Disadvantaged need alternative ways to get into university

A strategy to encourage more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access third-level is recommended in a recent HEA report. It suggests intensive summer schools for this group of students and alternative progression routes to university.

Third-level access programmes run by the State's seven universities were the subject of the evaluation, which was conducted by Prof Bob Osborne of the University of Ulster and Helen Leith of Queen's University Belfast.

"A national strategy," the report states, "should set a broad framework within which individual universities and institutions should have some discretion to respond to their own circumstances." The universities currently operate a range of different access programmes. These include extra financial supports to students, free accommodation, extra tutorial supports and summer schools.

The report suggests that institutions admitting disadvantaged students could be rewarded through additional block grant allocations. The report highlights the lack of debate on the access issue in many of the universities. "It is not clear that all universities have established access programmes after full internal discussion and debate," the report notes. UCD is the only university to hold regular seminars for staff in order to increase understanding. According to Osborne, a member of staff in every department in every institution should have an access remit.

Between 1996 and 1999, the HEA provided funding worth over £2 million to the universities, in order to develop targeted schemes to increase the participation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, UCD, DCU and TCD also use external funding to support their access programmes. Some of the institutions find the selection of partner schools problematic, according to the report. Although TCD, DCU and NUI, Maynooth report no substantial difficulties in the recruitment of schools to participate in access programmes, UCD is increasingly experiencing problems. Its location makes it difficult to contact schools in west Dublin. The report notes that UCC and NUI Galway also find school selection problematic.

"In Galway it was suggested there would be local problems with designating some schools in the city rather than all. Likewise in Cork, although one school was clearly seen as predominantly serving pupils from a low socio-economic area, other schools were not keen to be designated in this way." The sensitivity is such that in one Cork school, pupils participating in the scheme were not told that it was about widening access and only learned about it inadvertently. Some universities admit access students on lower points, but others are reluctant to do so, fearing legal challenges. The report suggests that the universities develop a rationale for the provision of lower entry requirements for students from access programmes. "Universities," the report asserts, "need to be explicit in recognising that second-level attainment is only a variable predictor of third-level attainment and that they have a key concern with `adding value'."

According to the report, the fact that there is no uniform criteria for the selection of pupils means that, inevitably, some students who are not from disadvantaged backgrounds will be included. "However, if the targeted initiative is a national scheme designed to meet national objectives then ensuring there is a standardised (but not rigid approach) to student selection is important." Monitoring and evaluation of access programmes by the universities are vital, the report says. "The HEA should institute a clear reporting mechanism for institutions with clear performance indicators. Reporting indicators should cover the full range of activities of individual programmes eg `taster' or `fun' days for younger school students."

Of the 94 students who have participated in the Limerick Community Based Educational Initiative (LCBEI) since 1990, 36 have completed third-level and 33 are still enrolled, according to a recent evaluation of the project. Six out of every 10 students surveyed cited the LCBEI grant (£300 per annum for diploma courses and £900 for degree students) as a major factor in their completing college. Half of the students said that the support of LCBEI staff had also played a major role in encouraging them to complete their college courses. Some 93 per cent of the third-level students reported being happy at school, while 98 per cent said that they had liked their teachers. The LCBEI offers a range of initiatives, at both second and third level, to encourage students to participate in higher education.