New funding awards for innovative equality of opportunity projects

Awards totalling £2 million will be distributed to projects that support new ideas and innovations in delivering equality of opportunity as part of the OfS’s Equality in Higher Education Innovation Fund. The funding aims to support the higher education sector in addressing sector-wide risks that may affect a student's opportunity to access, succeed in, and progress from higher education.

The successful bids will:

• support new collaborative arrangements between universities, colleges and a range of other organisations, for example in healthcare, community support and the charitable sectors, and with employers
• test and evaluate new approaches to supporting a range of different types of students as they seek to enter into and progress through higher education
• create new resources to support the higher education sector to better understand the needs of particular types of student groups
• support innovations in training and development for academic staff and staff in partner organisations, to better understand and support the needs of students
• deliver new transition programmes to support access into higher education.

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

'I'm delighted to congratulate the 11 winners for their excellent proposals – an achievement all the greater given the number and quality of bids we received. What stood out from the successful bids were the range of interventions and potential impacts outlined, and the collaborations that had been created within a short timeframe – something we were very keen to see an emphasis on when the funding competition was launched.

'I do want to thank all those other institutions who invested considerable time and effort to prepare and submit bids. The high levels of commitment to supporting improvements in equality of opportunity for students was clearly evident and very heartening. My hope is that they will still be able to use some of the connections established and planning undertaken through this process in other ways.

'I’d also like to recognise the partnership with Impetus behind this process, and who share our commitment to support equality of opportunity.

'I look forward to working closely with the successful bidders to see their proposals become reality and ensuring all students have the chance to flourish in higher education, regardless of their backgrounds.'

For further information contact 0117 905 7676 or [email protected].

Notes

1. The Office for Students is the independent regulator for higher education in England. We are currently consulting on a new strategy for 2025-2030 which seeks to ensure that students from all backgrounds benefit from high quality higher education, delivered by a diverse, sustainable sector that continues to improve. You can respond to the consultation online.
2. The fund was significantly oversubscribed, with 149 bids received requesting total funding of £25 million.
3. Successful lead bidders and projects include, but are not limited to:

• The Engineering & Design Institute London, which is collaborating with a range of partners to implement a model of inclusive practice that will support disabled students to have greater success. This will include workshops to test different type of assessments to improve and support key skills and measure student confidence and self-efficacy when undertaking assessments.
• The Brilliant Club, which is working with the University of Sheffield and others to deliver tailored information, advice, and guidance to help prospective students with their understanding of university life. Designed to better inform prospective student choices, the project includes a range of practical activities to support academic skills development and will create an evidence base to support wider knowledge sharing and learning.
• The University of Bristol, which is working with partners to create an interdisciplinary micro-higher education qualification to reduce barriers to people in specific areas of Bristol accessing, participating in, and succeeding in higher education. The initial focus of the project is to support younger unemployed people and women.