This presentation was given by Les Ebdon, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education at the international seminar “Equity and quality on higher education: from the right of access to the challenge of graduation” on 17-18 June 2016 in Santiago, Chile.

1. Professor Les
Ebdon CBE
Director of Fair
Access to Higher
Education
Professor Les
Ebdon CBE
Director of Fair
Access to Higher
Education

2. English higher education – introducing student finance
• Tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year
• Fees are not payable up front – students receive
Government loans to cover tuition and some living
costs
• Some students are also eligible for financial
support offered by their institutions
• Loans become repayable when a student starts
earning over £21,000 a year
• Students repay 9 per cent of salary over £21,000
• Loans are cancelled 30 years after students
become eligible to repay.

3. OFFA’s role
To promote and safeguard
fair access to higher
education for people from
lower income backgrounds
and other under-represented
groups.
The main way we do this is by
approving and regulating
access agreements.

4. Who are we talking about?
OFFA’s remit is to safeguard access to education for
‘under-represented groups’. These are:
• people from lower-income backgrounds
• lower socio-economic groups
• students from neighbourhoods in which relatively few
people enter higher education
• people who have been in care
• disabled people.

5. What is an access agreement?
• All institutions charging higher
fees must have an access
agreement with OFFA.
• The agreement sets out the
fees the institution will charge
and explains the activities and
support universities and
colleges will take to:
• Raise aspirations and attainment
among people from
disadvantaged backgrounds and
support them to apply to higher
education
• Support these students in their
studies and as they prepare for
life after graduation

6. What’s in an access agreement?
• Data on fees and student numbers
• What the institution plans to do to widen access and
support disadvantaged students through their studies
• Aims, targets and milestones – set by institutions and
subject to my approval
• Monitoring and evaluation arrangements
• Student consultation
• How information for prospective students will be
communicated
• Equality and diversity

7. Access agreement spend
Source: OFFA Publication 2015/04 - Outcomes of access agreement monitoring for 2013-14.

8. Source: UCAS (End of cycle 2015, 18 year olds)
Source: UCAS (End of cycle 2015, 18 year olds)
Q5: Least disadvantaged; Q1: Most disadvantaged
For 18 year olds from low participation
neighbourhoods, the 2015 entry rate was
18.5%, compared with 17.8% in 2014, and
13.6% in 2009
Entry rate among the least disadvantaged 18
year olds was 2.4 times higher than that
among the most disadvantaged (down from
3.7 in 2006).
0%
4%
8%
12%
16%
20%
2006 2009 2012 2015
EntryRate
Entry rate among the most disadvantaged,
2006-2015 (POLAR 3, Quintile 1)
18.5%
0
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
2006 2009 2012 2015
Entryrateratio(Q5:Q1)
Difference in entry rate between most and least
disadvantaged groups
Progress to date

9. Thanks
for
listening
enquiries@offa.org.uk
0117 931 7171
Thanks
for
listening