Strategic guidance: developing your 2018-19 access agreement 21 February 2017 Chris Scrase Head of Operations and Policy

Strategic priorities increase your work to raise attainment in schools and colleges further increase your investment in access activity ensure your expenditure is informed by evidence, supported by appropriate evaluation evaluate your financial support to determine its impact improve your understanding of the challenges faced by different groups of students

Raising attainment in schools and colleges Increase the pace and scope of your work with schools to raise attainment by: the sponsorship of schools where there are issues around attainment and progression the establishment of new free schools other significant partnerships, support and activity with schools.

Further increase your investment in access activity grow activities and programmes through your access agreement that complement the NCOP and Opportunity Areas ensure under-represented groups not targeted through NCOP activities are not missed use these opportunities to broaden your range of collaborative partners

Ensure your expenditure is informed by evidence invest in activities that will have the greatest impact on areas the most improvement is required institutions with more developed and embedded evaluation report more progress against their targets. demonstrate how evaluation has informed your decisions on where to invest leading to improved activities

Evaluate your financial support and provide evidence of its impact a fifth of institutions did not evaluate their financial support in 2014-15 we require strong evidence of how your financial support will help to improve outcomes we have published a set of online resources to help universities evaluate financial support

Target groups provide specific, tailored support for different groups of students examine multiple dimensions of disadvantage in order to get a better understanding

White males from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds the group of young people least likely to enter HE are predominately male, white, educated in state sector schools, from low income families and living in neighbourhoods with lower entry rates to HE specific, outcome-based targets around this work that will further demonstrate the progress being made

Black and minority ethnic students disparities in degree outcomes between BME students and white students with the same qualifications expect all institutions to investigate disparities their assessment of their performance include findings in your 2018-19 access agreements

Disabled students increase your activity and support across the student lifecycle set specific targets relating to mental health issues, specific learning difficulties and/or students on the autistic spectrum ensure students receive accurate information about the support they can expect to receive

Mature and part-time learners falling rates of part-time study and access for mature students have issues for inclusion, equality and diversity. all institutions have a responsibility to consider how they might work to support part-time and mature learners consider offering alternative and flexible modes of study

Expectations around milestones and targets We will expect you to have: at least one target to raise attainment in schools and colleges at least one target for each stage of the student lifecycle at least one target that covers long-term outreach at least one collaborative target

or www.offa.org.uk/contact-us Who to contact for further advice Region of institution Key contacts Midlands and South Tom Lewis-Smith Beth Cooper Susanna Giullari London and East Liv Ollin Rachel Wright North Lizzie Tilley Judith Richley All/general enquiries@offa.ac.uk 0117 931 7171 or www.offa.org.uk/contact-us