Newcastle University-Led NERAP Consortium Celebrates Widening Access Award Success

Newcastle University-Led NERAP Consortium Celebrates Widening Access Award Success

(IN BRIEF) The North East Raising Aspiration Partnership (NERAP), consisting of five universities in the North East region of the UK, including Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland, and Teesside, has been awarded the Widening Access Partnership of the Year at the 2023 NEON awards. NERAP’s success is attributed to its development of the Regional Care Leaver Covenant core offer, ensuring comprehensive support for care-experienced students throughout their higher education journey. By aligning their interventions with national care leaver outcomes, NERAP has become the first regional Higher Education partnership to adopt the agreement. The judges praised the strong collaborative efforts among the universities and their commitment to supporting underrepresented groups. Care-experienced students constitute less than 2% of higher education applicants, but NERAP aims to change that by providing tailored guidance and establishing programs like Choices Together to encourage young individuals to consider higher education. Eddy Conniff, a student who benefited from Choices Together, received commendation as Student of the Year for his inspiring work. NERAP, led by Newcastle University, serves as a long-standing collaboration focusing on pre-16 outreach activities to support young individuals with university potential, irrespective of their backgrounds.

(PRESS RELEASE) NEWCASTLE, 12-May-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Newcastle University, a UK public research university and a member of the Russell Group, announces that the North East Raising Aspiration Partnership (NERAP), comprising five universities in the North East region of the UK, including Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, and Teesside, has been honored with the Widening Access Partnership of the Year award at the 2023 National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) awards. The prestigious accolade recognizes NERAP’s efforts in developing the Regional Care Leaver Covenant core offer, aimed at supporting students with care experience throughout their higher education journey.

The Regional Care Leaver Covenant core offer ensures care-experienced students receive consistent institutional support in various areas, including finance, accommodation, wellbeing, and employment. NERAP has aligned its support and interventions with the national Care Leaver Covenant core outcomes, becoming the first regional Higher Education partnership to adopt the agreement.

Wendy Price OBE, Head of Widening Access and Participation, University of Sunderland, and Chair of the NERAP Regional Care-Experienced Student Steering Group, said: “I’m absolutely delighted that NERAP have received this national award for their innovative and important work supporting care-experienced students across our region. This regional higher education commitment to the Care Leaver Covenant is the first in the UK and a fantastic example of universities collaborating to improve social mobility. This national recognition is thoroughly well deserved and credit to the team who have worked so hard to achieve this.”

Professor Jane Robinson, PVC Engagement and Place, Newcastle University and Chair of the NERAP Executive Board said: “We are thrilled to have received national recognition on behalf of our five partner universities for our collaborative approach to widening access to higher education and our long-held commitment to supporting the progression of care-experienced students.  Our strong partnership and dedicated project team demonstrates what can be achieved through collaborative approaches to support young people in our region.”

The judges commended NERAP for its strong collaborative partnership among the five universities, emphasizing its sector-leading role in supporting care-experienced students and underrepresented groups. Currently, care-experienced students account for less than 2% of all higher education applications, despite 60% of them aspiring to pursue university or college education, as revealed by a recent UCAS report.

In addition to the Regional Care Leaver Covenant core offer, NERAP established Choices Together, an intensive program that assists care-experienced students in years 7-13, helping them envision their futures and the role higher education can play in achieving their goals.

Eddy Conniff, a University of Sunderland undergraduate and HE Ambassador, who successfully transitioned to university through Choices Together, was commended by NEON judges in the Student of the Year category. Conniff’s own experience of progressing from care has inspired and supported others in considering higher education.

Eddy said: “It means so much to me to receive this commendation from NEON, an organisation I deeply admire for the impactful work they do nationally for people like myself. Being care-experienced and estranged when I was younger, I never imagined that University was a possibility for me. That all changed when I attended the NERAP Choices Together outreach programme while I was at school. For the first time I was encouraged to consider university and believed that I could actually achieve it. Now I’m due to graduate this summer, I’m so grateful to NERAP for believing in me and providing this life changing opportunity.”

NERAP, founded in 2011 and led by Newcastle University, serves as a long-standing collaboration among the region’s universities. Its pre-16 outreach activities include joint school visits to promote higher education opportunities and targeted support for care-experienced students and young carers. Each institution within the partnership is dedicated to supporting young individuals with potential regardless of their background, making NERAP an integral part of their efforts.

For further information about the support NERAP can offer please email info@nerap.ac.uk or visit:  https://www.nerap.ac.uk/students/

Image used courtesy of NEON. Pictured from left to right:

Matt Western, Shadow Minister for Higher Education

Kate Murray, Head of Collaborative Partnerships, Newcastle University

Louise Harrison, NERAP Project Manager

Sir Les Ebdon, Chair of NEON

SOURCE: Newcastle University