St Mary's Wins Award for Outstanding Widening Participation Initiative

The Widening Participation team at St Mary’s University, Twickenham (SMU) has won the 2024 London Higher Award for Outstanding Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year for its ‘Get Set for Success’ programme.

Get Set for Success was first piloted in 2012 and is now run by the Widening Participation Student Engagement team at SMU. It has grown into a popular annual extended induction initiative, including a residential event before Welcome Week and peer-peer telephone callouts across the first year. The aim of Get Set for Success is to give incoming widening participation students confidence, practical information, and a sense of belong about university life and SMU.

The programme features a variety of sessions and activities to provide incoming students with key information to familiarise them with the University and the range of academic, social, sport, and Support Services available. It also provides an opportunity to meet other incoming students and members of staff informally.

All Get Set for Success activities are fully funded by the Widening Participation team at SMU, including sessions, meals, activities and accommodation for residential attendees. More than 400 students are invited to attend from traditionally under-represented or disadvantaged backgrounds.

London Higher is a membership organisation for universities and higher education colleges across the city of London. The London Higher Awards give recognition to the important work that higher education institutions are doing across the capital.

The Outstanding Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year award celebrates widening participation initiatives that have made a real impact on a student’s readiness, attainment, or progression in higher education. Submitted initiatives are judged on background and purpose, clear evidence of success, and how the initiative stands out from standard widening participation practice in the sector.

SMU came top against a strong shortlist in the category, with entries from Roehampton, City, Queen Mary’s, Middlesex, and Ravensbourne Universities.

Speaking on this achievement Dean of Teaching and Learning at SMU Adam Longcroft and Head of Widening Participation Nikki Anghileri said, “We are delighted that our Get Set for Success programme has received this wonderful recognition from London Higher. The programme has evolved over the years, and every year we have carried out detailed evaluations and impact analyses so that we can better understand how to make it better. Student feedback has been a critical aspect of this.

“The programme has been fine-tuned into a genuinely ground-breaking initiative that has a fantastic positive impact on students from widening participation backgrounds. Perhaps one of the best indicators of its impact is that the student participants often become involved in the delivery of the programme in subsequent years. This award is a fitting reward for the amazing team who lead the Get Set for Success programme – as the Head of Service and Head of Widening Participation we are very proud of what they do and how they do it.”