New College Stamford Access Agreement 2018-19 1.0 Introduction and Strategy This document sets out New College Stamford s tuition fees and strategy on how to sustain and improve access, student success and progression among people from under represented and disadvantaged groups. New College Stamford is a Further Education College located on the edge of Lincolnshire, bordering four counties. To the east are the Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire fens where according to POLAR3 data there is a very low level of HE participation. For over 20 years the College has offered Higher Education provision and has worked with a range of organisations. As such it has operated highly successful HE strategies based on growing provision and widening opportunities to a range of people. The college currently has 244 Higher Education students on mainly full time programmes of Higher National Diplomas and Foundation Degrees. The College works with 2 Performing Arts Schools, which deliver HND programmes in partnership with the College. The College s Higher Education strategic plan identifies six key priorities: Growth: To increase participation in Higher Education and promote widening participation amongst under represented groups. Employability: To embed employability and personal development throughout the student experience. Excellence: To deliver excellent teaching and learning opportunities supported by relevant scholarly activity. Innovation: To provide an innovative and dynamic HE experience relevant to the 21st Century. Support: To strive to provide support to students and to enhance the student experience. Governance: To develop the management and governance of Higher Education. The two themes that are principally pertinent to this access agreement are Growth and Support, both of which relate to widening participation and the focus of the 2015 Higher Education White Paper to increase access and success in Higher Education participation for those from disadvantaged and under-represented groups. We will achieve these aims by: Developing new and existing partnerships to enable us to develop new programmes meeting local needs. Developing access opportunities to enable outreach activities to under represented groups. Working collaboratively with other providers and stakeholders to promote the benefits of Higher Education study. Review the marketing strategy to target feeder groups and schools more effectively. Develop activities to support students in their transition into Higher Education. Provide access to personalised academic support for all HE students. 2.0 Level of Fees
We propose to continue to charge the following tuition fees for full time students: Higher National Diplomas and Foundation Degrees - 6500 Two groups of full time Foundation Degrees students only attend for one afternoon and evening a week and we do not intend to increase their fee to over 6000. In 2018/19 we anticipate that we will have about 185 students who will pay a fee of 6500. We do not intend to increase the fees for part time students to more than 4500 3.0 Recruitment The table below shows the recruitment data for Higher Education students according to priority group. Priority Group 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 National (HESA) Gender Female 58% 59% 69% 56% Male 42% 41% 31% 44% Age Group Start Under 19 19% 21% 23% 80% 19-25 56% 60% 60% 25+ 25% 19% 17% 20% Ethnicity All other ethnic groups 8% 7% 8% 20% White British 92% 93% 92% 78% Learning Difficulty or LLDD Yes 15% 17% 16% 7% Disability LLDD No 85% 83% 84% 93% POLAR 3 Recruitment of young people in the start year from different participation areas )1 = lowest 1 11% 12% 18% 11% 2 11% 14% 21% 89% 3 26% 27% 20% 4 23% 19% 22% 5 26% 26% 19% 3.1 Key Points: The gender gap is higher than the national position and has increased in 16/17. This is partly due to the curriculum offer focussing on areas that have traditionally recruited high numbers of female students, such as Early Years and Dance. More work needs to be done to reduce this gap through outreach activity for 2018. Age Group is in line with national position Ethnicity gap is far higher than the national position although Stamford is located in a predominantly white rural location and therefore this is to be expected. Recruitment of students with learning difficulties or disabilities is significantly higher than the national position. New College Stamford has been commended by QAA on the support
