Widening participation criteria

To be eligible to take part in our widening participation activities and initiatives, we ask that you meet at least two of our widening participation criteria. These are:

• People from a low income background (i.e. household income of £30,000 or less)
• People from lower socio-economic groups or from neighbourhoods where higher education participation is low (POLAR Quintile 1/IMD Q1&2/TUNDRA Q1)
  
• People who are first in their family to progress to higher education (i.e. parents/guardians have not attended university. This does not include siblings or other close family relations)
• People who are (or were) entitled to free school meals or Pupil Premium or the 16-19 Bursary
• Certain minority ethnic groups
• People with a long-term illness, health condition and/or disability
• People with a mental health problem
• People with a Specific Learning Difficulty and/or Autism Spectrum Condition
• Care leavers or people with care experience
• People with caring responsibilities
• People estranged from their families
• People from Gypsy and Roma communities
• People from Traveller and Irish Traveller communities
• Refugees or asylum seekers
• Children from military families
• Mature students (those aged 21 and over)

We also ask that you are a UK student or are attending a UK school in order to take part in our widening participation activities.

Please note: Some projects have additional requirements for you to take part.

We may ask that you meet specific criteria from the above list to take part in a tailored activity, and some of our activities may require you to meet certain academic criteria.

Projects that require you to meet additional criteria will include this information on the webpage or as part of the application process. All WP projects will specify the age group that can apply. Most of our widening access activities are designed for students in Year 8 to Year 13.

If you have any questions regarding our widening participation criteria or wish to check for any additional requirements for a project you are interested in, please get in touch on outreach@lancaster.ac.uk.