Widening participation strategic statements

We ask universities and colleges to provide strategic statements on widening participation. These allow them to show, and take credit for, their work to widen participation, and show how it is embedded in their missions and policies.

We are now working with the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) to develop an integrated document which will cover both our requirements for widening participation strategic statements, and OFFA’s requirements for access agreements.

We plan to publish guidance for this integrated document in early 2014.

For 2013, we are asking institutions to update the interim widening participation strategic statements which they submitted in 2012, rather than submit full three-year strategic statements.

‘Strategic statements’ 2012-13

In April 2012 we asked institutions to submit one-year ‘interim widening participation strategic statements’. These identified key priorities for 2012-13.

We took a very light-touch approach. This recognised that many institutions would be better placed to set out longer-term strategies once changes to the funding environment were in place.

The interim statements helped us to understand how institutions are responding to the changing environment.

They also indicated how institutions are adapting institutional widening participation strategies in response to the reforms taking effect in 2012-13.

‘Strategic assessments’ 2009-2012

Prior to the interim statements, in January 2009 we requested widening participation 'strategic assessments' from higher education institutions and directly funded further education colleges with over 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) directly HEFCE-fundable student numbers.

We made the submission of a strategic assessment a condition for the continued receipt of funds for widening participation. We received submissions by June 2009.

The assessments helped to show the sector’s commitment to widening participation work and activities. They also showed how widening participation has become an integral part of the policies, processes and cultures in many institutions.

Action on Access published thematic reviews of these assessments for both higher education institutions and further education colleges.

Integrating with access agreements

When we asked institutions for the interim statements in 2012, we originally planned to ask for full three year strategic statements in 2013.

However, we are now working with OFFA to develop a national strategy for access and student success.

Part of this work includes the development of an integrated document for institutions which brings together the requirements of widening participation strategic statements and OFFA access agreements.

We plan to issue guidance for the integrated document in early 2014. This will cover HEFCE requirements for 2014 to 2017, and OFFA requirements for 2015-16.

We have asked all institutions which submitted an interim widening participation strategic statement for 2012-13 to extend or update their statement for 2013-14, instead of submitting a full three year strategic statement.

More about this process and plans for the integrated document

Annual monitoring

When we requested strategic assessments in 2009, we stated that we would require annual reports from institutions.

We carry out the annual monitoring jointly with the monitoring of access agreements carried out by OFFA.

Guidance on the annual monitoring process for 2011-12 (HEFCE 2012/29) was published at the beginning of November 2012, with a submission deadline of 10 January 2013.

HEFCE and OFFA jointly published a short report on the monitoring outcomes for 2010-11 in July 2012 (HEFCE 2012/13).

Evaluation

After institutions submitted their strategic assessments in 2009, we asked them to develop their approaches to evaluation of their widening participation commitments.

To aid in this, we published guidance on institutions' evaluation of their widening participation activities. This highlights good practice, tools and resources which we hope will help institutions to enhance and improve their plans for evaluation.

We have used the annual monitoring process to collect information on institutions’ plans for evaluation and the findings from their work.

The latest joint report from OFFA and HEFCE on 2010-11 monitoring (HEFCE 2012/13, includes analysis of what institutions reported, and examples to show how different institutions are approaching the use of evaluation and to highlight good practice in this area.

Sector impact assessment of strategic assessments

In developing widening participation strategic assessments, we undertook a formal assessment of their impact on the HE sector in terms of regulatory burden, equality and diversity, and sustainable development.