Project title: Engineering Progression from School to Year 2 at Imperial
Funding awarded: £99,450
Summary:
Students from low socio-economic backgrounds face significant barriers to progression. This innovative project supports students for an extended period as they transition from School into their first year and second years at Imperial. The project focuses on four key areas: academic progression, retention, enrichment, and belonging. The project has been co-developed with students and Imperial’s ‘working class network' and draws on a recent pilot project. It provides strategic interventions and relationships at different inflection points, creating opportunities for leadership, academic and personal development as part of a broad package of support.
What need does the project address?
The project addresses the lower levels of progression and retention in widening participation (WP) students. For this project WP includes students from low socio-economic backgrounds, students with no parental HE history, student in carer or who are carers and others who may not fit this criteria but are disadvantaged in one or more ways.
What will the student experience?
The programme of activities include a pre-enrolment residential, academic mentoring, personal development support from department champions and a fully-funded 6-8 week research opportunity. Students moving through the programme become role models and mentors for students in upcoming cohorts.
What are the expected outcomes?
The overarching goal is to increase the retention and success rate of WP-students, giving them insight into academic research careers.
The intermediate outcomes are:
- Increases sense of belonging and empowerment
- Increased motivation for engineering disciplines
- Academic progression