The University will publish clear and accessible information to help prospective students choose the higher education institution and course that is right for them:
- A description of courses, including what and how students will learn
- Entry requirements, including an explanation of any selection processes and how they will work (e.g. interviews or auditions), and how to apply
- Tuition fees and funding, including any additional costs and/or optional extras that are not included in the tuition fees
- The level of financial support that will be offered to students in each year of study and the eligibility criteria for this support
Prospective students are advised to read the following information before applying:
The University reserves the right to apply an annual inflationary increase in fees for both new intakes and continuing students in line with an appropriate inflationary measure set by the Government each year (and within the appropriate maximum fee cap).
The University will offer the following financial support to students from underrepresented groups entering the University in academic year 2024/25:
- An annual bursary of £1,000 for the duration of the course if the student’s household income is below £25,000 or £600 if the student’s household income is between £25,001 and £36,592
- A one-off bursary of £1,000 if the student studied at Buxton and Leek College within three years of moving into higher education at the University of Derby
Prospective students are advised to read the following bursary information
The University is reviewing its financial support offer for academic year 2025/26 onwards. A variations request containing the proposed changes will be submitted to the OfS for approval in academic year 2023/24. The University will seek to tailor its financial support offer to best meet the needs of the target groups identified in this plan and to secure the maximum positive impact on students’ continuation, attainment and progression outcomes.
Annex A: Assessment of performance
Methodology
A thorough assessment of performance was undertaken to identify the most significant risks to equality of opportunity. The assessment was primarily based on the OfS access and participation data - both the aggregated sector-wide public dataset and the individualised provider-specific dataset.
Additional underrepresented groups that are relevant to the University, but not included in the official APP dataset, were mapped onto the individualised file to allow for assessment beyond the boundaries of the predefined dataset.
In considering the performance of underrepresented groups that were not included in the official APP dataset, the University followed the same suppression rules applied to the official APP dataset. Specific groups i.e., students who are estranged from their families, and students from Roma, Gypsy and Traveller communities, refuges and children from military families were markedly below these thresholds, and so the data was not robust enough to include in the official assessment of performance. However, the University is continuing to track and monitor the performance of these underrepresented groups.
UCAS end of cycle data were also used as evidence to further inform the assessment.
A risk-based scoring model was applied to identify significant indications of risk. The model accounted for:
- The size of the performance gap between the target group and comparator group
- The population size of the target group
- The statistical uncertainty associated with the performance gap
- Both aggregated data and single year data points to identify persistent and emerging risks, and direction of travel
- How the University’s gap and indicators compared to the sector and HEIs of a similar composition and mission
Once priority areas were identified, an additional layer of analysis was undertaken to explore further the intersectionality of the underlying data and to understand how the University’s risks align with the OfS Equality of Opportunity Risk Register.
Table 1: Analysis of OfS access and participation data
The outcomes of the University’s assessment of performance and identification of potential significant risks to equality of opportunity are presented in table 1.
Our assessment of performance identified that lower continuation and attainment outcomes have persisted for black students following our previous APP submission and are now observed across all ethnic subcategories. Consequently, we have chosen to broaden our focus to include the equality of opportunity risks faced by all students of colour (BAME) within our objectives and intervention strategies, whilst cognisant that black students are disproportionately impacted by those risks. The University monitors student performance internally by ethnicity at a disaggregated level.
Completion gaps between target and comparator groups were considered but disregarded following the assessment. The reason for doing so is that continuation and completion are strongly related metrics, with the latter tracking withdrawal over a longer time frame. The largest proportion of withdrawals occur between Year 1 and Year 2 (and so in scope of the continuation metric). Using continuation will have the added benefit that the impact of the interventions will be realised for students at the earliest stage.
Students from areas of higher deprivation, those being Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Quintiles 1&2 were also identified as an indication of risk. This risk was disregarded following the intersectional analysis, which highlighted that the IMD gap was primarily driven by ethnicity, which would lead to duplication of objectives. For example:
- For White and BAME students from IMD Q1/2, performance gaps exist for BAME students for continuation (5.6pp), completion (6.6pp) and attainment (15.2pp)
- For White and BAME students from IMD Q3-5, performance gaps exist for BAME students for continuation (8.8pp), completion (3.6pp) and attainment (17.4pp)
The inclusion of students who had previously been in receipt of free school meals will ensure that White, male and female students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are supported through this APP alongside their BAME peers from all backgrounds.
ABC continuation and completion quintile gaps were identified as a potential risk during our assessment of performance. Our analysis of ABCS data revealed the target groups and intersections which comprised the ABCS Q1 continuation and completion populations. For example, in analysing continuation outcomes, we identified that 42% of the ABCS Q1 population was BAME. The University chose to focus its APP objectives, intervention strategies and targets on specific student groups as these categories would be more widely understood by students and their influencers. However, progress in improving outcomes for these target groups will have a positive impact on ABCS Q1 performance.