Outreach and widening participation
We organise outreach events and collaborate with schools, colleges and others to help students from all backgrounds learn more about their options.
At the University of Kent, we believe that anyone who has the academic ability to study at university should have the opportunity to do so.
For over 15 years, we have been committed to widening access to higher education for all those who could benefit. We have delivered major innovation and success in this field alongside the University’s core objectives of excellence in teaching and research.
The University of Kent's Outreach and Widening Participation Team is working in partnership with schools and colleges to support the aspirations and attainment of young people from backgrounds who might not otherwise consider progression to higher education. The majority of young people with whom we work are from disadvantaged backgrounds (in receipt of Free School Meals, and/or Pupil Premium) or have no parental history of higher education, meaning that neither of their parents or carers attended university.
We will give priority to requests from institutions that have a high percentage of students who meet the eligibility criteria. Given the restriction on numbers for some activities, we will work with you to ensure that the majority of students targeted for outreach activities meet the eligibility criteria, and would benefit from additional support.
We are regulated by the Office for Students and in order to prove the value of the work that we do, we collect student data (name, school/college, sex, date of birth and postcode) for all participants of our outreach activities. This enables us to track student progression to higher education and to evaluate the effectiveness of our outreach programme. Your students do not have to provide this data, but by booking an outreach activity you agree to support us in the collection of this data.
All student data is processed in accordance with current data protection legislation.
At Kent, we believe that talented students from a variety of backgrounds should have the opportunity to study here. That's why we have established one of the most generous financial support schemes in the UK.
In addition to the University's generous income related financial support package, a pool of scholarships is available to students who attended one of the UKAT schools, undertook an Access to HE Diploma at the University of Kent or one of the University's Partner Colleges, or who took part in the Ambition to Succeed Programme.
