AccessHE Team Spotlight – February 2021

The AccessHE team reflect on the first month of 2021 and look ahead to what they have coming up this spring. 

Emily Dixon (London Programmes & Communications Coordinator): The first month of 2021 has been a very busy time for AccessHE action forum meetings. We have had well-attended, highly-engaged meetings for the BAME, creative, student ambassador, CEES and mature & part time forums, and many of these are generating spin-off working groups, projects, events and roundtable discussions to take place in the spring and summer of this year. As one UCAS cycle comes to a close, members are already looking forward to new students, more outreach and next year. The release of this year’s UCAS end of cycle data on Thursday has given us a lot to research and think about – watch this space for more coverage of this coming soon.

Mair Lawrence-Matthews (Uni Connect Project Officer): Working with our Uni Connect partner schools in Havering, our member universities will be delivering a suite of taster/top tips sessions for Years 9-11, live in lesson time using Microsoft Teams. Topics covered include wellbeing, resilience, motivation, and independent learning skills. We are also working in partnership with Prospects to offer Year 11s careers advice as they look to transition from their pre-16 schools to further education. These sessions will focus on sixth form applications and subject specific advice.

Michelle Anson (Uni Connect Outreach Coordinator): It has been another busy month for the Outreach Hub. With the difficult news about further school closures and disruption to children’s education, we have created a bank of free resources for teachers, careers leads, parents and students to ‘Unlock your Future in Lockdown’, to help students continue with careers education while studying at home. In January we also hosted another of our regular Virtual Coffee Morning for teachers and careers leads, with guest presentations from the Student Loans Company, QMUL, and the University of Sussex. The student finance special focused on financial support for underrepresented groups, how much students can borrow, and tips for teachers and parents to support young people with student finance applications. The recording is available here, and if you would like to register for our next coffee morning on Friday 5^thMarch, you can do so here.

I’m excited to announce that coming up during February half term, AccessHE will be delivering two information events for care experienced students in Havering. The events will be hosted in partnership with AccessHE members LSME and QMUL, and will focus on the support available to care experienced students when applying to HE, but also while at university.

Finally, I have been busy meeting with schools and local authorities to understand current priorities for students, and look forward to delivering some exciting and bespoke projects with schools and local areas in the near future. If you would like to get in touch, please contact michelle.anson@londonhigher.ac.uk.

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