“I am delighted to present our second annual Success for All Impact Report, which celebrates our achievements in 2022/23. These reflect our collective commitment to creating equality of opportunity and conditions for success for all of our students and I am grateful to all colleagues for their contributions both to the achievements and to this report.

As we moved out of the Covid-19 pandemic it became clear that we needed to continue to adapt approaches to supporting the access and success of all our students. The cost of living crisis has presented a real challenge to many students and has been the focus of a great deal of work to address financial and day-to-day support for those most in need.

We are committed to building on innovation accelerated by the pandemic and on our joined-up approach to Success for All to grow the diversity of our student population through supported application, enrolment and transition. We can confidently say that our university has never had such a diverse range of entrants as it did in September 2022 and this is a great springboard for further progress in equality of opportunity at Exeter. One group of students who remain under-represented is mature students and our Mature Access Pathway run jointly with Exeter College in 2022/23 is among the measures we are taking to address this. This will support a new and structured route for mature students in our region to access the University of Exeter.

As we look ahead to new arrangements for Access and Participation Plans, I am confident that the momentum we continue to build will position us well to respond to these new requirements as well as ensure the success of all our students. While much of our work to ensure equality of opportunity is captured in the Access and Participation Plan, required by the Office for Students, our commitment to Success for All our students extends further and includes students that lie outside the regulatory focus. This is evidenced through the work we have initiated to support our growing and diverse population of international students and to promote diversity and inclusion in our postgraduate community.

I am proud of the way our Success for All strategy continues to bring together colleagues from across the University around our common objectives and at our first conference in September 2022 we were all struck by the energy and commitment in the room. This has been sustained through the year in updates, success stories and information pieces in our Success for All newsletter and through a series of lunchtime briefings. Thank you to all who have participated and enhanced our understanding of student lifecycles and the efficacy of interventions to support student success. This work across the University is the bedrock on which we build our joined-up and strategic approach to equality of opportunity for access, academic success and progression to graduate employment or further study for all of our students.”