Category: News

On behalf of everyone at CAVA we would like to congratulate all those who have completed their Access to Higher Education Diploma. 

CAVA will be issuing your certificates and transcripts to your colleges on 24 July, which will then be forwarded to you. This is the earliest date that results, certificates and transcripts can be released. 

Each college will distribute in their own way, for more information on your college, please contact them directly.

CAVA will also share your final grades with UCAS on 24 July to support your progression into higher education. UCAS will take a few business days before releasing your results to universities, after this point this will become visible on your account. 

 We wish you the very best with your next steps. 

 

CAVA wants to hear from you!

Here is our student survey, we would love to hear your input – Everyone who completes the survey and leaves their contact details will be entered into a draw for a prize of £50. We value your input and use it to inform our work with our providers to improve the student experience. 

When you receive your certificate and transcript, you will also receive a letter which will include the link to the survey. 

Appeal of grades

When you receive your grades, if you believe that you have grounds for appealing your results  then please contact your course leader. They will support you in identifying the grounds for your appeal, gathering the relevant information and they can submit an appeals form to CAVA on your behalf. 

This will be considered by a CAVA appeals panel and your college will inform you of the outcome.

There are only two grounds for appeal, no other reason will be considered. The possible reasons are as follows:

• • evidence of administrative error in the assessment process
  • extenuating circumstances that, for good reason, could not be notified prior to the awards board.

 

CAVA will hold four grade appeals boards as follows:

• 19 July 2023
• 9 August 2023
• 21 August 2023
• 4 September 2023

Please contact your college before these dates, if you wish to submit an appeal.

 

UCAS Tariff

There is a tariff calculator on the UCAS website to enable students to calculate the UCAS points for any combination of Access to HE grades.
UCAS also has a useful video which explains how the tariff system works.

 

Below are a few examples of grade combinations achievable on the Access to HE Diploma and the equivalent UCAS points. 

Pass credits	Merit credits	Distinction credits	Tariff points	A Level tariff point example
45	0	0	48	EEE (or single A grade A-level)
30	15	0	64	DDE (or two grade C A-levels)
15	15	15	96	CCC
0	45	0	96	CCC
0	30	15	112	BBC
0	15	30	128	ABB
0	0	45	144	AAA

 

The full table for all qualifications is available for download on the UCAS website.  

 

Stay in touch

We have a CAVA alumni group on LinkedIn and Facebook,  where you can keep in touch with classmates and network with other CAVA Access to HE Diploma students. 

We really encourage you to use this space to share stories about your progression to higher education, and your career aspirations.

We are always looking for students to write case studies about, inspiring future students and highlighting your achievements. 

If you’d be interested in sharing your story, please email g.green@cava.ac.uk 

FAQ

 

What should I do if I haven’t got my results?

You will receive your results directly from your college. If by 1 August you haven’t received them, contact your college directly for further information. 

What should I do if I didn’t get the grades I wanted?

If you didn’t achieve the grades you were hoping for, contact your chosen university directly. From 5 July – 17 October universities and colleges use the  clearing system. If courses have available places, they will offer them to students who didn’t meet the requirements.

Find out more on the UCAS clearing page.

 

How can I explain what an Access to HE Diploma is to a university?

The Access to HE Diploma is a full level 3 qualification, equivalent to A Levels, which prepares students for studying at university. It is designed for people who would like to study in higher education but who left school without sufficient qualifications.
If your university would like more information, please direct them to our website.

International Women in Engineering Day is celebrated on June 23rd each year to recognise the achievements of women in engineering and to encourage more girls and young women to consider engineering as a career. 

 

As the field continues to evolve, there will be even more opportunities for women to make their mark. Women are already making significant contributions to engineering, and their impact is only going to grow in the years to come.

 

The Future of Women in Engineering

 

Women have made significant progress in the engineering field in recent years. In 2022, women made up 16.5% of the engineering workforce in the United Kingdom. Even though this seems low, this has been steadily increasing over the past few decades. In 2010, women made up only 10.5% of the engineering workforce.

 

There are many reasons why more women are choosing to pursue engineering careers. 

