NTU in Mansfield - Widening access to Higher Education by connecting with local industry

The main purpose of NTU in Mansfield is to widen access and participation in higher education, increase social mobility in Mansfield and Ashfield and support local businesses to grow through sustainable solutions to local employment skills gaps.

Course teams work with local employers, to embed work-based learning into courses.

All students have opportunities to put theory into practice in a range of relevant work-like contexts or simulations (e.g. employer-led projects and work that is held to professional standards) with authentic and varied assessments. This equips students with knowledge and skills relevant to industry, meeting the needs of employers and employees.

The provision has seen rapid growth over four years

NTU in Mansfield opened its doors in September 2020 with 193 new students studying 12 courses, most of which were newly approved Foundation Degrees specifically designed for delivery in Mansfield. The courses are designed to support students working alongside their degree, who may not have otherwise considered Higher Education. The provision has seen rapid growth over four years and now boasts 40 courses at FHEQ Levels 4 to 6 including Nursing degrees, Apprenticeships and Higher Technical Qualifications and spans disciplines in four NTU Schools: School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment; Nottingham Business School; School of Science and Technology; and School of Social Sciences. A number of approaches have been taken to meet goals of widening access and increasing social mobility, which are detailed in this blog. These include an adapted entry tariff, inclusion of specific course design features, and a strong focus on employability.

To support widening access to Higher Education, the entry requirements for courses at Mansfield are different to those of other NTU campuses, set at 64 UCAS tariff points as a minimum requirement (unless professional bodies stipulate otherwise). In May 2024, 47% of all current students (312 of 664) at Mansfield were from a widening participation background compared with 26% of all NTU. The proportion of mature students at Mansfield is 57% (49% for all UG provision HESA 2021/22¹). The Mansfield student population is made up of 59% (393) of students that provided home addresses in Nottinghamshire or the East Midlands constituencies on application including 21% (138) from Mansfield itself and 13% (83) from Ashfield.

All courses embrace active collaborative learning pedagogy in particular SCALE-UP

Student success is supported on the courses through the learning and teaching approaches and all courses embrace an active collaborative learning (ACL) pedagogy, in particular SCALE-UP (Student-Centred Active Learning Environment with Upside Down Pedagogies). The ACL pedagogy supports scaffolded learning in predominantly small class sizes builds a sense of belonging and community of learning with high tutor interaction and regular feedback. Course delivery comprises full days, half days or evening teaching to best accommodate work and family commitments alongside study. This approach has received positive feedback from students as the timetabled days, or evenings, are consistent to enable students to plan work shifts and other life priorities alongside their study. The set timetabled study also benefits employers to allow them to plan around student availability.

Authentic work-related and applied learning

The provision deploys a rich array of authentic work-related and applied learning that’s embedded throughout the courses. Most courses have placements that are assessed and for some the placement/employment is an integral part of the award, such as Nursing degrees and Apprenticeships. Several courses have students that are already employed within the field of study (Engineering and Teaching) and the qualification is part of their continued professional development.

NTU has also invested heavily in Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) in Mansfield through a Licensing Agreement with Pearson Education Ltd to deliver Higher National awards. Higher National Certificates/Diplomas (HNC/Ds), are respected vocational qualifications with an emphasis on occupational relevance and are benchmarked to Higher Technical Standards. The Higher Technical education offer launched in 2023/24 with two Construction Management HTQs . This will rise to 12 in 2025/26 and will cover Construction, Engineering, Computing and Early Years Education. It will make NTU the largest provider of HTQs under licence with Pearson.

Driving social change and improving local economy

Employability Services are heavily involved at Mansfield, supporting with placements, embedding employability within the curriculum and building connections with local employers to enhance the student experience. The number of students confirmed on placements has risen from 37 in 2020/21 to 108 in 2022/23 totalling 57% of all placement eligible students. Members of the Employability Team are also timetabled to support with the Foundation Degree Professional Practice modules. A real showcasing of the work the Employability Team does at Mansfield comes in the form of the Mansfield Challenge. The Mansfield Challenge is organised by the Employability Team and engages local employers to set a challenge for Level 4 Mansfield students, specific to the subject and industry area. The challenge is optional, however, some courses have timetabled the Mansfield Challenge to ensure student engagement and has raised the number of participants. On these courses, the time spent on the challenge counts towards assessed work-like experience hours. Students work in a team and have one week to overcome that challenge and present a solution to peers and employers at the end of the challenge. The number of students involved has grown each year from 12 in January 2021, in the “pilot” year, to 56 in January 2024. The success and popularity of the Mansfield Challenge has attracted several internal newsroom articles and a piece on Mansfield local radio 103.2 “Business Hour”. Mansfield staff have high praise for the event and the benefits presented to students bringing a tangible real-world problems posed to them by industry in the local area to life.

All of these aspects, and more, come together to start to drive social change and improve a local economy by widening access to Higher Education and supporting success by delivering targeted courses aimed at meeting local business and learner needs. The expansion and roll out of HTQs is a key feature of the future success of Mansfield by widening access to education to upskill the local workforce and capitalising further on new student funding models such as the Lifelong Learning Entitlement by introducing 30 credit modular short courses.