Widening participation

The issue

Universities are under greater pressure than ever to increase the diversity of their student populations by recruiting people from a variety of non-traditional backgrounds including those from ethnic minorities, schools in disadvantaged areas, students with disabilities and older students.

How technology can help

Digital technologies can help encourage non-traditional students to apply to your institution.

Building the bridge to HE

We’ve found that the use of social networking tools, life timelines and e-portfolios can encourage sixth formers, who assumed higher education was not for them, to reconsider. Our e-portfolios guide includes information on how these can help in widening participation.  

Enabling through technology

Our advice and guidance shows you how to ensure your institution’s provision is inclusive to  all students whatever their individual needs. This runs from how to market your institution to disabled students through to helping them make the transition from further to higher education or work.

Make the admissions process simple

We’ve worked with the university admissions service, UCAS, to explore how technology can support applicants through the admissions process, give feedback to unsuccessful applicants and ensure the process is fair. UCAS is working to implement the outputs of this work.

Create a supportive learning environment

This is essential for attracting and retaining students. Virtual Learning Environments can be adapted to make them accessible to all learners including those with disabilities. Mobile technology could also help students with disabilities or those juggling study with family or work commitments.

How are you doing so far?

Our accessibility self evaluation tool will help you assess how accessible and inclusive your institution is to students whatever their background or needs. We also have advice on accessibility for senior managers in colleges and universities.

Looking ahead

A major programme of work on lifelong learning and workforce development will be reporting later in the year. Future work from Jisc TechDis includes input on accessibility to open educational resources projects.