 

One reason is that there are now more opportunities for women in engineering than ever before. There are more women-friendly companies, more female role models, and more resources available to help women succeed in engineering.

 

Another reason for the increase in women in engineering is that the field itself is changing. Engineering is no longer just about building bridges and skyscrapers. It is now a diverse field that encompasses a wide range of disciplines, from computer science to environmental engineering. This diversity of opportunities makes engineering a more appealing field for women.

 

Resources for Young Women Interested in Engineering

 

If you are a young woman who is interested in engineering, there are many resources available to help you get started. Here are a few of the most helpful resources:

 

• Access to HE Diploma (Engineering): A level 3 qualification designed for adults to gain a recognised route into university.
• Mentors: Find a mentor who can help you explore the field of engineering and provide guidance and support. The Women’s Engineering Society has a range of women who could be mentors, including their President, Dame Dawn Childs DBE FREng.
• Scholarships: There are many scholarships available to help women pay for college and university. Get in touch with your institution’s Student Finance Team to find out more.
• Summer programs: There are many summer programs that can help you learn about different engineering disciplines and gain hands-on experience.

 

Access to HE Diploma (Engineering)

 

CAVA’s Communication and Events Officer spoke to two women who have previously studied the Access to HE Diploma (Engineering) at City College Norwich to discuss their experiences within Engineering.

 

They stated that despite their classmates being predominantly men, it felt that women often performed better as they could process the information from a different perspective, often proving beneficial. They enjoyed focusing on different areas of engineering, however Mechanical Engineering was the most exciting and enjoyable 

 

Their top piece of advice to women considering going into this field was, “Don’t be afraid, believe in yourself and just go for it!” ’

 

Both women spoken to have gone on to study at the University of East Anglia and are studying Maths.

 

Thank you to both women who gave up their time. Everyone at CAVA wishes you the best with the rest of your studies.

QAA’s 2021-2022 statistics demonstrate that only 23% of students entering the Access to HE diploma are men. This low representation is presented around the nation across all Access to HE Diplomas. Despite the figures nationally, CAVA has a number of colleges which buck the trend and demonstrate positive recruitment and retention figures of young male students.

In the spring term 2023, our Quality Manager investigated this good practice with three of our colleges – City College Norwich, Bournemouth and Poole College and College of West Anglia – to share with our CAVA community.

The first recommendation all three colleges emphasised was the importance of understanding the motivations of male students and including these in their marketing. In their experience, men respond to clear progression pathways and links to specific career goals. Course leaders observed that men under 24 often have a driving ambition and a deep-seated motivation to progress in their chosen career.

From the conversations it was evident that male students enjoy practical, hands-on activities such as technology-related assignments. Highlighting these during recruitment and focusing on subject-specialist teaching is another way of generating increased interest among male students.

Another suggestion was the importance of adapting delivery for the individual needs of students. For example, male students are more likely to present and have diagnosis of learning differences, as women often mask these issues therefore making it harder to identify and support. All three colleges make an active effort to be aware of different learning needs and integrate this awareness into both their teaching and assessment.

One adaptation which has been brought in, is working with smaller groups allowing for catering to different learning styles, providing individualised support, and fostering a calm, respectful environment. Practical activities relevant to the subject matter were found to be particularly engaging for young male students, along with regular check-ins and sharing sessions to build confidence, encourage group bonding, and address hopes and fears.

The colleges all reported success in adapting their assessment methods to reduce stress for young male students. One example from City College Norwich was their piloted podcast assessments instead of in-person presentations. This allowed students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a more comfortable format.

Another key piece of advice was to introduce individual learning plans and target setting, which provide a clear roadmap for improvement, ensuring male students always had something to work toward. Balancing the challenge level is important, as too much pressure can lead to discontent, while too little challenge may result in disengagement.

It was clear that retaining young male students contains a range of challenges outside of the college’s control. A few of the reasons mentioned include: mental health issues, lack of support at home, financial pressures, and a preference for immediate earnings over long-term study commitments. Understanding these factors and addressing them through targeted support and guidance can contribute to improved retention rates.

The CAVA team would like to thank the course leaders for giving up their time and sharing their insights with us.

Access Validating Agencies are required by QAA to ensure that Access to HE Diploma assessments are appropriate for the delivery method and for the demand required, and facilitate valid assessment of student achievement. However, reliance on regulation alone can encourage an overly procedural approach, with a dependence on remedial action once assessment standards are deemed to be insufficient or inconsistent.

Over the last few years, to support the identification of issues within assessment standards at an earlier stage, CAVA has been exploring with our providers and moderators what it means to have valid assessment, and how we can measure validity in assessment design. Informed by these discussions, we have developed a new guide which provides a definition of the term ‘validity’, and practical questions to support consistent measurement of particular aspects of assessment design. The ‘Guide for reviewing the validity of assessments’ can be found in the Resources section of the CAVA Members Area.

The guide highlights four key areas of assessment design:

the alignment of the assignment/exam with the knowledge and skills laid out by the assessment criteria

the alignment of the assignment/exam with the conventions of the subject and what is recognised as important knowledge within the associated sector

the translation of assessment criteria into question and item selection within the particular assignment/exam

the importance of clarity and conciseness and the relevance of tasks to the knowledge and skills under assessment

Aspects of the guide may feel familiar to CAVA provider staff and moderators, as it is aligned to the QAA requirements for assessment design and standards, and mapped to the broader questions on assessment within the CAVA External Moderator’s report template. The guide can be applied to any assessment type, and it is recommended that it is used as a prompt to explore and answer these broader questions at the moderation stage, and to strengthen the validity of assessments which are under development.

Beyond the use of the guide in assessment development, we recommend the following ‘top down approach’ when designing assignments/exams. Keeping a focus on:

the key intended progression routes of a programme

the knowledge domain deemed as important by HE within that subject area

the needs of the target student group

how the above factors determine the subject content, level and structure of a programme

This provides a systematic, efficient, and informed method for the creation of assignments and exams. Similarly it is important during moderation to keep in mind the overarching intended purposes of the assessment to support the evaluation of the assignment/exam against the questions within the guide and identify the most pressing areas for improvement.

It is hoped that using the guide will improve our evidence-based identification of good practice in assignment brief design, a benefit which is already being seen in the quality and detail of this year’s moderator feedback on assessments and in the development of our quality assurance steps for the buildup of our library of assignment briefs.

On Friday 2 December we held our annual CAVA conference, once again in person. It was a real delight to have our 84 attendees join us in Cambridge, to feel the energy and buzz of the CAVA community being together once again. The schedule was packed with keynote presentations from the QAA and the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University; alongside workshops on internal moderation, integrating sustainability into Access to HE Diplomas, and promotion and recruitment; and talks from our beloved CAVA Student Award winners and runners up.

The conference explored the theme of “Sustaining the Future of Access to HE Diplomas”, with three strands running through the sessions. 

Firstly: sustaining the robustness of the qualification. From the QAA, we learned that a defining feature of the Access to HE Diplomas has been its flexibility. The qualification’s flexibility has been key in responding to local needs; national priorities; and international circumstances. It has allowed students to continue to complete their studies to a high standard and progress to positive destinations. As we emerge from the most disruptive period of the pandemic, we must ensure the qualification remains robust and flexible in responding to future student needs. As a result, the QAA is undergoing a review of the Access to HE Diploma Grade Scheme; Diploma Specification; and AVA licencing arrangements. The QAA’s consultation on the Diploma Specification is open until 13 December and all stakeholders are encouraged to respond via this link.

Access to HE practitioners also gathered in a workshop on internal moderation to explore the importance of this type of quality assurance and share good practice in operating internal moderation in their institutions. We invited participants to test a new CAVA internal moderation sampling form, as part of an exercise to review and provide feedback on student samples. We are grateful for everyone’s feedback and we will integrate this into our processes. A revised sampling form will be released in the new calendar year.

