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

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. Evaluate your financial support and provide evidence of its impact
a fifth of institutions did not evaluate their financial support in
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

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

8. 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

9. 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 access agreements

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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 or