NEON Summit: Enabling access to higher education for disabled learners: How can HE do more?

Access Academy Training

  • Date

      15/03/2018

  • Location/Venue

      Central Manchester (venue tbc shortly)

  • Time

      9:30 am - 4:00 pm

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Supporting disabled students to succeed in higher education remains prominent on the HE policy agenda – as can be seen through the work of the Disabled Students’ Sector Leadership Group and their 2017 report ‘Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Higher Education as a route to Excellence’. However, the journey to HE begins well before entry and it is crucial that HE providers work with schools, colleges and other stakeholders to ensure that learners with disabilities receive bespoke support to enable them to progress to HE at the pre-entry stage. This event will focus on how to support the progression of disabled learners into HE, what HE is doing to enable this alongside whether and how HE could be doing more.

Who should attend?
This summit will be of particular interest to:

  • Widening participation managers;
  • Outreach managers;
  • Access officers;
  • Admissions Directors and Co-ordinators,
  • Admissions Officers;
  • Heads of Student Support services;
  • Equality and Diversity professionals;
  • Colleagues working within the NCOP initiative.

Speakers

  • Professor Geoff Layer, Vice Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton, Chair of the Disabled Students Sector Leadership Group;
  • Dr Adam Boddison, Chief Executive, National Association of Special Education Needs (nasen);
  • Dr Graeme Atherton, Director of NEON;
  • Dr. Navin Kikabhai, Chair of the Alliance for Inclusive Education;
  • Sarah Howls, Head of Student Opportunities, Higher Education Funding Council for England;
  • Peter Riley, Head of Widening Participation and Student Financial Support, Manchester Metropolitan University;
  • Representatives from Manchester Metropolitan University and Greater Manchester Higher.

More speakers to be announced.

Preliminary Agenda

Timing/ActivitySpeaker
9.30 – Registration
10.00 – Welcome from ChairDr. Graeme Atherton, Director, National Education Opportunities Network.
10.10 – Supporting Disabled Students over the student lifecycleProfessor Geoff Layer, Vice Chancellor, University of Wolverhampton
10.30 – Supporting disabled learners to enter HE: The present context (Panel discussion)Sarah Howls, Head of Student Opportunities, Higher Education Funding Council for England;
Peter Riley, Head of Widening Participation and Student Financial Support, ManMet;
Martin Webster, Operations Manager, NEON.
11.30 – Break
11.45 – Reaching out to disabled learners: What is being done? (Case Study 1)Greater Manchester Higher
12.30 – Reaching out to disabled learners: What is being done? (Case Study 2)Manchester Metropolitan University
13.15 – Lunch
2.05 – Supporting disabled learners to progress to HE – What needs to be done? (Panel discussion)Dr. Navin Kikabhai, Alliance for Inclusive Education;
Dr Adam Boddison, Chief Executive, NASEN.
3.15 – Improving participation of disabled learners – How do we move forward? –Group discussion
3.45 – Summary and close

 

Places at this event are strictly limited so early booking is advisable.