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Discover UCL Summer School for D/deaf and hard of hearing students: wins national award for innovation

6 February 2015

The Discover UCL Summer School for D/deaf and hard of hearing students has gained national recognition for their innovative work by winning the 2015 HELOA Best Practice and Innovation award.

Discover UCL Summer School for D/deaf and Hard of Hearing Students: wins national award for innovation

The accolade from HELOA (Higher Education Liaison Officers Association) is awarded on an annual basis to organisations that showcase outstanding best practice and innovation in their widening participation initiatives.

Deaf students are severely under-represented in higher education. At UCL, for example, they make up less than one per cent of the yearly student intake and the figure is similar nationally. The work that the UCL summer school does to raise aspirations and make university accessible to this demographic is essential. 

Widening participation

Piloted in 2014, the residential summer school for D/deaf and hard of hearing young people in years 11 and 12, was set up by the Widening Participation and UK Undergraduate Recruitment team in collaboration with UCL's Deafness Cognition and Language Centre (DCAL).

Research suggests that it is the first residential summer school of its kind to be run by a university. At the 2014 summer school, 20 participants had the opportunity to meet other D/deaf students with similar aspirations to them, learn about specific support available at university, meet current deaf undergraduate students and experience a taster of university.

Award winners

Speaking about the importance of the award Alice McLaren, Senior Access Officer, UCL Student Registry Services, said: "We are really delighted that the Discover UCL Summer School has been recognised on a national level, confirming its place as a model of best practice for widening university access for D/deaf young people.

"The Discover UCL Summer School is based on a very real need to widen university access for D/deaf and hard of hearing young people. Students with serious hearing impairments are dramatically under-represented in higher education."

Alice added: "The summer school was not only a lot of fun to run, but also a great success and had a huge impact on the individuals involved. All of the participants would recommend the programme to peers, while 20% of the Year 12 participants have made applications to UCL and a significant number have applied to other higher education institutions."

The UCL Widening Participation and UK Undergraduate Recruitment teams will be collaborating with DCAL to run the 2015 summer school from 11-13 August.

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