Widening Participation at Glyndŵr University

Pulling down barriers to higher education

Glyndŵr University is committed to ensuring that everyone who has the potential to achieve in higher education is given the chance to do so, irrespective of age, gender, disability, sexuality, race or social background.

A quarter of our graduates come from what are known as low participation neighbourhoods. Put simply, these are people who never thought they could go to university, but did.

On graduation, 84% go in to employment - 72% in to graduate level jobs largely based in North/North East Wales.

Click here to visit Your Future, Your Way - our widening participation web portal.

Meet the students

Read about Emma-Jane's journey from foundation degree to PhD study

Mother and daughter duo Sonia and Kirsty on studying together

Kay Geary on following her dream while battling scoliosis

Martin Webster on developing his career through the MBA - and why going to university later in life shouldn't be a daunting prospect

Tony Pritt on studying part-time to develop his management skills

Setting standards

At Glyndŵr University, it’s important to us that people from lower income households can not only aspire to but also access a university education.

This will help us level the playing field and address key issues such as child poverty and inequality. That’s why we’ve taken the lead in Wales, setting best practice and establishing benchmarks on improving access to higher education.

Working with communities

Our staff work extensively with community groups to provide Adult Learning and outreach promoting higher education to schools and groups. To encourage them to appreciate the university experience, we provide guided campus tours.

We also deliver a full schedule of events and seminars to raise awareness, inspire and engage the local community.

Strong business partnerships enable us to design and deliver qualifications with greater relevance to the workplace.  As well as supporting workforce development programmes, we work with professional organisations to deliver courses offering Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

This means qualifications are relevant and benefit employers and employees alike.

Working with further education colleges

In order to break down barriers to education we offer the chance to study Glyndŵr University courses in further education colleges. These courses offer the chance to gain the benefits of a university education, widening access to those who may not be able to travel to a university. We ensure that the services available on Glyndŵr campuses are available at the partner colleges to enable students to access disability support, Funding advice, study support and access to library services. We want very student to have the opportunity to succeed.

Click here to find out more about our partner colleges.

The Reaching Wider initiative

In collaboration with local partners, Glyndŵr University has been a key player in promoting and developing a range of different  Reaching Wider activities to raise awareness of higher education.

The Reaching Wider initiative is a Wales-wide, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) strategy, established in 2002, to widen participation and access to higher education, supporting social inclusion and up skilling.