Our commitments to access and participation

Inclusion at the University of Leicester

The University of Leicester has one of the most diverse student bodies in the UK. This creates a series of opportunities and challenges for us to ensure that each student feels represented and has access to support to help them succeed. 

The whole University is responsible for providing equitable support for our students. Across the institution, we deliver projects and initiatives designed to tackle inequities in the system. These projects target specific groups of students where differential outcomes have been identified in comparison to their peers, such as the awarding gap between Black and white students, and the awarding gap between students from the most disadvantaged postcodes and the most advantaged postcodes. Some initiatives are more holistic and aim to improve access to information or support for all students. Each project provides an opportunity to learn, develop and share best practice. 

The Access and Participation Plan outlines our risks to equality of opportunity and the interventions we will undertake to reduce inequity in our provision.  As part of our commitment, we will be publishing our project findings and outcomes on this page. We will be updating the contents regularly. 

Examples of our activities are:

Curriculum consultants

The University of Leicester’s ‘Curriculum Consultants’ initiative aims to make our students’ academic experiences more inclusive, representative and relevant to the lives of those from marginalised backgrounds, through working with current students. There have been over 20 projects managed by paid student consultants over the last three years. Recommendations from the projects are implemented by academic schools and the progress will be published here when available.

Black Student Experience Project

We have a growing cohort of Black students and the data shows that there are a number of gaps in their experience at the University of Leicester. The Black Student Experience Project aims to identify and remedy areas where Black students have poorer differential outcomes than their peers.

There are five areas of focus for this project:

  • Accommodation and campus life
  • Communications and awareness
  • Curriculum and assessment
  • Employability
  • Sports and active life
  • Wellbeing and disability

Succeed at Leicester

Higher education is full of unfamiliar processes and jargon. Succeed at Leicester aims to scaffold and demystify support and information for students throughout their time at the University of Leicester. This begins before the start of the academic year with online sessions to help with the transition to University. Find out more on the Succeed at Leicester website. 

Inclusion Action Plans

All academic schools and our professional services teams have inclusion action plans. These look at localised data and focus on issues that can be tackled by these teams. The plans are monitored and best practice is shared across the University. All 19 schools who offer undergraduate courses have plans in place and are working towards targets such as reducing module level awarding gaps, ensuring neurodiverse students have appropriate information for fieldwork, better understanding of marking rubrics and sharing experiences on placements to manage issues and expectations. 

Disseminating our findings

We are committed to learning from, and sharing the outcomes of our interventions to show what works (and what doesn’t!). We will be publishing the results of our projects here, and also in the Higher Education Evaluation Library (HEEL). The HEEL is an externally hosted site which will require a login. 

For more information email edservices@le.ac.uk 

People 

Student and Education EDI Team 

This Student and Education EDI (SEEDI) Team is a focal coordinating point for equality, diversity and inclusion in relation to the student educational experience, with a particular emphasis on closing the awarding gap, delivering our commitments to the Access and Participation Plan.

The SEEDI Team work with colleagues across the Service, the Students’ Union and in academic schools to enable inclusivity in the curriculum and assessment with the aim of having a positive impact on the awarding gap and student satisfaction. The team will manage student equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, including managing the Access and Participation Plan (APP), ensuring that the University can comply with OfS conditions of registration A1 and A2 that require the University to have an APP.

Key functions of the team are:

  • Management of the Access and Participation Plan, supporting school-based and service based initiatives to meet key institutional objectives.
  • Reporting progress towards APP targets, externally and internally.
  • Working in strategic partnership with the Students’ Union, in particular in relation to planning priorities, student voice, and equality, diversity and inclusion.
  • Providing expert advice and guidance in relation to student equality, inclusion, diversity, notably leading work to eliminate the awarding and satisfaction gaps for under-represented groups of students.
  • Providing a route to implementation for the work of the Leicester Institute for Inclusion in Higher Education (ULIIHE).

Members of staff can access more information about the team on our staff intranet pages (log-in required).

If you require further information please email edservices@le.ac.uk.

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