Dec 2 2011 3:00PM
OFFA (The Office for Fair Access) has today approved revised Access Agreements for 25 English universities and colleges to bring them within the criteria to bid for additional student number places.
For UCS this means that the recently launched Suffolk Access Champion Scheme (SACS) will be extended to provide fee waivers for students in both their first and second years of study. Students starting at UCS in 2012 will have the opportunity to apply for the Suffolk Access Champion Scheme upon their acceptance onto a full-time course at UCS. These Champions will receive a substantial fee waiver of up to £5000 in the first year and £3000 in the second year, in return for delivering a group mentoring programme for year 10 students in their previous high school. The group mentoring programme is aimed at raising the aspirations and attainment levels of young people across Suffolk.
The changes to the Access Agreement mean that from 2013 UCS will also extend its financial support through the National Scholarship Programme (NSP) to include students in their second year of study.
This revised agreement means that UCS has raised its spend by approximately £500k above the original agreement, which doubles the amount available for eligible 2012/13 NSP students over the course of their study and more than triples the amount available for the Suffolk Access Champion Scheme.
The NSP and Suffolk Access Champions Scheme are just two elements of the UCS Access Agreement, which is made up of financial support such as fee waivers, as well as non-financial measures including outreach activity, student retention measures and careers and employability advice.