Teesside University is part of an ambitious collaborative programme aiming to encourage more young people into higher education.
The North East Collaborative Outreach Programme has been awarded a £7.7 million grant to increase the number of young people from low participation neighbourhoods entering higher education by 2020.
The programme is a partnership between Teesside, Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland and Northumberland Universities, together with the region’s schools and colleges, who will work together to deliver outreach activities across the North East
Professor Mark Simpson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) at Teesside University, said: “We are committed to widening participation and ensuring fair access to a university education for students from a diverse range of backgrounds.
“This funding will allow us to collaborate on a wide range of ambitious programmes to help young people and their families make informed choices about their education and careers. By working together in this way, we will be able to inform and inspire a large group of people who may not have necessarily been considering university as an option.”
The North East Collaborative Outreach Programme will focus outreach activity in areas where HEFCE’s analysis has shown participation in Higher Education to be particularly low overall, and lower than would be expected given KS4 attainment levels in those areas. The programme is focused on supporting a very specific cohort of young people in Years 9 – 13 to make a rapid improvement in higher education progression rates.
The programme will run from January 2017 to December 2018 in the initial instance and will involve the development of a Regional Progression Framework and related activities designed to provide intensive support for young people to encourage progression to higher education.
The North East Collaborative Outreach Programme is one of 29 local consortia to receive funding to deliver activity under the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP). With funding of £60 million per year, the programme will drive a step change in the progression into higher education of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, including members of ethnic minority groups and young men.
Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson said: “We are seeing record numbers of disadvantaged young people going to university and benefitting from the real opportunities that our world class universities can offer.
‘This funding and the schemes that have been developed by universities will make a real difference to young people in key areas. In addition to this, we are legislating for a new transparency duty which will place a clear requirement on all universities to release more information about their admissions process and real incentives on all institutions to go further and faster to promote social mobility.”
HEFCE Director of Policy Chris Millward said: “NCOP represents a significant investment by HEFCE in improving the life chances of young people in some of our most disadvantaged communities. Our evidence has shown that there are young people in these areas who are achieving the qualifications they need to benefit from higher education, but are not currently doing so.
“The programme will ensure that they are better equipped to make the right choice for them by exposing the range of higher education options available and the careers they make possible.”