PURPOSE AND OPPORTUNITY

A Bristolian beacon of purpose and opportunity

HOW UWE BRISTOL IS CHANGING LIFE TRAJECTORIES AND CHALLENGING LONG-STANDING BARRIERS TO SOCIAL MOBILITY.

UWE Bristol leverages its resources, experience and reputation to help shape social mobility practices in other education facilities. It works with its partners in public and private sector bodies and fellow higher education establishments, recognising the crucial role a university can play as an agent for change. It also provides guidance and support for employers in creating clear and accessible pathways towards potential fulfilment. UWE Bristol leads the Future Quest Programme across Bristol and surrounding areas as part of its social mobility efforts. Future Quest is one of the 29 partnerships of universities, colleges and other local partners in the Uni Connect programme. Future Quest involves all four main providers of higher education in Bristol – UWE, University of Bristol, City of Bristol College and South Gloucestershire and Stroud College - which work with local government charities and employers and with 41 schools and colleges to support young people’s progression into higher education. The programme, which started in January 2017 and is expected to run until July 2021, sets up local outreach hubs with cross-England coverage to help schools and colleges access higher education outreach and it invests in local areas where there are unexplained gaps in higher education. By the end of July 2019 Future Quest had engaged with 5,100 eligible learners and had undertaken 245 different activities and engaged in 6,000 hours of interaction. Future Quest is committed to working with its partners to reach out to communities that face the greatest barriers to social mobility and to

equipping them with the tools that will not only help them get into university but also to flourish when they get there. It works by building informed and well-evidenced processes to ensure obstacles to social mobility, including mental health issues, are minimised. It delivers information and support to those communities which have little or no connection with higher education and provides young people, and their parents and carers, with options for their future. But, it does more than merely offering details on universities, it creates a culture of understanding of how and why going to university could benefit them. It has made particular efforts to reach its BAME community and engages the help of people who themselves have benefitted from social mobility to act as inspiring ambassadors. It was reported that half of students starting their degree in 2017 were the first in their family to go to university. Through its #IAmFirstGen campaign, UWE Bristol has forged connections both locally and nationally with people that were the first in their family to graduate and then went on to take on leadership positions in significant organisations. This inspires young people today to identify themselves as potential students and seek out pathways that can change their lives. Future Quest’s effects will be cumulative and it reaches out to the communities which require a long term commitment and, to significantly level up opportunities for their young people, the project has to have time to take root and grow. It believes it needs to be a systemic solution for these communities and that, as intervention always takes time to be effective, it is unlikely that the four-year funding it has been allocated will enable it to demonstrate its real value. Communities need time to develop trust in new schemes and projects, but it is all too common for our political system to embrace the new with each administration change, to allow our elected representatives to reap the reputational rewards. As a business would typically have a 25-year investment strategy, there should be similar time frames to enable long-term programmes that have the potential to provide long term solutions. UWE argues that economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to take years and that, as disadvantaged communities will be badly served by a series of short-term fixes, perhaps now is the time to review the length that projects should be given to prove themselves. Future Quest enables more disadvantaged people to go to university and it connects them with potential employers and life experiences that can change their lives. But, it can also change their communities, improving the local and national economy by upskilling those who might otherwise have remained in low-skilled, low-paid jobs. UWE Bristol has shown that the Future Quest model works and could be replicated by other universities across the country. But, it calls for a new, patient approach of politics to allow it to establish itself as an invaluable and long term resource for Bristol.