Widening Access Initiative (Outreach) Award – Commendation
Brookes Engage is a new outreach programme within Oxford Brookes University’s widening participation portfolio, developed in response to evidence from the HEAT service showing that intensive contact with students makes them more likely to enter HE. Brookes Engage has been running since March 2015 and the first cohort graduated from the programme in July 2016. Students are carefully targeted: 76% of students in the first cohort met at least two indicators of deprivation; 100% met at least one. Of the students who took part in the first cohort, 78% enrolled onto a university course in September 2016, and of those, 84% enrolled onto their firm choice university course. Feedback from students on the programme includes 90% of the cohort reporting that Brookes Engage helped them to understand what to expect at university. 86% of the cohort reported that Brookes Engage improved their understanding of the process of applying to university. 65% of the cohort reported that, as a result of taking part in Brookes Engage, they felt more confident about their career choices.