Page 10 - Jesus College Strategic Plan 2017-21

Access and outcomes
Access and outcomes have traditionally been focused on undergraduate students.The
College has done much on this front: it was
the rst to appoint a Schools Liaison Of cer and the second to appoint an Access & Career Development Fellow. Much effort has been put into undergraduate access and this will continue, although there are also ways to build on what we have achieved so far.
The access opportunities for this include:
The development of Northgate House and a Digital Hub (see next section) that will provide ideal space to demonstrate our belief in access and public engagement. It will showcase the College and our work, enabling the College to engage with those who are not physically in Oxford. It will also allow us to present a more ‘Open Oxford’ in the hear t of the city; Exploring the opportunities offered by on-line courseware options to reach a wider audience including students in access and outreach work;
Extending funding support for postgraduates. As funding for postgraduates has diminished, access has become an issue for those wishing to pursue postgraduate study.The College
can support postgraduates through enhanced packages and by welcoming more part-time students.The latter would help self-funded students as well as facilitating a yet more diverse pool of postgraduate students.
Linking with other events taking place in College to capitalise on expertise and use experts’ time ef ciently. For example, we will tie in some access events for teachers and/
or pupils with subject events for alumni, and where appropriate open up talks and lectures to local schools;
Continuing to place great importance on attracting applications from a diverse range
of students and lessening the gap in gender admissions;
Building on the success of our Seren hub outreach activities in South Wales by also working with local schools to inspire the brightest students.We will regularly invite local schools to our access events. Speci cally, we will forge a link with a local primary school in Oxford to develop our aspirational work for younger pupils.We will also work more with existing Oxford projects – e.g.‘Oxford for Oxford’; and
Continue fundraising for undergraduate Access Bursaries and for overseas undergraduate support.
Traditionally, an Oxford degree on a CV has guaranteed a good job, but the landscape has shifted. Our students face a very competitive market at home and abroad.We can do more to complement the existing provision from
the Careers’ Service in Oxford, engaging with and channelling the goodwill of our alumni
and other supporters, and enabling them to make contributions beyond nancial support. Tutors help our students to ful l their academic potential in ways that go beyond the speci c subject, and both they and other parts of the College could enhance the value of this further by developing their ability to recognise their skill- set and present it effectively.This would entail:
Engaging with alumni and other supporters to offer research and professional experiences
in the form of internships, career mentoring and nancial support for such opportunities to improve the employability of our students, especially those from non-traditional Oxford backgrounds;
Creating a mentoring and training role in the Academic Of ce which would help students realise their potential beyond their studies and have useful input to our access work
by informing the College of the needs of potential applicants in non-academic areas; Providing more professional and research experiences to complement the academic ones provided by the University, to demonstrate student employability; and Using the postgraduate support scheme for tutors to help with study skills.
10