The Access to Success Action Plan published this week by Universities UK helpfully sets out four key areas of focus that will enable universities to make tangible progress in breaking down barriers to opportunity.
Implementing the plan will hinge on effective collaboration at local level between higher education providers and relevant partners (especially in local government). This is critical for ensuring the vision underpinning it aligns with local priorities and also local skills pathways provision. Taking this approach will ensure the HE sector’s work to drive opportunity is responsive to and rooted in the needs of specific places and communities.
London Higher recommends that government and the sector now come together to agree an ambitious set of targets connected to the action plan. This will help to lend focus and momentum to efforts across its four priority areas, which will be critical at a time of constrained resources and funding. The target-setting itself should be devolved to regions, to ensure targets are developed by stakeholders with an intimate understanding of what will best drive ‘opportunity’ in their setting.
Regional coordination is core to London Higher’s mission and we have made significant headway in working with members and other partners to agree an opportunity programme for the capital. As shown by the recent Hyper-Diversity Revisited report, for instance, there is a strong case for setting a socio-economic access target, and focussing access work towards specific local authorities, in the London context.
The outreach partnerships we have established in areas such as Havering and Tower Hamlets provide a blueprint for the collaborative infrastructure called for in the action plan to address HE cold spots. The Opportunity Cost report has likewise set out actionable recommendations for securing a student maintenance package that sets up all London students for success and improving the advice and guidance they receive on the costs of higher education study – another focal area in the action plan.
The plan includes the action of ensuring graduates are ‘career-ready’. London Higher works closely with the creative industries on addressing skills gaps in prospective and current students through funded courses, CPD training, masterclasses and events, as a part of the Mayor of London’s Creative Skills Academy and the BFI’s Metro London Skills Cluster.
The actions prioritised in this plan must be accompanied by a clear-sighted vision for what we as a higher education sector want to deliver as our contribution to the opportunity mission, and we look forward to playing a role in these conversations as they continue.
