The Bath Outreach Network is a community of practice for academic departmental staff and PhD students who are interested in outreach. The Network is run by the Widening Access team and opportunities to get involved in our outreach work will be shared with the Network. It can also be used to connect with others across the University who are involved in outreach to share experiences and resources, and to get advice and support.
How staff can get involved with Access and Participation
Details of how staff at the University can help us to achieve our aims for Widening Access and Participation.
Widening Access
Access is one of the largest challenges highlighted in the Access and Participation Plan. The Widening Access team provide targeted outreach programmes, and build relationships with schools and teachers in order to help encourage students from under-represented groups to apply to the University of Bath.
You can get involved with some of the outreach activities already being delivered, contact Nerys if you are interested. The Widening Access Team are also keen to support others to undertake outreach and do that through a network of staff engaged in or interested in delivering outreach.
Bath Outreach Network
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School Governor Network
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The School Governor Network supports University staff who are governors in schools. As part of our Access and Participation aims, the University wants to support staff who are making a difference in schools by taking up the role of school governor. The School Governor Network is a community of practice for University staff who are governors in schools to share advice, support and resources.
Closing degree awarding gaps
Widening Participation does not end once students arrive at University. Degree awarding gaps exist between certain groups of students across the University. The Centre for Learning and Teaching have produced an overview of the challenges and some of the research of how we can address these persistent gaps. Within the Access and Participation Plan we have targets to reduce the awarding gaps for certain groups.
Understanding degree awarding gaps
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Analysis of data across the University shows there are awarding gaps for some groups of students. An overview of the gaps is presented in the Access and Participation Plan at an institutional level. To understand them more fully in your department you may want to consider looking at data available on the wiki.
Teaching and Learning
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Considering the role of learning and teaching in student attainment and outcomes links to all of our curriculum principles, notably supporting the needs of all learners and articulating a course-wide approach to learning. Inclusive teaching is not about lowering standards. Instead, it is about ensuring our students can work in a way that enables them to fulfil their academic potential by enabling them to work effectively in a way that is transparent, efficient, and flexible.
The Centre for Learning and Teaching have resources and content to consider the ways in which we teach and assess to ensure it is inclusive of all students.
You could start with their overview of the degree awarding gaps or their framework for inclusive teaching and explore their resources from there.
WP Research Standing Group
The Widening Participation Research Standing Group (WPSG) brings together researchers and practitioners from across the University who are working on widening participation related topics in some form or other - or are just interested in WP. The group meets once per semester to discuss issues relating to WP, to share our research projects and plans and allow communication between WP researchers and the WP practitioner teams at the University.
The group is lead by Professor Matt Dickson, more information contact Matt
Contact us
For more details about the Bath Outreach Network or the School Governor Network please get in touch.