No of Students it provides to all students both pastorally and academically and invests significant resources to this. Recruitment from low participation areas of the Polar 3 indicates the College is significantly above national position and continues to grow each year. This is due to the continued outreach activity the College engages in. The College is currently in discussions with University of Bedfordshire, Bishop Grosseteste University and The Open University, exploring opportunities for the validation of new programmes to meet local needs. Feedback from students indicate they wish to complete Level 6 programmes at The College thereby reducing the need to travel away to complete their full degree. This is particularly important for WP students who face barriers to moving away. The College is committed to deliver Level 6 programmes across all curriculum areas that currently offer Higher Education programmes. The College has engaged in a number of outreach activities and have visited nine local schools since September 2016. The College is part of the LincHigher group a consortium of Lincolnshire Colleges and Universities focused on raising the engagement of low participation groups in Higher Education. Students progressing from our own Level 3 programmes continue to be our main recruitment pool and it is important that we continue to meet their needs, many of these come from Quintile 1 & 2 from the Polar 3 maps. We currently produce a HE prospectus, which is distributed to all the local schools with 6th forms. We hold cross-college open evenings as well as HE evenings for the parents of students who intend to apply to HE. This event is intended to prepare students for Higher Education at all HEIs. The College invests time in visiting local schools and colleges and has visited nine feeder schools / colleges since September 2016. However through discussions with teachers and careers advisors we understand there are still misconceptions about studying Higher Education at an FE College. Responding to this we have worked closely with school careers advisors to educate them in the benefits of HE in FE delivery particularly for WP students. We have recruited a new school liaison officer who engages with schools and organisations particularly within quintiles 1 & 2 of the Polar 3 Maps. The College runs a tutorial programme which promotes the benefits of Higher Education and HE lecturers and students regularly work with Level 3 students to model the benefits of HE. In order to review the progress we are making in this area we have recently completed a study into the number of our level 3 students progressing to Higher Education. It can be seen from the table below that there is a very high percentage of students from Quintile 1 and 2 who progress to Higher Education study compared to the national average. Course % HEI % HE NCS %Non HE Average Quintile Scores Overall No of 1 & 2 Quintile 1&2 Quintile as % Animal Management 28 32 4 64 2.9 11 39
Art and Design 12 58 0 42 3.4 4 33 Business 28 72 7 21 3.4 5 18 Childcare 21 14 29 57 3.0 9 43 Creative Media 21 52 0 48 3.1 7 33 Fashion & Clothing 10 90 0 10 3.8 2 20 Graphic Design 12 25 8 67 2.8 6 50 Health and Soc Care 18 89 0 11 3.4 4 22 IT 37 46 14 40 3.4 8 22 Music Performance 11 45 55 33 3.0 5 45 Music Technology 11 54 9 37 3.8 2 18 Performing Arts 10 60 0 40 3.3 2 20 Perf Art Mus Theat WC 21 24 38 38 3.0 7 33 Perf Art (Dance) WCs 5 60 0 40 4.0 1 20 Photography 14 43 7 50 3.4 3 21 Dipl Public Services 5 40 0 60 3.6 1 20 Ext DipPublic Services 13 31 0 69 3.8 2 15 Sport (Dipl) 9 44 0 56 3.4 2 22 Sport (Ext Dipl) 12 25 0 75 3.8 1 8 Sport & Ex Science 11 54 0 46 3.4 3 27 Travel & Tourism (Dip) 6 17 0 83 3.7 1 17 4.0 Student Success The table below shows the performance data for Higher Education students according to priority group. Priority Group Student Success Rate 2014-15 Student Success Rate 2015-16 Total all HE Programmes 74.7 68 79 Gender Female 74.2 70 87 Male 76.5 64 71 Ethnicity Learning Difficulty or Disability All Other Ethnic 85.7 70 70 Groups White British 74.2 66 78 LLDD Yes 75.0 70 71 LLDD No 75.0 65 80 Student Success Rate expected end of 2016-17 4.1 Key Points Student Success for 2015-16 was lower than expected however 2016-17 is expected to show a significant improvement Gender Gap in success rates has increased over the last two years. This needs further investigation to ascertain the reasons why and will be a priority over the coming academic year.
