Widening participation progress ‘slipping away’ amid cuts
Widening participation efforts are being squeezed by anti-university rhetoric and cuts to institutional budgets, leaving UK universities “in their most difficult position for decades”, experts fear.
Despite identifying university access as a priority, Labour ministers have done little to incentivise work in this space since returning to power in 2024, with existing programmes now feeling the pinch.
England’s Office for Students (OfS) is in the process of scrapping its Uni Connect scheme and replacing it with a “renewed regional collaborative access programme”.
Uni Connect, which helps institutions support the most disadvantaged into higher education via activity such as outreach partnerships with local schools, had its government funding slashed from £60 million in 2020 to £20 million.
The budget for its replacement has not been confirmed, with university groups urging it to be given a long-term multi-year financial settlement.
And there are other signs of cuts to widening access work. Realising Opportunities – a partnership led by nine universities, which has supported more than 16,400 students to engage with research-intensive institutions, will wind up operations in July next year.
The programme was initially funded by the former Higher Education Funding Council for England. Since August 2012 it has been fully funded by its partners, which include Newcastle University and the University of York.
A spokesperson said: “The partner universities of Realising Opportunities have collectively agreed that the current collaboration agreement will conclude in July 2027 and will not be renewed.
“This difficult decision has been driven by the significant financial pressures currently facing the higher education sector and partner institutions.”
Graeme Atherton, head of the Ruskin Institute for Social Equity and a social mobility expert based at the University of West London, told Times Higher Education that widening participation work needs “focus and rejuvenation”.
“I’ve been involved for a long time in this work and I have seen a slipping away of attention by institutions and by the government.”
Atherton said outreach work in particular had been widely cut back by universities looking to trim costs.
He suggested more oversight could help universities achieve their statutory targets for widening participation: “There is a need for stronger accountability, I would say, and maybe a need for the OfS to be adequately resourced to undertake some of the accountability work that needs to be done.”
In recent months, prime minister Andy Burnham has emphasised the need for improved technical education and skills training, saying Britain needs to “value the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap” and that the country’s education system is “obsessed with the university route”.
Some believe this has added to anti-university feeling among disadvantaged groups, with early data from Ucas indicating that this could be filtering through into fewer applications.
Atherton said there needed to be a concerted effort to redirect the conversation. “The general narrative about the value of higher education isn’t as strong as it could be,” he said.
“Countering that should be a priority. No matter what work we’re doing in schools, when that strong counter-message is out there, and there isn’t a narrative to express the value of education – particularly coming from the government – it makes it hard to do your job.”
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, agreed: “What I’m finding across the sector is that institutions are now so financially stretched that it’s increasingly difficult to sustain, let alone expand, precisely these kinds of activities.”
“The government is right to turn the spotlight on the growing numbers of young people not in education, employment or training, and strengthening non-university routes,” he said. “But my worry is that we risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”
The problem cut across the political spectrum, Major added. “On the left, the focus on social justice and alternative pathways can sometimes obscure the importance of widening access to higher education; on the right, there’s growing scepticism about the value of university education”.
Major, a former chief executive of the charity the Sutton Trust, said that this squeeze from both sides “leaves universities in the most difficult position I’ve seen in decades”.
Given the cuts to public funding, more universities are turning to philanthropy to fund access work. At the University of Sheffield, the six-year long Ambition Programme targeting those less likely to attend university has been supported by a £2.85 million donation from economics alumnus Andrew Law.
It has included summer schools, one-to-one tutoring and work experience placements, as well as providing 30 dedicated scholarships annually to alleviate the costs of moving to university and studying there.
One of the key findings of the scheme was that some of the most valuable forms of support were not necessarily those students used most frequently.
Focus groups with Ambition scholars found many students felt reassured simply by knowing support services were available should they need them, even if they weren’t attending coffee mornings or mentoring sessions put on by the scheme’s team.
Ella-Rosa Twyman, project manager for the programme, said this showed that “low engagement didn’t necessarily mean low impact”.
“There were times when we looked at attendance figures and considered whether parts of our offer were reaching students in the right way. But when we sat down and spoke to students, many told us that simply knowing support was there made a difference to their confidence and sense of belonging.”
With the programme drawing to a close, Ailsa Wilding, head of access at Sheffield, said they were looking for more funding to continue the work but also that its findings will be embedded in every aspect of university operations.
georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com