Access and participation review and progress
Introduction
Our Access and Participation Plan (APP) sets out the meaningful and impactful steps we will take to promote equality of opportunity to enter and succeed in higher education.
A regulatory requirement, our plan makes a significant contribution to the University’s 2030 Strategy and our aim to use the power of education to lead progress towards creating a fair, socially just and inclusive society.
In 2024/25 we closed out the final year of a four-year plan and reflect here on the progress made across the plan period. In summary, the University has made significant strides in access and participation during the last plan, delivering against all the identified priorities and exceeding the scope of those improvements identified to bring positive change, despite considerable disruption due to the pandemic and cost of living crisis.
While performance against targets has been variable in the context of a volatile environment for access and participation, the latest data and wider basket of measures indicate positive progress across most targets and a growing national reputation for the University’s work to support social mobility.
Impact in numbers
Number of entrants from widening participation backgrounds have increased since 2020/21:
Impact in numbers
Number of entrants from widening participation backgrounds have increased since 2020/21:
Entrants from most deprived neighbourhood up 33%.
Entrants from ethnic minority groups up 90%.
Care experienced students up 64%.
Students who are refugees or asylum seeks up 70%.
In last three years:
Entrants eligible for free school meals up by 65%.
Enrolled 13,180 students meeting widening participation eligibility.
£32m in financial support and scholarships for widening participation with benefits for continuation, mental health and wellbeing.
35,000 learners supported through fair access and curriculum enrichment.
2,500 students completed Exeter Scholars with correlated above benchmark access to HE and progression to high tariff universities.
800 Exeter Scholars progressed to study at Exeter.
Since 2020/21:
in financial support and scholarships for widening participation with benefits for continuation, mental health and wellbeing.
learners supported through fair access and curriculum enrichment.
students completed Exeter Scholars with correlated above benchmark access to HE and progression to high tariff universities.
Exeter Scholars progressed to study at Exeter.
Quality measures:
Outcomes for underrepresented students and Success for All were cited as ‘quality’ measures contributing to TEF Triple Gold. APP interventions contributed to a range of institutional markers of quality including the Race Equality Charter, Mental Health Charter and NNECL Quality Mark for the support of care experienced students.
Awards and recognition:
Work to support access and participation has been externally recognised:
- UK Social Mobility Awards University of the Year 2025;
- NEON University of the Year for Widening Participation 2023;
- Multicultural Apprenticeships Awards 2024;
- Diversity and Inclusion Training and Apprenticeships Award 2025;
- Winner of four UK Social Mobility Silver and Highly Commended Awards for fair access, leadership and innovation 2020-24;
- Stand Alone Pledge Awards in 2023 and 2024 for outstanding support for care experienced and estranged students.
Delivering on our commitments
Our Access and Participation Plan aimed to address the biggest gaps in outcomes experienced by disadvantaged and underrepresented student groups in respect of access to higher education and student success.
We committed to a wide-ranging and ambitious programme of activities informed by research and data analysis. We delivered against all the identified priorities and exceeded the scope of many of our commitments, despite a challenging external environment. More details about activities and impact in 2024/25 are included in other sections of this report.
Access to higher education
Over the last four years, we have supported 35,000 learners through structured programmes, curriculum enrichment and work in schools.
While our access targets relate exclusively to the diversity of our own student intake, objectives for widening participation are much wider and include supporting regional social mobility, learner development and facilitating informed choices about careers and further study, irrespective of whether learners choose Exeter.
Highlights include:
2,500 Year 10-13 students supported through our Exeter Scholars programme since 2020/21 with around 800 going on to study at Exeter.
Evaluation shows the programme is effective in helping young people build the knowledge, skills and confidence to successfully apply to higher education and high particularly high tariff universities.
Mature Access Pathway launched three years ago with a pilot project jointly run with Exeter College.