Our second strand of the conference explored sustaining the relevance of the qualification. From the Global Sustainability Institute, we learned that “sustainability is not simply another subject to be learnt but a fundamental change in the ways we view the world”. We were challenged to consider how we move from learning about sustainability (level 1 single loop learning) to learning as sustainability with a ‘movement of the mind’ (level 3 transformational learning). This employs a systems approach, where students are encouraged to question paradigms and consider sustainability in all aspects of their learning. This challenge was considered as part of our workshop on integrating sustainability into Access to HE Diplomas. Participants highlighted the need to integrate sustainability into all aspects of the curriculum, with expert-informed examples of the relevance of the 17 UN sustainable development goals to all subjects. Discussion also highlighted how sustainability needed to be integrated into all aspects of the institution, not just the curriculum, to enable the mindset shift required for sustainable behaviour. 

Our third strand of the conference focused on sustaining the recruitment to the qualification. In our workshop, participants reviewed adult student personas to consider the different types of students that undertake Access to HE Diplomas. The personas were collectively refined and will be made available to all CAVA members in the Promotional Resource Library in the CAVA Members’ Area. CAVA members are invited to join our Promotions and Recruitment working group, which meets twice a term to support collective recruitment activities. Please email website@cava.ac.ukto register your interest.

Our day concluded with our CAVA Student Awards. All students nominated were worthy of recognition, and our two runners up and two winners shone through their outstanding commitment to study and academic achievement. The exemplary support provided by their academic and pastoral teams was mentioned by each student, highlighting that we will sustain the future of the Access to HE Diploma through our collective care and passion for this life-changing qualification.

The CAVA team would like to thank all of our speakers and all of our attendees for your engagement on the day!

The AoC annual conference took place at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham across two full days on 15 and 16 November. CAVA’s Deputy CEO Emily Ross and Communications and Events Officer Sam Whitaker were pleased to attend both days and their key insights from the sessions they attended are summarised below.

The conference touched on the country’s current big issues such as the changing job market, the cost of living crisis, pandemic recovery and climate emergency, and encouraged delegates to consider how skills and the FE sector can respond to, and be part of, the solutions to these issues. In addition to these big issues, the sector is also seeing ambitious curriculum reforms to qualifications from entry to Level 5. Delegates were encouraged to consider the educational landscape for 2030 and reflect on the impact for study programmes and adult courses both nationally and at local level.

In a landscape which is seeing such changes, a critical starting point for leaders in the FE sector is to focus on the steps they can take to impact their working environment, the positive changes they can effect at their institutions, and strategies and methods for protecting their own mental health and wellbeing. Dr Sophie Bostick, Sleep Scientist challenged delegates to take up methods for maintaining healthy sleep patterns, whilst Professor Kevin Fong OBE spoke about his experiences working as the National Clinical Advisor in Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response for the COVID-19 incident. Key learnings were how to adapt one’s own and one’s institutional work styles to meet the challenges posed by high-risk and unpredictable situations, and how appropriate delegation of authority and effective communication with one’s team and stakeholders supports reflection and resilience within the workplace.

Graham Hasting-Evans, CEO NOCN and Tracey Patmore, Head of Product Development NOCN, invited delegates to consider their roles in the provision of new skills emerging from the Government’s plans for achieving Net-Zero, including those arising through new occupations as well as through upskilling requirements in existing jobs. Delegates were also encouraged to think about their own institutional Net-Zero plans through a session supporting providers’ reporting of carbon emissions using the Department for Education’s standardised framework, delivered by Department for Education, EAUC and AoC.

Through a panel session with Pat Carvalho, Principal and CEO Birmingham Metropolitan College, Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility University of Exeter and Ian Pryce, Chief Executive The Bedford College, delegates were invited to reflect upon the difference between social mobility and social justice, and consider ways in which further education can provide fair and meaningful solutions to the challenges posed by the current economic and cost-of-living crises.

.There have been a number of commissions and reviews over recent years, including the Independent Commission on the College of the Future and the ongoing ResPublica Lifelong Learning Commission, and FE representatives have a key role to play towards building a post-16 education and skills system that works for the future. Speakers from ResPublica, AoC, NFER and DfE encouraged delegates to work together to feed into current thinking and agree priorities to take forward as a sector.

The CAVA team would like to thank the AoC for an excellent conference.

I am pleased to welcome you back after the summer, I hope it has been a restful and enjoyable break.

