Access summer school goes to Commons

The University's access summer school is being held up as a national example of the value of widening access to higher education.

The school's director, Dr John Blicharski and one of its success-story former students are travelling to Westminster this month where they have been invited to tell politicians about the project's work and how it can help those who might not otherwise have access to higher education achieve their goals.

They are attending the launch of a Universities UK publication which examines the issues surrounding widening access. Held at the House of Commons terrace marquee on 19 March, MPs will hear about the works of various projects in the UK, including the University's wider access centre and its access summer school project.

Amanda Whitehead has first hand experience of the summer school's value. She was unhappy in a dissatisfying college course but believed she had no other options after falling short of the grades she needed to win a place at university.

"I heard about the access summer school at the University which I applied for, received a place and subsequently passed. This opened the door to the subjects I was suited to studying, particularly philosophy,' she said.

Amanda graduated in 1999 and now works in the wider access centre. "I feel I have come full circle. If it wasn't for the access summer school, I would not have entered university, got a good degree and now a full-time job helping others do the same!"

The University was named in the UK's top five universities to successfully combine wide access with low drop out rates and excellence in teaching and research in a league table in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

Vice Principal Professor David Swinfen said, "To widen access without compromising the highest standards of excellence in the academic fields is a difficult trick to pull off but the commitment of the University over a considerable number of years to a pioneering access programme in tandem with improving and developing the best teaching and research is clearly paying off."

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