23 September 2009

Access success recognised

A new international report examining university entry has hailed the University of Dundee’s Access Summer School as an example of how to effectively prepare students for higher education.

The 'Inventory of Access Programs: International Examples of Practice in Increasing Post-Secondary Participation' report was compiled by the European Access Network (EAN), based at the University of Westminster.

It was commissioned by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, who were looking at examples of improving access to higher education for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups and how they might be successfully implemented elsewhere.

Access Summer School was one of three selected examples of best practice in preparation for entry. The reports called the initiative as 'a veteran in the battle of access', and praised the Dundee initiative for consistently equipping applicants lacking entrance requirements with the skills necessary for university.

The report goes on to say 'The data collected provide evidence of the effectiveness of the preparation of these students and its success in progressing students into higher education'.

Course Director Dr John Blicharski welcomed the report, saying that it showed how the University is meeting the real individual learning needs of non-traditional students, who then go on to earn excellent degrees.

'There are lots of talented people out there who, through adversity, fail to gain conventional entry requirements,' he said. 'Our programmes give them the opportunity to achieve their ambition through routes that prepare them for undergraduate study.'

'This report confirms that all the hard work of colleagues across the University over the last 18 years has resulted in us leading the field in Europe. We remain committed to recruiting the best students regardless of background and circumstance, and are delighted by this further recognition.'

This follows on from a visit earlier this year by Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, who described the course as 'an excellent way of ensuring that individuals who do not meet conventional entry requirements but have a desire to study at a higher education level are given the opportunity to do so.'

Since its inception in 1993, the Access Summer School has helped over 1,200 students, who would not otherwise have been able to qualify for entry to the University.

Dr Blicharski has also written a chapter explaining how and why the course was created, and how it provides access to higher education for a new book 'How to recruit and retain higher education students' that has just been published by Routeledge New York.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902