The scheme which supports those returning to learning to progress successfully to university has since expanded to four South West colleges, involved 410 participants and achieved above benchmark rates of progression to HE.
Bridges to Higher Education programme was launched in October 2022 specifically to support students at local further education colleges as they make choices about their future. These cohorts often meet multiple widening participation criteria and support includes advice and guidance, skills development and familiarisation with HE.
Contributions to multiple partnerships providing structured support to thousands of students from widening participation backgrounds: including Realising Opportunities, a national scheme involving other high tariff universities; Pathways programme with the Sutton Trust; SEREN, a Welsh Government initiative; IntoUniversity, a charity providing community-based learning support; and The Elephant Group, a multi-school initiative to support progression to higher education.
Created new BSc programmes with Foundation Year enabling students without the required level in Maths to study a STEM degree at Exeter. Expanded after a pilot year, the Foundation has helped support both access and student success.
Significant expansion of Degree Apprenticeships enabling students to earn while they learn, with high proportions of apprentices coming from widening participation backgrounds and 8% of undergraduates now apprentices.
Removed barriers to study at Exeter including: an expansion of contextual offers; introduction of specialist admissions support for students with non-traditional qualifications and returning to learning; and removing subject requirements unless absolutely necessary.
Expansion of tailored support for students with disrupted education or following non-traditional pathways such as care experienced students, refugees and asylum seekers and home educated students.
Affiliated with the Black Leadership Group, which promotes antiracism within the tertiary sector helping to support access, student success and relationships with FE.
Awarded £2.5 million in alumni funding for widening participation scholarships.
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Supporting student success
Achieving the very best for our students in terms of retention, attainment and graduate outcomes is at the heart of our provision and education strategy.
While we have some observable gaps between key students’ groups, our rates of continuation, attainment and progression to graduate outcomes are high, and outcomes for underrepresented students and Success for All were cited as ‘quality’ measures contributing to Triple Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework.
The challenges faced by students, particularly those from under-resourced and underrepresented backgrounds have been unprecedented during this period due to the pandemic, cost-of-living crisis and escalation of mental health issues.
Interventions were informed by research which shows retention and attainment are best addressed by: approaches which seek to develop supportive peer relations; meaningful interaction between staff and students; knowledge, confidence and identity as successful HE learners; effective transition and an HE experience that is relevant to students’ interests and future goals.
Highlights include:
Implemented institutional good practice framework to support student induction and transition; including Transition and Induction Academic leads and roll out of subject-level induction modules which in 2024/25 were accessed by 5,768 new starters with high levels of engagement.
Steadily increased value and eligibility of student funding; provided unprecedented hardship and other financial support during the pandemic; introduced range of mitigations to make study more affordable including subsidised food and groceries, equipment and recycling schemes; launched debt advice and food poverty schemes.
Created Exeter Cares providing wrap-around support for mature students and those who are often studying without family support due to being displaced, in care or family breakdown. The scheme provides financial, wellbeing, practical and pastoral support for a community of around 1,500 students.
Consultation and co-creation of interventions with students and staff from ethnic minority communities and delivering policy, reporting, recruitment, and development improvements as part of the Race Equality action plan.
Developed the Transformative Education Framework to promote inclusion, social justice and sustainability within the curriculum with focused academic development and resources to support inclusive teaching.
Considerable work to understand and adjust our teaching to better support the needs of disabled students with a major project involving extensive student consultation and a review of the use of individualised learning plans.
Development of an Inclusive Education Policy, support and frameworks to make teaching and assessment more inclusive, which are now being systematically embedded in our curriculum.
A new model of academic support was developed to put proactive help in place for those students who may be struggling with academic or wellbeing issues. A successful pilot was followed by a roll out across all disciplines enabling data driven interventions to support student success.
Education Welfare Officers have continued to provide support for students as part of our hub provision in our faculties. These posts join up academic and wellbeing provision via referrals.
