Development and use of Faculty Profile data sets as a tool to support embedding institutional strategic objectives relating to fair access and progression of students at one Higher Education Institution

Kingston University is a medium sized HEI with a mission that addresses the current government agenda of increasing and widening participation in higher education largely through a commitment to increasing the number of students from non traditional backgrounds. This has led to a far more diverse applicant and student population and has raised questions from staff around the nature and meaning of Widening Participation and of the appropriate ways to utilise resources to engage with the issues. The university is addressing this through improving the way in which its strategic plans are disseminated through the provision, to key staff within faculties, of data sets that clearly indicate the relative performance of students from groups defined by the extent to which they meet the Widening Participation criteria used by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Through this methodology planners within faculties at this university are better able to allocate resources given in recognition of the increased cost of attracting and educating non-traditional students and to address their specific needs. This paper outlines the development of faculty profile data sets and discusses their use.