COVID-19 has bought many challenges. We were quick to move a lot of our activity online and have been able to continue to support students working with us on our sustained programmes. We've continued to work hard and have put in place additional activity and support, you'll find more information below.

In the current situation we know it is more difficult than ever to find out about university. At Bath our Recruitment, Widening Participation and Marketing teams are working hard to provide resources, activities and events for students, teachers and parents.

Over the summer of 2020 we will have more events and resources than ever before. Alongside all our activity for schools and colleges and ongoing programmes we will be running a suite of additional activity, which you can find more about below.

Visits to the University

For many years we have hosted groups of schools and individuals on campus for a variety of activity. You will be unsurprised to know that we have similar challenges to schools with social distancing and capacity of our site and buildings. We will therefore be limiting external visits to the University. We hope to still run our physical Open Day in September and there may be limited opportunities for year 13 potential applicants to visit the campus, but unfortunately, we will be unable to host other groups on campus until 2021. We have a suite of digital alternatives that will allow students to get the best impression of the University as possible.

Visits to schools

While we know that many schools will choose not to have external visitors, if your school is able to accept visitors then we are happy to visit and present to groups of students or take part in fairs. If we cannot visit you then we are happy to engage digitally either live or we have a hub of resources that can be used as part your planning and teaching.

When COVID-19 began and we were all sent home, we quickly moved all our content online to allow us to still provide information to students. Over the past few months these resources have grown (and continue to) and now include curriculum related, information talks, skills sessions and talks from our own students.

Many students are struggling with the Digital Divide at present. A significant number of school students are lacking regular access to suitable technology to undertake their schooling which has all moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April the Government announced a support package for some students, focused on students who are Care leavers, Children with a social worker and Children in Year 10.

Current policy stipulates that schools must use the budget that is already allocated to their 16-19 Bursary Fund to support students. Where that fund is already fully committed, settings will need to write a business case to the Education and Skills Funding Agency for additional funds. Although there is support there, it is not as easy to access as it is for pre-16 students.