The 2024 NEON Summer Symposium will be held on Thursday 13th and Friday 14th of June at the University of West London and is being supported by StudentPulse.

NEON would like to invite the submission of research papers and examples of best practice for the NEON Summer Symposium 2024. The event is now in its 12th year and regularly attracts over 200 delegates. This year our two-day event will be held on Thursday 13th and Friday 14th of June at the University of West London.

The theme of the 2024 Symposium will be ‘Inequalities in access and success in higher education – the next 5 years’. The next year will see a general election, over 400 higher education providers in England having new access and participation plans agreed by the Office for Students, the launch of the new Commission for Tertiary Education and Research in Wales and a decision on the future of the Uni-Connect programme in England and the development of a new funding model for post-school education provision in Scotland.

It will shape the future path for this area of work to 2030. The symposium will focus on the ideas, the initiatives, innovation and strategies that will support students from all background who have the aspiration and aptitude to progress and succeed in higher education. It will bring together the key stakeholders and leaders from across the UK alongside those taking forward the most innovative practice. Key themes will include:

• What does partnership and collaboration mean now in practice and what is its future?
• What will be the language that best captures work to address inequalities in access and success in higher education over the next 5 years?
• What part can technology play in access and success in higher education work moving forward?
• What is the relationship between outreach, student success and progression work in practice? How and where do they connect?
• What data should be collected on the impact of access and participation work; why should it be collected and how should it be disseminated?

We are seeking research papers/best practice examples that focus on the above theme and investigate the following:

• Research and practice related to collaborative and partnership working both looking at that practice and/or its impact.
• Strategic approaches to access and participation that bring together outreach and/or student success and/or progression.
• Outreach/student success/progression practice with specific groups of learners looking at the specific challenges associated with working with that group and/or the impact being made.
• Innovatory practice across the whole field of access and participation work including ‘work in progress’ and new approaches.
• Research studies that relate to the outreach/student success/progression and the development and relationship to theoretical frameworks related to inequalities in society.
• Research studies that relate to inclusive pedagogical and curriculum practice and also papers on practice in this field.
• The relationship between higher education participation/access & participation practice, types of qualifications and inequalities associated with region, gender, ethnicity, place and other protected characteristics.
• Analysis of the formation, impact and delivery of policies related to access, participation and success in all the four nations of England including Access and Participation Plans (APPs) in England, Outcome agreements in Scotland, Fee and Access Plans in Wales and Widening Access and Participation Plans (WAPPs) in Northern Ireland.
• Policies related to access and participation and their formation, impact and implications for practice and theory.
• General papers related to all aspects of access and participation policy and practice.

We particularly welcome papers from researchers, practitioners, younger members of staff and first time presenters.

We will seek to combine papers into interesting and stimulating sessions, the outcomes of which will be captured by NEON and used to inform our agenda going forward into 2024-25.

Presenting at the NEON Summer Symposium will have a tangible outcome for presenters i.e.:

• Informing the agenda and work of NEON
• Inclusion in the NEON website
• Sharing your institution’s/organisation’s work with a broad range of delegates
• Presenting at the largest UK conference that focuses upon widening access
• Having the opportunity to have your work published via the NEON website.

Paper presentations should be between 15-20 minutes in length with an additional 10 minutes allocated for further questions.

• Abstracts should be no more than 500 words

The submissions are now closed.

Please note: all presenters/speakers of the NEON Summer Symposium are required to register for the event.

Register for the Summer Symposium here.

The NEON Summer Symposium – the event for widening access professionals you can’t afford to miss