Policies and documents
Access and Participation Plan
Our commitment to widening access and participation.
York St John University is home to a diverse academic community and social justice has been at the core of our mission since our foundation as a Teacher Training College in 1841, dedicated to improving educational standards for the most disadvantaged residents of our region.
Today we remain committed to ensuring students of all backgrounds can access and succeed within Higher Education.
We recognise that certain sectors of society have historically been underrepresented in Higher Education and/or faced barriers to achieving success in their studies in comparison to their peers.
Our Access and Participation Plan (AAP) details the areas where we believe we can do better in ensuring equitable access and participation to York St John and play our part in making the Higher Education sector more accessible and equitable as a whole.
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What is an Access and Participation Plan?
Access and Participation Plans set out how higher education providers will improve equality of opportunity for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access, succeed in, and progress from higher education. All plans are agreed with the Office for Students.
Our current Access and Participation Plan covers students commencing study in academic years 2025-26 through to 2028-29. You can read a summary of the plan or the full plan below:
What we aim to achieve
Our overall aim is to improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups at York St John University. Based on our assessment of performance and the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register published by the OfS, our Access and Participation Plan sets 6 objectives to be achieved by 2030 and 3 commitments on which to show progress within the timeframe of the plan:
- Objective 1: To increase the proportion of undergraduate home students from Asian, Black, Minority and Other backgrounds at York St John.
- Objective 2: To reduce the awarding gap between students with at least one A-level and students with vocational qualifications only.
- Objective 3: To reduce the continuation, completion and awarding gaps between students from low-income backgrounds and students from more affluent backgrounds and reduce the progression gap between students from the most underrepresented areas and students from well represented areas in higher education.
- Objective 4: To reduce the University’s ethnicity awarding gaps.
- Objective 5: To reduce the continuation and completion gaps between young and mature students.
- Objective 6: To eliminate the continuation gap between students with a declared mental health condition and students without a declared mental health condition.
- Commitment 1: Continue to build strong partnerships with schools to raise pre-16 attainment in York and North Yorkshire.
- Commitment 2: Ensure young people from military families have equality of opportunity to access and succeed at York St John.
- Commitment 3: Identify gaps and barriers faced by commuter students.
Achieving our aims
Our Access and Participation Plan sets out specific activities which are designed to deliver the objectives and address the commitments outlined above. The plan also contains information about university wide initiatives that will support our access and participation work.
Specific activities
- Expanding our contextual offer scheme.
- Delivering enhanced and targeted assessment support for students arriving at York St John with vocational qualifications only.
- Targeted offer of graduate internships to students from underrepresented areas or groups.
- Bespoke induction activities for mature students during Welcome Week.
- Engaging with our students from military families and commuter students to build knowledge about their experiences and challenges accessing and succeeding at York St John.
University activities
- A Student Hub designed to deliver a rapid-response student triage, support and information service that will reduce wait times, improve query resolution rates, and empower students to access self-service support.
- YSJ Scholarship Plus. This offer invites scholarship recipients to take part in a range of opportunities designed to enhance belonging, confidence and engagement.
- Embedding our Inclusive Education Framework to empower staff and students to work together in building a truly inclusive living and learning environment encompassing accessible teaching, learning and assessment; transparent structures and processes; partnership working and personalised support; and clear pathways to success.
Measuring what we have achieved
Our Access and Participation Plan sets out how each activity will be evaluated. We will collect quantitative and qualitative data at different stages of each of the activities, which will be analysed by our new Evaluation Team and shared internally and externally via the new Higher Education Evaluation Library (HEEL).
For more information on the evaluation of our APP activities please email evaluation@yorksj.ac.uk.
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Fees we charge
The Access and Participation Plan as approved by the Office for Students also includes approval of the course fees we are permitted to charge. A summary of our fee information can be found below:
Previous Access and Participation Plans/Agreements
Covering students commencing study in academic year:
