Access Through Preparation

George Taylor,

Principal Lecturer, Faculty of Health & Community Studies,
De Montfort University, United Kingdom.

This paper describes the development of the United Kingdom component of the MÁS programme, an on-line preparation programme for deaf and disabled people, ‘Preparing for Study’.  De Montfort University is the lead partner in the UK, the secondary partner is the University of Bristol and the social partner is Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living.  The programme will be developed according to the principles of the Social Model of Disability, which assumes that deaf and disabled people face structural barriers when attempting to gain access to university, and therefore the preparation programme will need to be firmly embedded in mainstream university provision.  A range of on-line access points will be established where deaf and disabled people can take advantage of different levels of support and advice.  The preparation programme will be designed in such a way that it can attract secure future funding, and will not depend upon grant-aid or time limited finance.     

                                           

De Montfort University (DMU) is one of Britain’s largest universities with more than 30,000 students studying at four different centres.  It is nationally and internationally recognised as a centre of excellence in several disciplines.  This figure is boosted to more than 33,000 by taking into account the University’s partnership links with universities collaborating in joint educational enterprises in every country in the European Union and in many countries in Eastern Europe, as well as in Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Africa, the USA and Canada.

The University has always valued research and scholarship.  Its research activity goes back over 50 years and today the University has over 3,300 postgraduate students, including almost 1,000 students reading for research degrees in a wide range of subjects.

The Faculty of Health and Community Studies has a developing expertise in disability issues.  A research programme has been running for the past six years concerning students who are deaf, students with Dyslexia, and blind students.  Members of the MÁS project team have been contracted to undertake an evaluation of public services with respect to deaf people from minority ethnic communities.  The current focus of interest is access for disabled students to vocational training and employment, and further and higher education.

A central feature of teaching and research within the Faculty of Health and Community Studies is Anti-Oppressive Practice.  Research projects are designed to be inclusive, to represent the views of all participants, and, in particular, to empower the users of public services such as education, health and welfare to participate as fully as possible in the research process.

In the area of disability research, members of the MÁS project team have recently conducted research with disabled students studying in colleges of Further Education, in the Leicester area, aiming to gain entry to university (Taylor & Palfreman-Kay 2000).  These students were all enrolled upon access programmes, specifically designed as a "second chance" for university entry.  Integral to the concept of access programmes is a recognition that not all students will progress through their educational career without difficulty. And that, for some, there will need to be further opportunities to help them achieve their educational aspirations.  Furthermore, it is a recognition that there exist structural barriers which discriminate against certain groups, the most obvious being working class students.

The purpose of access is that it aims to attract “… specific groups of adults in the community which have been identified as under represented in higher education“ (UCAS, 1996: 3). This interpretation ties in with the original aim of access when it was established in 1978, which was to attract “ those groups who have been least well-served by the school system and who face particular barriers to entry to higher education “ (Kearney & Diamond, 1987: 38). Therefore the goal of  access is to provide an entry route into higher education for non-traditional groups such as disabled people and ethnic minority groups.

One finding of the DMU research into access programmes in the Leicester area is a continued under-representation of deaf students on access programmes.  Only in those colleges of Further Education where there was an explicit attempt to recruit and support deaf and disabled students could any discernible progress be identified. 

A common theme throughout the research was the way in which disabled students supported each other.

"This was especially the case on those access programmes where they felt isolated from the main student group, but was also true on other access programmes with a higher level of integration.  Perhaps this indicates that even where the effort is made to include disabled students, it never really feels equal".

(Taylor & Palfreman-Kay 2000) 

It is within the context of this research activity, and the principles of user-participation that the MÁS Project programme in the UK will be developed. 

Aims of the UK Programme

·        To develop a preparation programme to help deaf students to participate in training, education and employment opportunities, and to evaluate its national and transnational application

·        To investigate and develop online teaching of such a programme, to widen access to training for deaf people

·        To report on issues about the transnational application of the programme and the delivery mechanism

Programme:    ‘Preparing for Study’

Study skills module

·        Taking charge of the learning experience

·        Time management

·        Obtaining and interpreting different types of information

·        Effective reading and notetaking

·        Essay writing and exam preparation

·        Effective presentation

·        Developing Information and Communication Technology skills for effective learning

Foundation skills in subject area module

·        Introduction to values

·        Sources of oppression, disadvantage and discrimination in society

·        Organisational context

·        Work role

·        Skills for practice

Work Plan for development of the UK Programme

Sub-task and actions	End date
Identification of material 1.      Research field for existing programmes in study skills and foundation subject skills 2.      Evaluate suitability of identified programmes 3.      Provide link to DMU Preparation Programme 4.      Work with international partners on identification of suitable programmes in other partner countries	June 2001 Sept 2001 Oct 2001 Dec 2001
Development of materials and content 1.      Test results of above subtask within framework of DMU Preparation Programme 2.      Establish suitability of module content for access for disabled students 3.      Collaborate with international partners on suitability of material for transnational application	Dec 2002 March 2002 Dec 2002
Development of delivery modes 1.      Research field for existing online teaching programmes 2.      Evaluate suitability of identified programmes 3.      Establish link with identified material content of programme 4.      Test a variety of identified modes of delivery 5.      Work with international partners to evaluate suitability of identified delivery modes within their national context	April 2002 June 2002 Sept 2002 Sept 2002 Sept 2002
Testing & reporting There will be continual testing of programme materials and content, and delivery modes throughout the project. Each partner will produce a progress report 2 x year There will be specific testing: October 2001 - March 2002: for materials and content October 2002 - March 2003: for materials and content + delivery modes Final reporting will take place in year 3	June & Dec 2001/02/03 March 2002 March 2003

Delivery mechanism

Deaf people, particularly those who use sign as a first language, are a very small group within the general population, and are geographically widespread. Interpreting services are not widely available, and this further restricts deaf students access to training opportunities. The UK programme will investigate, on behalf of the partnership, the use of online teaching and learning as a means of making a wider range of training and educational programmes more readily available to a larger number of students. This will involve working closely with the Centre for Education and Technology Development (CETD) at De Montfort University in developing online teaching and learning, using:

1.      The LANCAM project at De Montfort University.  The LANCAM project is funded by the Leonardo Da Vinci I programme.  It enables workers in industries in Germany, Spain and the UK to study each other’s languages and cultures using web-based learning.  And,

2.      First Class. An on-line teaching programme used extensively in the Faculty of Health and Community Studies.

A Model for Development

Deaf people are often at a disadvantage in vocational training and educational settings because they lack the study skills and background knowledge that are more readily available to some of their non-deaf peers. This is often because they have not had the same wide access to school curricula and to information about different subjects. They share this disadvantage with other groups of people who are similarly excluded, such as members of black communities.

The ‘Preparing for Study’ programme will address this disadvantage by being incorporated into the development of a new level ‘0’ course at De Montfort University for prospective social work students - the first of its kind in the UK - and this will be used as a model for a programme to address the identification and acquisition of study skills, and the teaching of foundation skills in subject areas.

This link with a mainstream university programme is essential.  One of the clear conclusions of the work undertaken for the Leonardo I phase of this project 1998-99, is that “special” programmes are vulnerable to financial cuts and marginalisation, unless they are firmly embedded into the structure of the institution.  Furthermore, evidence from the DMU research into access programmes and the conclusions from the Leonardo I project indicate the need for a “preparation programme” for deaf and disabled students pitched at a different level to either access programmes or university foundation programmes, and the failure of access programmes to meet the needs of deaf and disabled students indicates the need for such a preparation programme to be located within a university rather than in a college of Further Education.  There are some “study skills” programmes specifically for deaf students already in existence in the UK.  They are mostly located in colleges of Further Education with specific facilities for deaf students, and have the advantage, usually, of having close working relationships with schools for deaf children and Deaf clubs.  They often have the disadvantage of not being linked firmly enough with diploma or degree programmes at universities, and therefore cannot feel confident about educational outcomes for their students.

We will pay particular attention to this “transition” period in the UK programme.  One initiative already taken is to establish a working relationship with Derby College for Deaf People, who have the experience of providing training programmes for deaf students drawn from many parts of the UK, and the facilities to be able to act as an access point for the ‘Preparing for Study’ programme.  This is important for two reasons; first, it offers an identifiable venue where students can study the programme.  And, second, Derby College will be able to develop support specifically for students who attend to study the ‘Preparing for Study’ programme.  Another early development is to employ a deaf person as a part-time community development worker on the Widening Participation Scheme, funded by the Educational Directorate Partnerships at De Montfort University.  This enables us to work directly with community groups and colleges in the deaf field, in promoting the ‘Preparing for Study’ programme, and developing an effective approach to marketing and recruitment.

Finally, it essential to take into account the implications for future funding.  A stand-alone programme offered at a commercial rate is unlikely to either address the problem of access to higher education for deaf and disabled students, or attract sufficient numbers of privately funded students to make it financially viable.  One approach is to establish the programme as one route into a university programme, such as we propose with the Honour’s Degree Social Work Programme at DMU, where some of the costs can be offset against student recruitment.  Another approach is to develop a more widely based access route, and we are currently in discussion with a number of local colleges of Further Education with the idea that they could become “access points” for the ‘Preparing for Study’ programme (similar to Derby College for Deaf People).  This would enable those colleges to draw funds from the Further Education Funding Council for England, a major source of Further Education funds, and also enable their students to more accurately plan their Higher Education career. 

The advantages of this model are:

1.      It will be designed specifically for, and by deaf and disabled people.

2.      It will be accessible through a range of access points.

3.      It will provide a secure route into mainstream university programmes.

4.      It will have a wider impact upon current access programmes, and other Further Education provision.

5.      It will provide opportunities to secure future funding.

Bibliography

• Kearney, A. & Diamond, J. (1987), “Access courses: a model for discussion”, Journal of Access Studies, 2 (1) 72-81.

• Taylor, G & Palfreman-Kay, J. (2000),  “Helping Each Other: Relations between disabled and non-disabled students on access programmes”. The Journal of Further and Higher Education, Vol. 24: 1, 2000. [JK1]  

• UCAS (1996), Access Provision: briefing for higher education, Universities and Colleges Admission Service.