White British are expected to outperform non-white British for the first time in 2016-17. Due to the location of Stamford and the small number of non-white British students, these trends need to be approached with caution. Success rates for students with a learning difficulty of disability has been steady over the last three years, although there has been a significant improvement of success rates for those students without LLDD in last 12 months. We understand that completion is closely linked to attendance. We have worked hard to improve attendance rates and have seen a significant improvement in this area. Attendance 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 85 82 92 3.0 Financial Support The College does not currently offer any bursaries or fee remissions, although proposals are currently being considered to offer bursaries for students from low income families progressing from our level 3 programmes. The College provides a hardship fund for students from Households of lower than 25000 per year to support with programme costs such as Books, materials and transport. The College also invests in IT equipment such as laptops and MacBook s to loan to students of low income families to support student success. 5.0 Expenditure The College is committed to increase expenditure in order to protect activity that was previously funded through the SO allocation. Access Significant investment is made in liaising with Schools and Colleges to increase access opportunities for students. The College has recently employed a WP officer to engage schools and learners from low participation areas. The role includes supporting students in writing of personal statements and academic writing. The Careers services works with schools and FE students to provide additional support in the progression to HE. The College visits a number of schools each year and provides HE guidance to promote engagement in Higher Education. The College is committed to increasing expenditure in this area by 7.5% over the next year. Student Success The College recognises that students from non-traditional backgrounds often need more support in academic writing. We therefore continue to invest in an Academic Support Coach who works with existing HE students. Much work has been done to support the transition to Higher Education. The Academic Support Coach for HE has extended his remit to include working with level 3 students who are progressing to HE courses at the College. This is intended to support students in their engagement with the
academic rigour of Higher Education. This is delivered as part of a formal bridging programme delivered to all new HE students and will particularly benefit those from non-traditional HE backgrounds. Additional resources have been allocated by the College to invest in this service. The College is committed to increasing expenditure in this area by 7.5% over the next year. Progression The College provides careers advice and guidance for all HE students to ensure they are fully prepared for their next steps. All students are able to access 1 1 careers advice and guidance as well as being able to access a formal careers programme including CV writing, interviews and LinkedIn. In 2015 The College introduced a new Alumni Association to support the progression of students leaving the College. Alumni are invited back to talk to groups about their progress and method of transition from education to employment. The College recognises the value of this and in 2015 formalised the process by the establishment of a College Alumni Association. All students completing their studies in 2015 were invited to join the association. The College is committed to supporting alumni after they complete their studies and membership entitles them to ongoing career advice provided by the College. Student destination data continues to be good with 98% of those leavers who completed the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DHLE) survey indicating they were either in work or further study. The College is committed to increasing expenditure in this area 10% over the next year. 6.0 Raising attainment in Schools and Colleges Welland Academy The College has formal links with Welland Academy which is situated less than a mile from the college with many of their students progressing to our programmes. The school recruits many learners from low socio-economic backgrounds. There is a joint governance agreement between the institutions, whereby the Vice Principal for Curriculum and Quality from the College sits on their governing body and the Principal of Welland Academy sits on our governing body. From 2017/18 the two organisations are coming together to offer a joint 6 th form to deliver A levels. The College works closely with the Academy offering taster days and careers advice including mock interviews, cv writing and UCAS personal statements. The College is committed to growing this relationship and views it as a strategic priority in raising attainment for local students. New College Stamford As a college that primarily delivers FE programmes as well as HE programmes, we work extensively in raising the attainment of our FE students and have introduced a range of process to narrow the
achievement gaps for WP students. A new reporting system has been developed by our MIS department which allows programme leaders to be able to identify and track WP students including carers, looked after children and students with disabilities. The reporting system enables lecturers to identify students in their groups that fall into these categories and offer differentiated support in response to their specific needs. This system has resulted in lecturers being more attuned and responsive to the needs of these students. Monitoring of this system is conducted through department performance reviews where the Head of Department analyses gaps in achievement and takes steps to reduce these gaps. This is the first year this reporting system has been used so no definitive judgements are possible at this time, however by next academic year the College will be in a position to analyse the performance data thoroughly and set success criteria accordingly. We will set an outcomes based target in this area in the 209/20 access agreement. 7.0 Targets and Milestones The targets set in the Access Agreement Resource Plan will be monitored by The Academic Board to ascertain whether we have recruited additional students from the targeted areas and whether we have continued to retain students. 8.0 Equality and Diversity The College is fully committed to equality and diversity and successfully meets targets to recruit and retain students from the full range of protected characteristics across both its FE and HE courses. This access agreement is deliberately designed to provide fair access to higher education courses for applicants from low participation neighbourhoods and thus from lower socioeconomic groups. We will monitor applicant and student demographic information within the general monitoring process of this agreement. 9.0 Provision of information to students The college conforms to the requirements of the CMA through a commitment to publish all Information regarding the fees charged and the financial support available to all existing and prospective students in the prospectus and on the website. Information about financial support available to HE students is contained in programme handbooks and students are informed about it at induction. The College is committed to providing timely, accurate information to UCAS and the Student Loans Company in order for them to populate their databases in good time. 10.0 Student Consultation We have consulted with the Student representatives and Student governors throughout the writing of this access agreement and they are fully supportive of the contents. They have suggested that further student involvement in the promotion of Higher Education at the college should be encouraged and we intend to pursue this in the future.
