Diversity & Inclusion
Additional Reference Material
Legislation and Government Reports and Guidelines
- HEFCE: Widening Participation
- HEFCE's AWP home-page.
- OFFA: The Office for Fair Access
- The government body entrusted with ensuring fair access to HE for all. Described briefly here.
- QAA Code of Practice: 3. Disabled Students (2010)
- 'The object of the code is to assist institutions in ensuring that students with disabilities have access to a learning experience comparable to that of their peers. A useful guide for departments currently adapting the curriculum for disabled students.
- Socio-economic disadvantage and experience in higher education
- A 2003 report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by Alasdair Forsyth and Andy Furlong.
- Young Participation in Higher Education (HEFCE)
- An analysis of 'HE participation rates' for 18-19 year olds from 1994 to 2010. Though there ere are still sharp differences between regions, since 2000, the gap between young people from disadvantaged areas and young people from advantaged areas has narrowed. Women are still much more likely to enter HE than men, though there has been a recent growth in male participation rates.
- Fair Admissions to Higher Education: Recommendations for Good Practice
- The Schwartz report, chaired by Steven Schwartz. One of its conclusions is that 'there is uneven awareness of and response to the increasing diversity of applicants, qualifications and pathwaysinto higher education'.
- Why Study English?
- A popular website produced by the English Subject Centre Highlights the benefits of studying English in terms of employment prospects, personal satisfaction, quality of teaching and range of learning opportunities.
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Diversity and Inclusion: Resources for Lecturers
- Access and Widening Participation: A Good Practice Guide
- This English Subject Centre report by Siobhán Holland is based on informal surveys undertaken in 2001-2 and concentrates on AWP work in English departments at King Alfred's College, Winchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Teeside.
- Widening Participation
- HEFCE’s Widening Participation pages.
- Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning
- Now published by the Open University, this journal
addresses questions of how to widen participation and combat social exclusion in education both nationally and internationally.
- Action on Access
- The key aim of Action on Access, based at Edge Hill University, is 'to promote inclusivity and diversity, and the broadest possible access to higher education'.
- Successful Student Diversity: Case Studies of Practice in Learning and Teaching and Widening Participation
- WP case studies (coupled with learning and teaching case studies) in a range of disciplines. A HEFCE publication, edited by
Janet Powney.
- Equality Challenge Unit
- The ECU helps maintain equal opportunities for HE staff.
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Websites aimed at potential students
- A-Z Degrees: English (The Independent online)
- This website has summaries of the nature and content of an English degree and its career prospects. It contains some guidance for applicants too.
- DirectGov: Young People
- A government site providing information for 13-19-year-olds on a range of topics, including HE options.
- Converse: The Literature Website
- Stimulating English literature teaching materials for schools, aimed at both teachers and pupils and produced by lecturers from the Cambridge English faculty as part of a widening participation initiative.
- DirectGov: University and Higher Education
- Official guidance from the government for potential undergraduates.
- Uni4me
- An informative and attractive site designed by Aimhigher Greater Manchester. Still online despite the demise of Aimhigher.
- UCAS student area
- Nuts and bolts information for school-leavers.
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Disability Resources for Lecturers
- Action on Access: Disability
- Action on Access is the national co-ordination team for widening participation in higher education, funded by HEFCE and DELNI. It now undertakes the work on disability previously done by the now disbanded National Disability Team. This area of the Action on Access website provides is a rich smorgasbørd of resources.
- DEMOS: Online Materials for Staff Disability Awareness
- An online learning package designed to teach academic staff about the issues faced by disabled students in HE. The package was created as part of DEMOS,
a HEFCE-funded project undertaken jointly by the four universities in the Manchester area which concluded in 2003. There are modules on 'Disability
Awareness', 'Students with Dyslexia', 'Admissions of Disabled Applicants','Assessment and Examination Regulations' and on recent disability legislation,
as well as handy lists of FAQs.
- Guide to Accessible Web Design
- If you need to check the accessibility of your web pages for disabled students, try using this resource.
- The Teachability Project
- Eight detailed online booklets, from the University of Strathclyde, on how to make HE materials, such as course
information, lectures, seminars, tutorials, e-learning, exams and assessments,accessible for disabled students.
- Working with Students with Disabilities
- A rich and detailed guide written by Christopher Hopkins, David Jackson, Jan Tennant and Andrew Wilson for the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre
for Engineering. Full of generally applicable advice and ideas.
- SCIPS (Strategies for Creating Inclusive Programmes of Study)
- English is one of 10 subjects involved in this pilot project, which ended in December 2004. The aim was to identify learning activities specified in
subject Benchmark Statements that could be problematic for students with disabilities and to devise subject-specific
'inclusive strategies' for academic staff to build into the curriculum. The material generated by the project is included in an online database searchable
by discipline, learning activity, key skill and disability. SCIPS is part of Academic Standards and Benchmark Descriptors: Developing Strategies for Inclusivity, a HEFCE-funded
project based at University College Worcester.
SCIPS has also produced a guide to disability etiquette.
- Dyslexia Research Trust
- Based at Oxford University, the trust funds 'cutting edge interdisciplinary research
into dyslexia and other related conditions'. Useful pages defining and describing
dyslexia.
- British Dyslexia Association: Colleges and Universities
- Concise information from the British
Dyslexia Association aimed at FE and HE lecturers about how to identify and help dyslexic students.
- Student Mental Health: Planning, Guidance and Training Manual
- This online guide provides a useful, practical guide for lecturers who
would like guidance on supporting students with mental health difficulties.
(The most useful sections for lecturers are sections 3 and 7).
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Resources for Disabled Students and Staff
- Equality and Human Rights Council
- The council has 'a statutory remit to promote and monitor human rights; and to protect, enforce and promote equality across the nine "protected" grounds - age, disability, gender, race, religion and belief, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation and gender reassignment.'
- Disabled People
- A government website designed to provide information about disability legislation and to help disabled people find out about their
civil rights.
- Skill: National Bureau for Students with Disabilities
- Skill describes itself as 'an independent charity that promotes opportunities for people with any kind of disability in learning and employment.' It provides
free information and advice for disabled people and training for HE institutions and runs events and projects.
- Mind (National Association for Mental Health)
- The ‘leading mental health charity in England and Wales ’.
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