The basics
What is an access agreement?
An access agreement will cover a period of up to five years.
It could be a short document setting out the fee limits an institution intends to set, the measures it intends to take to safeguard and maintain fair access, and the milestones it will set itself around fair access.
Institutions are required to use some of the money raised through tuition fees to provide bursaries or other financial support for students from under-represented groups, or to fund outreach activities to encourage more applications from under-represented groups. An access agreement will provide the details of bursary support and outreach work.
It is for an institution to decide, dependent on its access needs and priorities, what proportion of additional fee income it assigns to bursaries and/or outreach. We do not prescribe levels of income to be spent, but institutions whose record suggests that they have further to go in attracting a wider range of applications will be expected to be more ambitious in their access agreement.
Can the access agreements be compared?
Institutions are very different in size, subjects offered, entry criteria, location, costs of living and their starting points in widening participation. It is therefore difficult to make simple comparisons between access agreements and between the levels of financial support offered. Because it is difficult to compare agreements like for like, the best way to understand schemes is to read them in detail together with information provided by institutions on their web sites.
Wider context
Access agreements do not exist in isolation and should be considered in the context of the institutions overall situation and approach to widening participation. We have made it clear that we expect less investment from institutions that already have an excellent record in widening participation than from those with furthest to go.
Levels of investment
All institutions have carefully considered their starting position and the appropriate levels of financial support and additional outreach activity necessary to safeguard and improve access for lower income students. Institutions have made complex decisions to arrive at an appropriate balance between investment in financial support and additional outreach and investment in the institution as a whole.
Estimates/assumptions
Access agreements are, to some extent, based on estimates and assumptions (for example, on numbers of students likely to be enrolled and future income threshold levels for state support). Therefore elements of the agreements are indicative and subject to minor amendments.
We recognise the difficulties of planning access agreements where several factors are uncertain. Where assumptions detailed in agreements are superseded by events, we understand that institutions may need to make revisions to their agreements.