Higher Education Performance Indicators

Teesside is the second most successful university in England in attracting young people from neighbourhoods where traditionally people have not entered higher education (23% of its students coming from these neighbourhoods).

Only Sunderland has a higher percentage of its young full-time undergraduates coming from low participation neighbourhoods (30%).

Teesside also has a high percentage of its first-degree students completing their studies. It has made a one per-cent improvement on last year and this places Teesside’s projected success rate in the top half of the English modern universities.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Derek Fraser, said: “Taken together these two key Performance Indicators published today by the Higher Education Funding Council demonstrate that Teesside is widening participation, particularly attracting younger students, and at the same time improving the projected rate of success for our first degree students. This is a double success story for Teesside and comes after a string of excellent teaching quality assessments earlier this year for our Health and Design courses.”

“The Performance Indicators are conclusive evidence that the students and staff at the University of Teesside are succeeding in both widening participation and increasing the number of students gaining an award.”

Asked what is the reason for Teesside’s success, Professor Fraser said: “I think the figures show we are responding well to the Government’s wish to encourage a wider mix of young people to enter higher education. Our schemes with local school children like the Meteor Programme, which starts by targeting primary school children, demonstrate that Teesside is committed to doing even more in the future to encourage more students from low participation neighbourhoods like central and east Middlesbrough to come into higher education. We also believe that the University of Teesside provides a positive and supportive environment, which has improved enormously over the last ten years thanks to a £50m programme of campus improvements - new library, new IT facilities, new student centre.

“Of course, we are delighted by today’s endorsement of our work. It confirms what we have always believed as the Opportunity University that widening access can go hand in hand with quality and success.”

Among the important initiatives helping to underpin Teesside’s widening participation strategy is the Summer College. This provides a range of programmes in June/July/August, which act as a bridge to university for people who need to top up their knowledge and skills before starting their degree or diploma courses. There is also a very active student support service within the University, which offers help and guidance on a wide range of non-academic issues, including student finance.

Key Point: The Performance Indicators are a major achievement by all concerned at Teesside and the latest figures are not only a one per-cent improvement on last year’s Performance Indicators but also place Teesside’s projected success rate among the top half of the English modern universities.”

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