed national collaborative access programme could succeed the current Uni Connect programme, working with universities and colleges in new ways to target collaborative interventions in each region. This would benefit disadvantaged students by offering them opportunities as they consider higher education – for example through visits to universities and colleges, and impartial advice and guidance. By harnessing the collective efforts of higher education providers in regions across England, more schools and students would benefit from work to make higher education more accessible for all learners from all backgrounds.

Commenting, John Blake, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the OfS, said:

“We see regional access partnerships as a way to channel effort in the sector more effectively. By pooling their resources, universities and colleges will be well placed to drive further improvement, and address the most significant risks to equality of opportunity.

“The Uni Connect partnerships have done excellent work to bring together key players in this area. These initial proposals are designed to enable greater sector collaboration and coordination on this important work. They build on ideas from our ‘theory of change’ publication, which set out our overall vision for the future of collaborative outreach.

“The proposals are designed to rationalise the number, size and shape of regional partnerships, align them with existing regional structures and establish powerful new collaborations that offer the opportunity for all higher education providers to work together on a refreshed access programme.

“These are early proposals, and we have not taken any final decisions. We welcome views from across – and beyond – the higher education sector as we take this important work forward to help ensure that students from all backgrounds are able to access, and succeed in, higher education.”