Progress on Access and Participation at DGHE: See Our 2023–2025 Report

Posted on 20/05/25

At DGHE, we believe higher education should be inclusive, supportive and empowering for everyone. Since autumn 2023, we’ve been working hard to deliver on our Access and Participation Plan (APP). This is a commitment we made to our students and the Office for Students (OfS) to improve access, success and progression for underrepresented students.

In our first two years, we can report that we are on track to exceed all our Access and Participation targets! This includes increased diversity among our students, narrowing gaps in students’ continuation to second year, and attainment of Merit and Distinction.

Below is a quick overview of our impact to date, with a link to the full report.

Highlights

– 25% of new entrants are from Minority Ethnic backgrounds (2024-25 Target: 11%)

– 10% of new entrants identify as disabled (2024-25 Target: 7%)

– 43% of mature students are achieving Merits or Distinctions (2024-25 Target: 39%)

– Closed the gap in continuation to 2nd year between White and Minority Ethnic students from 12% down to just 2% gap (2024-25 Target: 10%)

– Closed the gap in attainment between the most and least deprived students from 54% down to just 7% gap (2024-25 Target: 21%)

 

DGHE has achieved progress across all our target areas. We expanded financial support, stronger student support services, more outreach to our local community, improvements to our curriculum, more staff training, and new online/hybrid flexible learning options to accommodate busy students.

 

Download the full APP Progress Report here.

 

“We see this as core to developing our students’ spirit of inquiry and full potential in a supportive, inclusive environment.”
— Paul Talan, Head of Centre

“I was really impressed by the fact that they had students from multiple countries with multiple backgrounds. So it’s a lot of diversity… made me feel like, OK, I’m in the right place.”

— DGHE Student