Fostering social mobility

The University of Liverpool is a leader in widening access and striving to improve social mobility.

The University excels in widening access and enhancing social mobility among its students. It is a leading Russell Group institution in promoting participation and improving student outcomes.

Work by the University covers the entire student life cycle. This includes widening participation by raising aspirations and providing enrolment support for those from underrepresented groups, otherwise known as “Getting In”. In addition, the University supports students once started University and preparing them life after, known as “Getting on”.

Getting in

A key measure of Widening Participation performance relates to the proportion of students successfully gaining a place from the most underrepresented backgrounds. As measured against POLAR4 postcode data, the University of Liverpool consistently performs in the top three of the English Russell Group universities, with an average of 10.5% of entrants over the past 3 years living in the most underrepresented national quintiles. This figure, as a percentage and in terms of overall student numbers, has increased year-on-year since 2019-20.

Liverpool’s strategic policy aims to enhance access for underrepresented students, with a particular focus on those from the Liverpool City Region. In the Liverpool city council area, 32.3% of children live in poverty, and GCSE attainment is lower than the national average.

Key programmes

Merseyside Young Health and Life Scientists: prepares students for higher education and careers through hospital visits and academic workshops. Benefiting 250 students in 2022/23, it expanded to 300 in 2023/24..

Future Goals Partnership

The University, Into University and the LFC Foundation, have created a learning centre in Anfield; providing academic support, aspiration rising programmes, mentorships (from UoL students), and non-academic life skills sessions. The centre achieved a 60% University progression rate (compared to a 23% local average) in 2023. This success led to a £3 million expanded Future Goals partnership, with Everton in the Community, and the Steve Morgan Foundation, that included the opening of a second centre in Kirkby in October 2023. Since 2017, both centres have supported over 5,100 students, received 193 mentor volunteers from, and made 87 visits with over 2,000 students to the University

Liverpool Scholars

A range of activities to Year 12 students to take part in that support their entry into higher education. Source: Intouniversity

Liverpool Advocates

A programme of current students supporting widening participation. In total, the students have contributed 11,500 hours of work in 2022/23. Over 25% of students helping were previous outreach programme participants. Other success programmes include Student Guild volunteering, scholarships, Career, and Disability Coaches.

In 2023/24, the Widening Participation team worked with around 7,000 students, 1,650 of whom were on long term projects, such as Merseyside Young Health and Life Scientists, and Liverpool Scholars.

Getting on

The University supports underrepresented groups in succeeding in their academic and professional goals.

The Careers and Employability team at the University of Liverpool provides students with a range of support, tools, and activities that are designed to help them get the skills and experiences they need to be successful. Front and centre of their offer is the Career Studio; an accessible and friendly space on campus with twenty current students trained as Career Coaches. Working within the curriculum, they help students connect their academic learning into the workplace, utilise digital tools to practice CV writing and interviews, and have a huge range of other events, such as the careers fairs boasting over 100 employers.

Careers and Employability Service has won several prestigious national awards, including the AGCAS International Award for demonstrating an outstanding commitment and contribution to working with students, relevant employers, and promoting internationalisation.

In addition to this overarching employability offer, the Equality+ programme is specifically designed to help underrepresented students overcome barriers and access opportunities. Equality+ has a wide range of additional events, talks and experiences for students to take part in and highlights include the programmes below.

The Digital Accelerator Programme

For 2023/24, this programme aimed to enhance career opportunities for commuter students by addressing the digital skills gap. Commuter students were trained as “digital coaches”, that equipped them with an understanding of industry needs, and design their own digital skills session that were delivered to fellow students. 18 digital coaches delivered 104 sessions covering 13 unique topics.

Career Confidence for Women programme

This programme supported female students from under-represented groups in their penultimate year of study until the end of their university studies. Programme initiatives included:

• Employer-led masterclasses
• Speaker sessions by inspirational women
• Mentoring support.

50 students benefit from the programme annually, with 80% from the 2019-2021 cohorts now in highly skilled jobs.

The Rise Programme

The Rise Programme is delivered by the social mobility charity upReach. It aims to provide 60 widening participation students with personalised, one-to-one career support throughout their University experience. The programme assists students in exploring career options, tracking their progress, and significantly improving their chances of securing graduate employment, especially in comparison to peers from similar backgrounds. upReach works closely with leading graduate recruiters to further enhance students’ employment prospects. If all 60 places become filled or a student is not eligible for Rise, students can still benefit from upReach’s additional support through its other programmes.

Enterprise Challenge

This programme recruited 21 students from widening participation backgrounds to participate. The event took place in Berlin, where students collaborated with peers from two other universities. Throughout the challenge, participants were tasked with solving a real-world business problem designed to test their creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork skills. Industry professionals and employers were present to provide guidance, mentorship, and feedback, helping students refine their ideas and gain valuable insights into the professional world. Students also received financial support through the Employability Fund, which aimed to alleviate financial constraints and ensure that the students could fully engage in the challenge and maximize their experience.

Additional programmes include:

• Employability Fund bursary, providing up to £500 to nearly 100 students to cover expenses related to work experience and employability boosting activities
• Discovery Day events for students from underrepresented backgrounds
• EQ+ award to recognise outstanding contributions of students in advancing equality, diversity, and inclusivity
• “Strawberry Field Steps to Work” experience and training for young people with learning difficulties
• “Exceptional individuals” tailored career support and consultancy for neurodiverse people
• Catch22 Employment and Training
• Change 100 that connection students and graduates with disabilities to summer placements.

The University offer the EQ+ programme as part of our inclusion efforts, but Careers and Employability (C&E) are committed to making sure that EDI is not just an “add on”. The C&E team work collaboratively to continuously review the University’s services for accessibility and inclusivity. However, without specific, targeted interventions, like EQ+, gaps will persist for students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Every year, the Career Studio sees around 2,500 widening participation students, in 2023/24, over 4,500 widening participation students attended at least one employability event.