Monday 29 November 2010

Five out of Five: Bidding success for Widening Participation and Access.

The School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton has recently being awarded by the University over £20 000 for  five projects related to widening participation or widening access for those who may not have considered going to university.

Four out of five of the projects include providing opportunities for girls in both primary and secondary schools to meet female students and role models from Computing and Engineering. In four out of five of the projects the employability and engagement in STEM subject of current and future female student was central to the activity.


  • Taking engineering related into Primary schools.
  • Support for on campus engineering activities that encourage women into engineering.
  • A mixture of academic staff and university student-lead activities to encourage FE students into computing with inspirational Professional women Speakers and workshop facilitators
  • Activities to encourage women into computing run in partnership with the University's Department for Enhanced Learning, Teaching, Achievement and Employability (DELTAE)

The fifth project is concerned the  development of an online transition programme encompassing:
  • an introduction to the course (audio and visual) 
  • an online integrated toolkit which compliments existing learning resources facilities.
  • The rollout of the programme to applicants of the HNC Wastes for the May intake and potentially the MSc Waste Management Students. (Many of the students are international and therefore after application and acceptance await their visa, this programme would allow their familiarisation with the course and university facilities prior to their arrival in the UK).
  •  Monitoring the engagement of the programme by the tracking of usage of the programme through NILE and to follow up with formulated questionnaire to allow the users to feedback their experiences
  •  After the initial pilot period the results will be analysed and the programme reviewed in line with the student voice.
  • The programme is anticipated for full roll-out in August-September to non-full-time programmes across the School of Science and Technology.

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