Employment and Learning Minister Dr Stephen Farry today (Tuesday 11 September) set out his vision for a new integrated strategy for widening participation in higher education in Northern Ireland.
Speaking in the Assembly to launch the new strategy ‘Access to Success’, the Minister said: “At almost 50%, Northern Ireland has the highest participation rate of any area of the United Kingdom in higher education. In addition we also have the best record in the UK in attracting students from low-income backgrounds. I recognise the importance of ensuring that we provide all our young people with the opportunity to benefit from higher education, and last year the Executive agreed to freeze tuition fees levels for local students at local institutions and to sustain the level of funding of the higher education sector.
“Nevertheless, there remain some stubborn pockets of underrepresentation from low participation/ high deprivation areas and I am committed to developing further our approach to widening participation in Northern Ireland. This is based on a future vision of the sector in which the people who are most able, but least likely to participate, are given every encouragement and support to achieve the necessary qualifications to apply to, and benefit from, higher education.”
The new strategy includes projects aimed at raising the awareness, aspiration and educational attainment of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the development and piloting of programmes for disadvantage and disability application routes into higher education and additional support measures for students to sustain continuing participation in higher education.
The Minister added: “The overall thrust of the new strategy will be to identify the most disadvantaged students in our society and to focus available resources on these individual students. For their part the higher education institutions will be expected to offer tailored support for these targeted individuals.
“My Department will make funding available to expand the range of aspiration and attainment raising programmes at schools, colleges and in the community and the workplace. All institutions offering higher education courses will be encouraged to offer community outreach programmes designed to raise the educational attainment levels of students to enable entry to higher education.
“The strategy will also seek to improve retention, progression and achievement rates in higher education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. DEL will continue to recognise the additional costs associated with recruitment and retention of these students through payment of premium funding which will be available for those students who are most in need.
“Institutions must ensure that their widening access and participation support is clearly set out and publicly available and that students are advised of that support for the whole duration of their course before they begin their studies.
“I am committed to ensuring that any qualified individual in Northern Ireland should be able to gain access to higher education that is right for them, irrespective of their personal or social background. Working together, in partnership, I believe we can achieve this.”
The strategy is available at http://www.delni.gov.uk/
