Widening Participation

Background decorative pattern Background decorative pattern

The University of Chester has a strong reputation and track record for welcoming students from a wide range of backgrounds and providing students from under-represented groups and disadvantaged backgrounds with a high quality and supportive experience.

The University will continue its long-standing commitment to:

  • Widening participation and fair access by investing in increasing its intake of undergraduate students from under-represented groups and disadvantaged backgrounds. The University works with schools and colleges to improve the achievement of children and young people, and raise awareness of and aspiration to Higher Education (HE)
  • Delivering high quality learning and teaching and the provision of support services to include, retain and develop successful learners who may have diverse characteristics
     
  • Supporting students throughout their time at University and beyond, underpinning our commitment to their progression by providing opportunities to enhance their readiness for  graduate employment or further postgraduate level of study.

Significant investment has been made in these areas over the years, including financial support, as part of our commitment to the Office for Students (OfS), previously Office For Fair Access (OFFA), and our approved Access and Participation Plans​ which set out the University's plans for continued investment in activities to ensure fair access, student success and progression for students from under-represented groups and disadvantaged backgrounds.​

Resources

For more details on the University's aims and aspirations regarding Learning and Teaching, please consult the Inclusive Curriculum - Learning and Teaching Strategy (2017-2022).

Information we provide includes a wealth of support regarding student finance, including all the facts about Tuition Fees. Get to know our widening participation experts and find out about their work.

We offer both general and specialist bursaries and scholarships, and have more details on bursaries available from the NHS on our Bursaries and Scholarships pages.

Resources and Useful Links

Access and Participation Plan

The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator for Higher Education in the UK, its role is to work with higher education providers to make sure that students access, succeed and progress beyond higher education.

As part of our registration requirements with the OfS, Access and Participation Plans set out the University’s strategy for continued investment in activities to ensure equality of opportunity in access, success and progression in Higher Education for all underrepresented groups.

The University’s current and past Access and Participation Plans can be found below:

Any Access Agreements prior to 2019/20 can be accessed directly from the Office for Students (OfS) website.

See our Provider Fee Information for 2023-24.

In addition, from 2019/20 as part of the annual monitoring process, the University provided the Office for Students (OfS) with information about its progress toward meeting targets and written commitments via a new Impact Report. Our approved Impact Reports can be found below: