A ‘Students First’ approach

The top 5 things we do at the LLC to remove barriers for our students.

Here at the Lifelong Learning Centre, University of Leeds (LLC) we create transformational educational opportunities, working with students and communities that are under-represented in higher education.

Using a social justice approach, we actively work to remove barriers for adult learners thinking about returning to study, as well as younger students who may have experienced educational or socioeconomic disadvantage.

For seven years running the LLC has been successfully re-accredited by the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) standard, and we were particularly gratified when a recent assessor noted how:

“We make particular efforts to identify hard to reach and disadvantaged groups and individuals and have developed our services in response to their specific needs.”

In practice this means taking steps to get some basic stuff right, and after reflection by our Student Support and Student Experience teams we’ve come up with the top 5 things we do to make education accessible to under-represented students.

1. Creating the possibility — the role of our fantastic, volunteer ‘Learning Champions’

When our outreach team starts talking to students in college and community settings about studying at university, they often hear participants say they’ve never considered it as an option because no one in their family has been to university before. Many of our students also had difficult experiences at school. This is where our ‘Learning Champions’ play a powerful role.

The Learning Champions scheme is a well-established initiative whereby mature students currently studying at Leeds meet adult learners who may not have previously considered university as an option. Their powerful testimonies based on personal experience and inspirational messages about how they’ve overcome barriers can plant a seed. Many of our students who’ve chosen to study at Leeds and with the LLC mention that being able to hear from and meet our Learning Champions felt like a massive influence on their decision.

2. Every interaction matters — warm and empowering conversations

Universities are complex, jargon-heavy places. Academic language can often exclude; how many times do we come across pithy blurbs that use terms like ‘interdisciplinarity’ and ‘pedagogy’! At the LLC we avoid using such language, opting instead to talk to people in warm and friendly ways.

Whether we’re talking to commuter students, student carers or students with disabilities, we take time to listen and explain the support that’s available and how to access it. We also consider new ways of engagement via different platforms and ask students how well this is working for them so we can tweak our approach.

Some learners find the campus intimidating, particularly if they’ve never visited before. To remove this barrier we’ve created accessible ‘How to find us’ videos, and campus tours are a feature of many of our pre-entry events. The purpose of these activities is to help participants think of the campus as a place where they belong.

3. The ‘stepping stones’ approach — understanding the journey

Students from under-represented backgrounds typically have a longer pre-entry journey, and so we put ‘stepping stones’ in place to help learners cover the distance.

We run regular events for adult learners who are thinking about university, and use these as an opportunity to introduce participants to our support team and share information about the support we offer. Many prospective students may have ruled themselves out, thinking that they need GCSEs and A-Levels to study at university, and we take time to listen to and unpick this misunderstanding. We explain the University’s alternative entry scheme for adult learners and how we can help them prepare to apply via this route. We also introduce learners to ‘JumpStart’, our short pre-entry taster course that provides an introduction to university study and academic skills.

We remain on the sidelines throughout, ready to facilitate a student’s journey. As my colleague Fiona Chapel, who leads the ‘JumpStart’ course, has observed:

“…through our pre-entry engagement work we frame ‘adult literacy’ in a positive way which takes into account people’s existing skills, experiences and reasons for learning. Through working alongside our students we’ve developed an understanding that all of these are powerful drivers which can motivate adults to fulfill their learning aims.”

4. The authentic self — from belonging to mattering

Bringing our authentic selves to work and study is an empowering way of being. Our teams actively encourage staff and students to bring their authentic selves to work. Our students often talk about the resilience they’ve gained from having tough life experiences. Our teaching is designed according to the same principle: our tutors have developed authentic assessment approaches and value the life experiences students bring to the classroom.

5. A physical home — connection and conversation

Students from under-represented backgrounds — a category which includes many mature students — can sometimes experience the campus as a place for young school leavers who have had a more linear journey into higher education. Furthermore, the complexity of life circumstances means that mature students require highly responsive and specialist support. The LLC offers a physical home for mature, part-time and Foundation Year students to socialise, chat with staff and access this support.

A student coming into the Centre first connects with our Welcome Desk team, who greet people and put them at ease. We also have a dedicated ‘Resource Area’ open Monday to Friday where students are welcome to hang out. Here informal peer networks emerge organically, and many of our former Foundation Year students — who’ve since progressed to courses of study elsewhere at Leeds — like to return to the LLC to connect.

Our Welcome Desk team brings the ‘magic touch’ to make the space feel relaxed — colourful bunting, fresh plants, a small referencing library, a bank of computers, toy boxes and books for children make the space feel warm and inclusive. The physical and visual aspects of this space sustain a sense of ease and authenticity for our diverse cohort of learners.

Above all, our insight into students’ experience is gained through talking to them, embedding their voice through formal and informal means and taking the time to get to know them as individuals.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn in a slightly edited form on 12th January 2024.