What’s an APP?
Since 2019/2020, in order to charge the higher fee level, higher education providers in England have been required to have an APP approved by the OfS, the regulator for higher education in England.
These plans outline how universities and colleges aim to improve equality of opportunity for UK undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds, meaning students who are underrepresented at their institution and in higher education as a whole. This can include students from low-income families, estranged and care experienced students, students from racialised backgrounds, mature students, and many more. An institution’s APP should cover the entire student lifecycle, including access to higher education, continuation from first to second year of study, attainment on degree courses, and progression to further study or a graduate level career. Universities determine their areas of focus by analysing their own local data to uncover gaps between groups. They should then set out interventions to reduce, and ideally close, these gaps.
In 2023/2024, universities and colleges across England, including UCL, prepared and submitted new APPs that will be in effect from 2025/2026. In these plans, universities and colleges hope to identify institutional gaps or risks to equality of opportunity between various groups of students, interventions to address these gaps, and evaluation frameworks to ensure that these interventions are fit for purpose.
So, what’s in UCL’s APP?
In their new APP, UCL is focusing on five areas of risk:
- The proportion of students from the most deprived areas, as determined by the IMD (Index of Multiple Deprivation), entering UCL
- The proportion of students from the most deprived areas, as determined by the IMD (Index of Multiple Deprivation) being awarded a 2:1 and above.
- The rate that mature students (undergrads aged over 21 on the first day of their course) progress into their second year.
- The differences in the rate that white students and those of all other ethnicities are awarded a 2:1 and above.
- The differences in the rate that white students and black students are awarded a 2:1 and above
UCL has outlined six intervention strategies, including specific activities, programmes, and resources, that aim to address these risks. These interventions include working with schools to raise attainment; summer schools and taster sessions for school and college students; supporting staff to better support students, especially at a departmental level; co-creation of activities with students; and a wider commitment to building inclusion and belonging within the student body. Each of these interventions will be evaluated to ensure that they are meeting their aims.
You can find the full UCL APP and a helpful summary here.
What do we think of UCL’s APP?
As part of the APP submission process, the OfS encourages students to submit a commentary on their university’s plan. As the representative body for UCL students, Students’ Union UCL, led by our Education Officer, Shaban, took responsibility for the coordination of the student submission for UCL’s new plan. While we were largely satisfied with the plan, we identified some key areas of concern, such as the use of area-based measures, the mature student access gap, and lack of attention to the cost-of-living crisis. You can read our summary and full submission here.
Why should we care?
Fundamentally, the APP is geared towards making our higher education system more equitable for all students. It’s hoped that efforts at a local level, which respond to local needs, will result in wider national change.
Each university is different and UCL’s challenges are unique to our context as a large, London-based, research-intensive provider. Students and the Students’ Union have an important role to play in providing insight into the lived experiences of UCL students, both in terms of their journey to UCL, including potential experience of UCL led interventions, and their experience while they are here. Student feedback can help the university to make sure that they are targeting the right groups in the right ways and that their interventions are fit for purpose. Most importantly, students can speak directly to the success of interventions and activities geared towards wider student support and the overall student experience because they are at the receiving end of them.
Students’ Union UCL are looking forward to working closely with the university, especially in the delivery of its intervention strategies aimed at retention, progress, and belonging, and the evaluation of the plan as a whole.
Getting involved
UCL involved the Students’ Union and student representatives at every step of the APP’s formation and will work closely with us to evaluate their activity. If you would like to participate in surveys, focus groups, and other research activities related to the APP (and more!) please sign up to our Policy and Research Team’s mailing list.
Learn more about how you can get involved with the Access and Widening Participation Office
Learn more about how you can get involved with the Student Success Office.