Table 7 - Targets and milestones Institution name: New College Stamford Institution UKPRN: 10006303 Table 7a - Statistical targets and milestones relating to your applicants, entrants or student body Reference number Stage of the lifecycle (drop-down menu) Main target type (drop-down menu) Target type (drop-down menu) Description (500 characters maximum) Is this a collaborative target? (dropdown menu) Baseline year (drop-down menu) Baseline data Yearly milestones (numeric where possible, however you may use text) 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 Commentary on your milestones/targets or textual description where numerical description is not appropriate (500 characters maximum) T16a_01 Access Low participation neighbourhoods (LPN) HESA T1a - Low participation neighbourhoods (POLAR3) (Young, fulltime, first degree entrants) To increase the number of applicants from the Polar 3 areas work will be carried out with level 3 FE students at this college No 2012-13 8.3% recruited from Quintile 1 17% from quintile 1 20% from quintile 1 22% from quintile 1 23% from quintile 1 In 16/17 the College recruited 18% of students from Quintile 1 and a further 21% from Quintile 2. This shows a significant increase from previous years and is significantly higher than the national average. T16a_03 Access Care-leavers Other statistic - Care-leavers (please give details in the next column) To increase the number of care leaver applicants No 2014-15 1 applicant to HE 2 applicants 3 applicants 4 applicants 4 applicants The College has worked with Care Leavers who study on our FE programmes to support them with the transition to HE. The College has also worked with the Virtual Schools to support external Care Leavers. In 2015/16 one of our FE students progressed to study HE at a different HEI and in 2016/17 the College enrolled 1 Care leaver onto our HND IT programme. T16a_04 Student success Low participation neighbourhoods (LPN) HESA T1a - Low participation neighbourhoods (POLAR3) (Young, fulltime, first degree entrants) To improve the success rates of students from low participation neighbourhoods No 2015-16 76% 80% 82% 83% 84% Student success is predicted to improve in 2016/17 to 79%. The College student tracking systems do not currently measure success against Polar Neighbourhood. This is being ammended before Spetember 2017 to ensure progress on this target can be measured. Table 7b - Other milestones and targets. Reference Number Select stage of the lifecycle Main target type (drop-down menu) Target type (drop-down menu) Description (500 characters maximum) Is this a collaborative target? Baseline year Baseline data Yearly milestones (numeric where possible, however you may use text) 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 Commentary on your milestones/targets or textual description where numerical description is not appropriate (500 characters maximum) T16b_01 Access Low participation neighbourhoods (LPN) Outreach / WP activity (other - please give details in the next column) To increase the number of applicants from the Polar 3 areas an attempt will be made to gain more access to young people at local schools within that area No 2016-17 5 schools currently visited 10 schools 12 schools 15 schools 16 schools The College visited 9 schools in 2016 / 17 against a target of 5 and is therefore increasing the targets previously set in the 16/17 acess agreement Optional commentary on milestones. This box is character-limited to 1000 characters; however, we are happy for you to upload additional supporting information as a separate Word/pdf document.