Our approach to widening participation

At Lancaster University we are highly committed to supporting social mobility and Widening Participation (WP).

Founded on a principle of excellence in teaching and research and supporting our local community and widening access, we believe in the importance of creating a culture of inclusivity and in the importance of providing all students, regardless of their background or individual barriers, with the opportunity to succeed in higher education and beyond.

The University offers a programme of WP interventions at every stage of the student journey to support and empower both our current students and the students of tomorrow to aim higher and to fulfil their potential. Lancaster’s range of scholarships and bursaries for students from a WP background provides vital targeted additional financial support for these students during their studies.

Transparency information for Undergraduate applicants and students – Office for Students requirements

The University is required to publish the following ‘transparency information’ as a condition of its registration with the Office for Students (OfS). The relevant condition reads:

F1. The provider must provide to the OfS, and publish, in the manner and form specified by the OfS, the transparency information set out in section 9 of HERA.

The transparency data relate to our ambitions to enhance participation from underrepresented groups and you can read more about the detail of our targets and ambitions in this area in our OfS approved Access and Participation Plan. For a user-friendly overview of our work to encourage underrepresented groups to continue to study here at Lancaster, please visit our Widening Access pages.

The information published on these pages shows:

• The number of applications for admission on to higher education courses that we have received
• The number of offers we have made in relation to those applications.
• The number of those offers accepted and the number of those who have registered with us.
• The number of students who attained a particular degree or other academic award, or a particular level of such an award, on completion of their course with us.

It also shows these numbers by reference to:

• The gender of the individuals to which they relate
• Their ethnicity
• Their socioeconomic background.

It is important to note that the data presented has not been contextualised. This means, for example, that you will not be able to see from this data how many of those applying to courses met the entry criteria. It is also the case that universities and colleges will often receive many more applications than they have spaces on courses, and so offer rates will necessarily be lower than application rates in those circumstances.

Sector Information and further background

The OfS has indicated it will produce and publish a report on the transparency information in autumn 2019 which is intended to provide a national overview of the information and draw out any key themes that emerge from it. You can read more about the OfS’ requirements in relation to the transparency return in the documents entitled Regulatory advice 8: Guidance for providers about condition of registration F1: transparency information

The data

In order to fulfil this requirement of its OfS registration, the University uses this web page to make available the in full. In addition, the University is expected to include the summary data in these two tables within this webpage, as follows:

Table 1a: Summary of applications, offers, acceptances and registrations for 2018-19 entrants

			Number of applications	Percentage of applications that received an offer	Percentage of applications that accepted an offer	Percentage of applications that led to a registration
Full Time	Ethnicity	White	10130	89.0%	23.8%	22.5%
		BAME	2810	77.1%	17.6%	16.4%
	EIMD quintile	1 and 2	3690	79.7%	19.3%	17.8%
		3 to 5	8710	89.3%	23.7%	22.6%
	Gender	Male	6950	84.8%	22.4%	21.2%
		Female	6120	88.3%	22.4%	21.1%
		Other	N	N	N	N
Part Time	Ethnicity	White	N	N	N	N
		BAME	N	N	N	N
	EIMD quintile	1 and 2	N	N	N	N
		3 to 5	N	N	N	N
	Gender	Male	N	N	N	N
		Female	N	N	N	N
		Other	N	N	N	N
Apprenticeships	Ethnicity	White	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
		BAME	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	EIMD quintile	1 and 2	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
		3 to 5	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Gender	Male	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
		Female	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
		Other	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Key:

N/A: Not applicable as no applicants to this mode and level
N: 24 or fewer students in this population
DP: Data suppressed for data protection reasons

Table 2a: Percentage of first degrees at grade 2:1 or above by characteristic for 2017-18 qualifiers

Ethnicity

• BAME 74%
• White 86%

EIMD Quantile

• 1 and 2 81%
• 3 to 5 85%

Gender

• Female 91%
• Male 78%
• Other N

Key

• N/A: Not applicable as no qualifiers at this mode and level
• N: 24 or fewer students in this population
• DP: Data suppressed for data protection reasons

Important notes on interpretation

In order to provide some important context to these data and inform our work in this area, the University has undertaken additional analysis which has identified the following factors which inform interpretation of this University-level data:

• The average predicted A level score for applications made by BAME individuals was lower than for White applicants (13.9 vs 14.3).
• Over half the applications to the medical degree (which has a low offer rate) were from BAME applicants. If this degree is excluded from the calculation the difference in the offer rates between applications made by White and BAME individuals is much smaller – 89.9% for applications made by White individuals vs 83.6% for applications made by BAME individuals – and can be explained in part by the difference in predicted A level scores (14.3 for white applicants vs 13.7 for BAME applicants, once medicine is excluded).
• The difference in offer rates between the two EIMD groups can also be explained by a difference in average predicted A level scores (14.4 vs 13.7).

This analysis is set out in the following tables:

Ethnicity

Applications	Average predicted A level score	Average achieved A level score	% receiving offer	% applications that accepted offer	% applications that led to registration
White	10,130	14.3	12.4	89.0%	23.8%	22.5%
BAME	2,810	13.9	11.4	77.1%	17.6%	16.4%

EIMD Quantile

	Applications	Average predicted A level score	Average achieved A level score	% receiving offer	% applications that accepted offer	% applications that led to registration
1 and 2	3,690	13.7	11.3	79.7%	19.3%	17.8%
3 to 5	8,710	14.4	12.4	89.3%	23.7%	22.6%

Gender

	Applications	Average predicted A level score	Average achieved A level score	% receiving offer	% applications that accepted offer	% applications that led to registration
Male	6,950	14.2	12.2	84.8%	22.4%	21.2%
Female	6,120	14.3	12.2	88.3%	22.4%	21.1%