Considerable investment in technology and our virtual learning environment to improve access to education for students with disabilities or who are time-poor due to work or family commitments, including collaborative tools, virtual labs, lecture capture, auto-captioning and other enhancements.
Student peer mentoring schemes provide impactful support for student groups including mature students, disabled students and those with specific learning disabilities.
University funded internships for widening participation students via our A2I scheme helped students secure tailored, quality, career-enhancing work placements. Evaluation showed positive impacts for students and employers.
Dedicated employability support provided for widening participation students by an employability consultant and in partnership with the charity UpReach.
Progress against targets
Steady progress has been made against ambitious targets to improve access and student outcomes across most years of the plan despite major external pressures such as the Covid epidemic, cost-of-living crisis and sector-wide escalation in the reporting of disability and mental health conditions.
Figures for 2024/25 however show a less positive position for access and continuation reflecting continued challenges faced by students affecting decision-making about higher education. Even so, we continue to make significant gains in the volume of entrants from underrepresented backgrounds and our retention rates are high.
We have made good progress against targets for the proportion of entrants from areas of highest deprivation, ethnic minority student groups and those returning to learning. While the proportion of mature students dipped below target in the last year of the plan, internal figures indicate an improving position for 2025 entry. Targets relating to students from areas of low participation in higher education however have been more challenging to achieve with the proportion of students from these areas falling post-pandemic, attributed to cost-of-living pressures. We have seen some improvement in 2025 and have strengthened work to support learners from low progression areas within our region.
Despite degree awarding gaps widening post pandemic, the latest data shows these have now narrowed with the University meeting APP targets in respect of Good Honours awarded to black students compared to white students (6.5 ppt gap down from 14.6 ppt) and disabled students compared to non-disabled students (gap almost eliminated, just 0.4 ppt). We have now also exceeded target to reduce the gap in graduate outcomes for students from the lowest income households (just 0.6 ppt from 9.3 ppt).
Table 1 shows performance against APP targets in the 2020/21 – 2024/25 plan
All targets include degree apprenticeships. Targets shown in (brackets).
Target met or exceeded
Target not met
Explaining the data
In the table above targets relate to undergraduate home students including degree undergraduate home students and Degree Apprenticeships.
Most targets seek to narrow or eliminate the gap in outcomes between a particular widening participation group and their peers. Access measures the proportion of entrants at the University from a particular group; continuation measures the progression rate from their first to second year of study; awarding relates to achieving Good Hons; and progression measures graduate employment outcomes.
Participation of Local Areas (POLAR) is an area-based measure which groups neighbourhoods into quintiles based on the proportion of young people entering higher education aged 18 or 19. Quintiles 1 and 2 are the areas of lowest participation.
Index of multiple deprivation (IMD) is used as an indicator of socio-economic background. It is an area-based measure which groups neighbourhoods into quintiles based on a variety of indicators. IMD Q1 and Q2 are the most deprived areas.
Mature students are those entering HE at the age of 21 or over.
94% of first graduating cohort achieved a 2:1 or first.
Progression into HE from fair access programmes
Data purchased from UCAS shows that our programme participants are significantly more likely to apply to HE, and in particular, research-led and high tariff providers, than a comparator group matched on similar known demographic characteristics.
In 2022/23 a total of 194 Senior Scholars and programme beneficiaries enrolled at the University of Exeter having taken part in Exeter Scholars, Realising Opportunities or Pathways to Law. Of those students 63% were first generation into higher education and 28% were from Black, Asian and minority ethnicity backgrounds, compared with 25% and 13% of their peers. Once at Exeter, they go on to succeed with 94% of our first graduating cohort achieving a 2:1 or first.
Tommy, Exeter Scholar Student.
“Exeter Scholars is something I would recommend to all those who have the possibility of doing it. I learnt many things that facilitated the process of starting university. After attending both online and in person Exeter Scholars events I felt much more confident and at ease when thinking about starting university.”