Before we start the new academic year, I would like to reflect upon our previous year. I would like to thank all of our fantastic members for your part in successfully delivering the Access to Higher Education Diploma in 2021-22. From your timely engagement with us at CAVA to your unwavering support for your students, we have been constantly impressed by your commitment to the Access to HE Diploma. The impact of your work is evident in our student feedback. Students gave their experience of their Access to HE course an average 4.4 out of 5 in our end of year student satisfaction survey and 90% commented that it prepared them for their future course of study. This is highlighted in one student’s comment about their course: “I have more confidence in myself. My teachers believed in me, that I can do it, and they had my back through my journey in the Access to HE Diploma.”

At CAVA, we used the 2021-22 academic year to review and update our quality assurance processes. With your input, we undertook a comprehensive review of our external moderation model and our grade database. Both reviews have resulted in improvements, which will make the processes more accessible and robust. We will be rolling out these new processes in the coming months, and I look forward to getting your feedback. We also validated new centralised Diplomas in Business; Childhood Studies; Computing; Health Professions; and Health and Social Care, as well as a new bespoke Diploma in Shoemaking. We continued to provide a full programme of staff development training opportunities for members, arranging 9 separate events attended by 547 attendees across our members. I was particularly proud that our course leaders gave us an average score of 5.8 out of 6 in our end of year survey for the statement “CAVA staff members are always helpful and supportive.” My favourite quote from a course leader was: “CAVA is very well organised and the staff there always go above and beyond to help. I have never worked with a better awarding body.”

During the year, we were delighted to welcome Access Creative College, SMB College Group, and Selby College (through a merger to form the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group) as members, as well as Somerset Skills and Learning who joined us this summer. We were also pleased to sign a non-exclusive progression agreement with the University of Suffolk, which means that CAVA Access to HE Diploma students will benefit from lower offers or guaranteed interviews for entry to University of Suffolk courses in 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Looking ahead to 2022-23, we will shortly be launching our new grade database, and a new e-learning resource for our Access to HE course tutors. The e-learning resource will supplement our annual training and events programme, to support you in continuing to offer high quality delivery. We are also building an assessment library to share good assessment practice across our validated Diploma frameworks.

We are looking forward to working with our members around our Promotions and Recruitment working group to coordinate our marketing initiatives. We will also be setting up a new working group to explore electronic certification for future years; and a Student Advisory Committee to expand the student voice within CAVA.

Finally, a key development in 2022-23 will be QAA’s review of the Access to HE Diploma Specification; Grade Scheme; and Licencing Agreement. We will share QAA’s consultations with our members as soon as they are published, and we will facilitate responses to support a robust and positive evolution of the qualification.

Alongside all of this, we will be carrying on with our usual levels of support and guidance during this year. I would like to once again say a huge thank you to everyone in our CAVA community: our Access to HE course teams; all of our members’ staff; our Council of Members representatives; our Board Directors; and the CAVA Team for making 2021-22 a success. I look forward to working with you all to build on our achievements in 2022-23.

Thank you,

Flóra Raffai, CAVA Chief Executive Officer

As a membership organisation, one of CAVA’s strategic aims is to provide a full package of support for our Access to HE providers. As part of our programme of staff development training activities in 2021 and 2022, we ran two sessions on assessment theory and practice to provide practitioners with opportunities to develop and enhance their practice.

For our first session in 2021, we worked with Cambridge Assessment Network (which provides professional development to the assessment community) to offer bespoke training for Access to HE practitioners on the key principles in the design and delivery of valid assessment. Topics included the purposes and principles of good assessment, valid assessment design, approaches to marking and grading, and providing effective feedback to students. Participants were encouraged to debate whether standards would be improved if assessment was more standardised. We also considered the inherent tensions within assessment design, in balancing the manageability, reliability and validity of assessments.

The second session bridged the gap between assessment theory, general practice, and specific Access to HE assessment development and design, through a practical networking event which brought together practitioners to reflect upon their practice and identify areas for development within their own assessments. Participants discussed the multiple purposes of assessment feedback: clarifying achievement; reflection and improvement; confidence-building and motivation; and considered real-life cases which could have been improved by developing their feedback to cover these different purposes. Participants also considered different strategies to encourage students to engage with feedback, ranging from sequencing assessments to creating opportunities for sustained development of skills through feedback, sharing tutors’ own experience of working with feedback to model behaviours, to using audio/video feedback.

