CHAPTER 4

1. Opening up access

2. Supporting Young People

3. Further education and the Kennedy Report

4. Learning at home and in the community

5. Higher Education and the Dearing Report

6. Opportunities for students with learning difficulties and disabilities

7. Making the most of libraries and the creative industries

8. Working Together

9. Priorities for early action

10. On-line consultation

The Open University success story... The Open University (OU), based on open entry and supported high quality open learning, has shown how much can be achieved by adults of all backgrounds and ages. More than two million people have studied with the OU since it started. 200,000 will do so this year, including more than half of all part-time UK undergraduate students. The OU has increased access and extended opportunities to those who might not otherwise have entered higher education. Two thirds of OU students are aged between 30 and 49; three-quarters are in full-time employment; half are women; some 5,000 have disabilities; and almost half of OU graduates had fathers who were in manual occupations. Over one-third of the OU's undergraduate students did not possess normal entry requirements on joining, but an impressively high percentage go forward to achieve credits and qualifications or continue learning in other institutions. The OU is one the UK's great education success stories.

Getting more young people to think about a university place... HiPACT is a national network of 16 higher education institutions aiming to motivate young people in schools without a strong tradition of entry into higher education. Businesses and other organisations can support the work of HiPACT. Under HIPACT's Target Achievement Programme (TAP) institutions have agreed to give special consideration to applicants from participating schools and, in many cases, reserve conditional offers at achievable grades which recognise that their grades alone may not fully reflect their potential. HiPACT works with other organisations to help co-ordinate motivational activities including summer schools and university visits. A survey of TAP projects showed that it can transform attitudes to higher and further education and helps motivate even those pupils who decide not to apply to university.

Using libraries to get people learning... When Shibani Basu was appointed as community librarian in Merton, she realised that local Asian women made relatively little use of the library service (although they did bring their children). The library was a safe and respectable place to meet and therefore a potentially important resource for them, so the Asian Women’s Association was set up in 1988. Membership now stands at over 250. Activities include workshops, discussions, lectures, arts and crafts sessions, health education and assertiveness courses. Meetings and events are carefully timed - afternoons, for example, are much better than evenings when the women often have family responsibilities. Members not only learn a wide range of skills through the meetings, but have in some cases gone on to take training courses (for example on running a small business).