UCL’s Access and Widening Participation Office launches institutional conversation

2026 marks UCL’s bicentenary and it also marks 25 years since UCL's first Access and Widening Participation strategy was published. Developed to raise awareness of higher education among underrepresented groups, the strategy paved the way in enabling more students from these backgrounds to study here at UCL.  

As we mark this milestone, we are launching an institutional consultation to explore the future of widening participation at UCL. The discussion will allow staff to reflect on past achievements and contribute ideas for how the university can continue to improve access to higher education.

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This survey will close at midday on Friday 27 March 2026.

In the last 25 years, the Access and Widening Participation (AWP) team has made significant progress in widening UCL’s UK undergraduate intake and helping more young people see university as something that can happen for them, here at UCL and beyond. 

To date, an estimated quarter of a million young people have attended UCL's outreach projects. In this time, the AWP team has worked with over 2,500 schools across the country and run over 1,000 outreach activities.

Lucie March, Head of Access and Widening Participation, said: 

“

UCL200 and the 25th anniversary of widening participation at UCL provide the ideal space to reflect on and reinforce our commitment to UCL's founding values. In the Access and Widening Participation Office, we want to use this opportunity to engage the UCL community in an institutional conversation about widening participation. We will celebrate past and current successes and develop a consensus on what widening participation at UCL could look like in future, both within and beyond the regulatory framework of the Office for Students (OfS).” 

As part of this consultation, we would like to gather staff views on four key areas: 
 
• Contextual Admissions 
• Widening Participation Beyond London 
• Postgraduate Widening Participation 
• Staff Support 

Have your say on the future of Widening Participation at UCL:

Have your say

This survey will close at midday on Friday 27 March 2026.

Further links:

• View UCL's Access and Participation Plan for 2025/26 - 2028/29
• Learn about Access UCL, our contextual admissions scheme
• News from UCL's Access and Widening Participation team
• Learn more about the Access and Widening Participation Targeted Support Groups