- Talking about
- Supporting underrepresented students to achieve their potential
Access Priority 1: We will provide flexible learning opportunities to support access for diverse students – Access and Student Success Strategy 2025, University of Leeds.
The University of Leeds is committed to supporting underrepresented students to achieve their potential and overcome the inbuilt disadvantages that can affect their prospects.
In our Access and Student Success Strategy, we are working to reduce the gap in access to higher education between POLAR Quintile (Q) 1 and 5 students, in other words, to increase the numbers of students coming from areas with lower percentages of students progressing into higher education.
The Access to Leeds scheme works towards bridging this gap, enabling students to demonstrate academic potential through more than grades alone.
A head start
The programme starts before students arrive at Leeds and before they even take their A levels, BTECs or other equivalent Level 3 qualification, with the Access to Leeds module, which eligible applicants follow during their Year 13 summer term at school or college. The module is a remote programme that is completed on our virtual learning platform. It comprises study skill workshops designed to strengthen students’ writing, referencing and critical reading abilities, putting them on a level footing with others more likely to have developed these skills at school.
Meegan, a student who applied through Access to Leeds, explains why she found the module beneficial: “I hadn't done some study skills like academic integrity in my college courses at all. I didn't really know the concept of plagiarism. It was all new stuff, but after you read through the module materials it seemed much more straightforward.”
The module culminates in a subject-specific task with guidance from a University tutor who marks the work and provides feedback, familiarising students with university-style assessments prior to starting their degree.
Lizzie, now a postgraduate student at Leeds, found the subject-assignment feedback especially useful: “It was really helpful to get an example of what we were going to get when we started: a lot of the marking and the comments were about the academic style of the essay - it was useful to know how they wanted you to write an essay and how that differed from A-level work.”
The module provides an insight into what to expect as a Leeds student.
Some students may already be familiar with the concept of university life via parents or carers who have been to university before them, or they may attend schools that prioritise entrance to Russell Group universities or universities with higher entry requirements.
However, many students have not had this experience and the module aims to help them feel they belong at the University of Leeds.
The pre-entry preparation that students receive in the Access to Leeds module is crucial to achieving our wider Access and Student Success targets. 96% of the students completing the module in 2021/22 agreed that it helped them improve or develop their academic skills and 87% thought it helped them to prepare for studying at university.
There’s evidence that participation leads to higher continuation rates and improved graduate outcomes for several groups of underrepresented students. Over the past five years, 86% of students from areas of low participation in higher education (LPN) who completed Access to Leeds achieved 2:1 or higher in contrast to 81% of students who were also from an LPN area but did not complete Access to Leeds.
Increased skills and confidence
“My first-year personal tutees completing the Access to Leeds module have a better grasp of study skills, particularly around referencing,” said Stacey Mottershaw, Associate Professor at LUBS. “Having pre-entry materials to help students get to grips with study skills is particularly useful in easing the transition into university.”
“It helped me understand how independent you have to be in university,” said one student. Another commented that, “The skills it gave me and the reassurance and pressure it alleviated was extremely valuable to me. I had a greater understanding of how I could avoid any penalties before I even started my studies.”
The Access to Leeds module is being further developed to include more transferable academic skills and additional resources for mental health and wellbeing.
To find out more about the support underrepresented students can receive before and during university through the Access to Leeds programme, email the Student Success Team: studentsuccess@leeds.ac.uk.