Widening Participation

Widening participation
QM is committed to widening participation to students who for social, economic or cultural reasons have previously been inhibited from progressing to Higher Education.

Key Widening Participation Objectives:

• Increasing student numbers from non-traditional groups
• Extending collaborative working relationships
• Promoting staff understanding of diverse student groups
• Creating an appropriately supportive infrastructure

Community participation
As part of this strategy, QM Student Services encourages partnership working with other institutions and community agencies to identify and develop new routes into further and higher education for local people wishing to return to learning.

The Head of Student Services has a community participation role to:

• Actively participate in community learning partnerships, networks and groups
• Investigate new widening access opportunities
• Encourage development of innovative route into further and higher education
• Support academic and other colleagues to develop new courses

Examples of new opportunities developed by these partnerships are:

• Higher Education Certificate in Environmental Justice
• Higher Education Certificate in Creative Media Practice
• Higher Education Certificate in Creative Industries
• Certificate in Higher Education for Carers
• Education for Participation: the Voices of Older People
• Midlothian Families Matter
• Progress through Learning Midlothian

Partners past and present
Partners past and present include:

• Napier University
• Edinburgh of Art
• University of Edinburgh
• Pilton Video
• Access to Industry
• Midlothian Council Community Learning and Development
• new leaf
• Jewel & Esk Valley
• Friends of the Earth Scotland
• Whale Arts Agency
• Stevenson Edinburgh
• Skillnet
• VOCAL (Voices of Carers across Lothian)

For more information on our widening participation initiatives, please contact: Lande Wolsey, Head of Student Services on tel: 0131 317 3163