NEON Working Group – Widening Participation in Postgraduate Study

The NEON Working Group aims to bring together practitioners and researchers to share best practice, innovate and test models that will:

• Widen access to postgraduate taught and doctoral study addressing gaps where there is under-representation. This includes a project to trial the use of additional criteria in the admissions process;
• Contribute to the depth and breadth of understanding of barriers to, and within postgraduate study, sharing research and considering intersections of disadvantage;
• Consider metrics for the evaluation of intervention activity to support progression of under-represented groups , and within, postgraduate study;
• Seek opportunities to share best practice at a national level.

Agenda

1. Welcome and introductions (Louise Banahene)
2. Updates from Special Interest Groups
   1. Maximising Recruitment of Diverse Cohorts, Including Recruiting Students who are not Studying in HE, Scholarships, etc (Louise Banahene)
   2. Sources of IAG at Pre-Application Stage (Ann-Marie Houghton)
   3. Careers and Employability (Iwi Ugiagbe-Green)
3. Update on supporting the legacy of UKRI/OfS funded projects and proposed next session on pre-entry/admissions
4. Student Experience: case studies on findings from the Aspire and Generation Delta projects (Speaker: Francis Awolowo, Sheffield Hallam University and Donna Chambers, Northumbria University)
5. Interactive session on developing strategies for enhancing the postgraduate student experience