Nottingham Trent University is among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and was the first university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge launched by Justine Greening MP. The aim of the pledge is to share best practice among participating organisations to discover solutions to improving life chances, regardless of someone’s background.

The news proves that women at Nottingham Trent University work for an employer that has an ongoing commitment to inclusion for everyone.

Improving access to university for all

After signing the pledge, Nottingham Trent University collaborated with Think Social Mobility, a research arm of the Social Mobility Pledge, to create a report giving insights into its achievements in improving access to university and increasing attainment levels of students from areas where participation in higher education is low.

The report, called Closing the UK’s progression gap, also provides recommendations for other universities and businesses to follow. These include using data to identify and target support for students who may be at risk of falling behind or dropping out of university. It also highlights Nottingham Trent University research demonstrating that taking a sandwich year placement increased graduate prospects regardless of a student’s background and levelled the playing field between advantaged and less advantaged students.

Top recruiter of students from disadvantaged backgrounds

Nottingham Trent University is among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. A total of 82% of its graduates go on to graduate entry employment or graduate entry education or training within six months of leaving.

Justine Greening MP also revealed the results of a Social Mobility Pledge survey into people’s expectations of universities in improving life chances during her visit to Nottingham Trent University.

“Basically, people across our country rightly have an expectation that universities are open to students irrespective of their background – yet three quarters of people believe elite universities are not doing enough to recruit students from less well-off backgrounds – but also about what happens once students are there," says Justine.

“Nottingham Trent is a great example of a university that understands the importance of this. They are using technology to track signals often missed by the human eye and to then generate an intervention in good time. The overall effect is improved engagement, which is a key factor in higher levels of social mobility.”

Helping students achieve the best possible outcomes

The report was launched at the Nottingham Trent University's Clifton Campus where the MP also met students and saw an exhibition of photographs submitted by staff and students at Nottingham Trent University, demonstrating what ‘opportunity’ means for them.

Professor Eunice Simmons, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at NTU, welcomed Justine Greening to the campus, nearly six months after she last visited to see NTU sign the Social Mobility Pledge.

“It was a pleasure to welcome Justine back to the university. We are keen to share our experiences with others so we can all work towards helping our students and graduates achieve the best outcomes possible," says Eunice.

"It is why we were the first university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge and it is why we are proud to have been able to work with Think Social Mobility to produce the Closing the UK’s progression gap report which we hope will allow others to benefit from the successes we have achieved in this area," she adds.

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