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Key points

NTU is a teaching-intensive and research-inclusive institution. We have a very diverse undergraduate student body:

• A third qualify for additional financial support;
• 30% are from ethnic minority backgrounds;
• Around half of students have qualifications other than A-levels.

With this context in mind, equality of opportunity is a key commitment. Our goal is to enable our students to transform their futures here.

See page 1 of the full plan for more information.

Our key challenges are to increase the number of:

• Free School Meal (FSM) pupils from Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈéshire studying higher education
• Students from disadvantaged communities accessing alternative higher education courses at NTU, such as Higher Technical Qualifications and Foundation Degrees;
• NTU students from disadvantaged backgrounds and with mental health conditions completing their studies;
• Black NTU students getting top degree classifications;
• NTU students from deprived neighbourhoods getting graduate level jobs.

See pages 2 and 3 of the full plan for more information.

Financial help available

Our financial support consists of:

• The NTU Maintenance Bursary at £750 per annum (or 50% for part-time students);
• The NTU Opportunity Bursary at £170 per annum (or 50% for part-time students);

These are for new, eligible full-time and part-time undergraduate students paying the maximum home tuition fee, who have a residual household income of £27,500 or less in their year of entry. In addition, we have:

• A bursary for students who have been in the care of a local authority at £1000 per annum;
• A bursary for students who are estranged from their parents at £1000 per annum;

You can see our Office for Students fee summary in our Access and participation plan and details of our financial support and all the terms and conditions on our fees and funding webpages.

See page 28 of the access and participation plan for more information.

What we are aiming to achieve and how

Access

To support the access of disadvantaged students to higher education, we aim to:

• Increase the higher education participation rates of Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé City and Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈéshire County FSM eligible pupils;
• Increase the number of learners on non-traditional courses at NTU.
  The risks to achieving this are insufficient knowledge and skills; a poor perception of higher education from students; and a limited choice of non-traditional courses at NTU.

To address these risks we will be delivering a schools and colleges outreach programme; developing alternative courses and establishing strategic collaborations with local stakeholders.

See pages 4 -12 of the access and participation plan for more information.

Succeed

To support the success of disadvantaged students, we aim to:

• Increase the continuation rates of NTU students from disadvantaged neighbourhoods;
• Increase the completion rates of NTU students from disadvantaged neighbourhoods;
• Increase the completion rates of NTU students with a known mental health disability;
• Increase the number of black students obtaining Upper Second/First Class degrees.

The risks to achieving this are the ongoing impacts of the coronavirus for both students and NTU; cost pressures; mental health challenges; and insufficient knowledge and skills from our students.

To address these risks we will deliver financial support to students; consider our teaching, learning and course design and utilise leading technologies such as analytics. We will also develop peer support programmes for our students alongside personal development sessions, and work to increase our mental health disclosure rates.

See pages 12–20 of the access and participation plan for more information.

Progression

To support the progression of disadvantaged students, we aim to:

• Increase the number of NTU students from disadvantaged neighbourhoods progressing into graduate level jobs or postgraduate study.

The risks to achieving this are multiple, such as cost pressures and graduate level employment opportunities in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

To address these risks, we will ensure all undergraduate students undertake 240 hours of assessed work-like activity. We will also support them in accessing and succeeding on this placement, including with a professional wardrobe.

See pages 21–23 of the access and participation plan for more information.

Evaluation — how we will measure what we have achieved

Depending on the activity, we will evaluate using a variety of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. We will use different evaluation standards, dependent upon the programme, but aim to increase the number of causal evidence studies.

We will publish our evidence on an internal evidence site to inform cross-University practice and we will continue to publish externally in a range of media. In addition, we will produce an annual report for summarising our main evaluation findings from the previous academic year.

See pages 25–27 of the access and participation plan for more information.