Bristol's submission to OFFA approved

12 July 2011

An update from the Vice-Chancellor with regard to the University's submission to the Office for Fair Access.

In summary, these are:

Outreach and Retention

A commitment to increase our investment in outreach activities to over £2m a year by 2015/16, as well as a range of annual progress measures that reflect our aim to increase the number of students that come to Bristol from traditionally low participation groups. These groups include:

low-performing schools and colleges;
low-participating areas;
socio-economic groups 4-7;
students from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Fees

Within the proposals we set out a scale of fees with the objective of supporting those who find it most difficult to access the many advantages that an undergraduate education at Bristol provides, as well as a wide range of support to aid the majority of households.

The proposed range of fees was as follows:

A tuition fee of £3,500 p.a. for all students whose residual household income is £15,000 or below;
A tuition fee of £4,500 p.a. for all students whose residual household income is £20,000 or below;
A tuition fee of £6,000 p.a. for all students whose residual household income is £25,000 or below;
A full tuition fee waiver and an annual maintenance bursary valued at £3,750 for those Access to Bristol ‘graduates’ who have a residual household income of £25,000 or below;
A tuition fee of £9,000 p.a. for all students whose residual family income exceeds £25,000 per year.

Taken together, these proposals represent a reinvestment of approximately 35 per cent of any additional fee income we receive over £6,000.

The preparation of our submission to OFFA represented a significant amount of work by colleagues and I would like to thank them for their effort and achievement. Of course, we must now deliver upon the proposals set out within our agreement and much work will need to be done from now and over the next 12 months.

As we digest the likely implications of the White Paper as well as work through the details of our Access Agreement, it is clear that we will be operating in a more competitive environment. A clear focus on delivery, both in terms of the experience we provide for our students as well as in our outreach activities, will be of paramount importance and I have every confidence that we will rise to these challenges.