Attendees welcomed the opportunities to speak with practitioners from other providers and explore the principles involved in unit construction and assignment brief design. However, there was a general call for even more practical advice; to “know the correct answers” and receive advice or guidance on the development of markschemes to support the application of the QAA grading scheme. In the follow-up assessment workshop in 2022, we gave participants the opportunity to work through the key stages of assessment design (administration, design, marking approaches and assessment planning), and begin to think about marking schemes that might support tutors’ interpretations of the national grade descriptors. CAVA members can access the resources and video recordings from both sessions in the ‘Resources’ section of the CAVA Members’ Area.

At CAVA, we strive to ensure we offer highly relevant and valuable Access to HE Diplomas. We are in the process of creating a library of assessment briefs for units within our Access to HE Diplomas frameworks to offer even more opportunities to share good practice in assessment across our membership.

QAA is currently reviewing the Grading Scheme for the Access to HE Diploma, which includes consideration of realignment of the existing grade descriptors. We are keen to provide further opportunities for practitioners and moderation to develop their assessment practice and expand upon our assessment guidance for our members. We look forward to the outcome of the QAA’s review and will be reviewing our assessment strategy and guidance in line with the future grading model.

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, the QAA has been exploring the concept of quality through a series of articles and events. Their latest event was a panel held on 15 June, which delved into the topic “quality is in the eye of the beholder”.

Quality is a multifaceted concept, as detailed in a recent article by QAA CEO Vicki Stott. Panel members Hillary Gyebi-Ababio (Vice President Higher Education at NUS) and Maureen McLaughlin (Academic Registrar and Director, Student, Library, and Academic Services at Northumbria University) likened quality to a kaleidoscope – it is made up of several interrelated and interdependent parts which make a beautiful picture when everything is working in harmony. But the effect can be quite jarring when even one part of the picture does not align.

To pin down the definition of the term, the panel focused on defining what quality is not. Quality does not equate to value for money – although the panel did recognise that it is important education does deliver value for the money and the time that students invest. However, defining quality as purely value for money constricts students into the role of solely consumers of education, which overlooks the roles students can play in engaging, developing, and co-creating their education alongside academic and support staff. As each student’s individual educational and support needs will be different, they will need to be provided with varying levels of support and therefore each student’s value for money will be different. Therefore, the panel argues that the quality of education cannot be reduced to or defined purely in monetary terms.

Quality also does not equate to outcomes. The panel made the point that quality should be seen in terms of the process and the outcomes in equal measure. As Professor John Sawkins (Deputy Principal (Learning and Teaching) at Heriot-Watt University) put it, quality should not be seen as a “five year sheep dip to rid the organisation of nasty bugs and ticks”. It should be an ongoing process that all teams and departments engage in on an ongoing basis to identify ways to be better and deliver higher quality for the benefit of students. To enable this, Professor Chris Millward (Professor of Practice in Education Policy at University of Birmingham) added that policy needs to move away from a reliance on market forces to drive quality. It is a culture of quality that works best at embedding the processes and systems required to achieve the intended outcomes.

Quality also does not equate to the assurance of quality. While quality assurance is important in measuring quality, it needs to delve into the reasons behind the measured level of quality. It needs to delve into causation, into the lessons that can be learned, and practices that can be applied across teams, departments, and institutions.

Ultimately, the panel agreed that quality is achieved when we put students first. Hillary Gyebi-Ababio exemplified quality as a creation of a learning environment that is conducive for student enrichment, development, and curiosity; setting students off on their journey to carve out the impact they want to make in the world and in their communities.

The QAA’s Access to HE annual conference took place virtually across two half days on 10 and 11 May. Across the two days, the conference touched on different facets of the new Skills and Post-16 Education Act and its implications for the Access to HE Diploma.

The primary aim of the Skills and Post-16 Education Act is to transform the skills and training landscape and level up opportunities across the country. Access to HE Diplomas closely align to this aim, providing opportunities for thousands of adults to re-engage with education at Level 3 and progress into higher education. Carys Willgoss from UCAS spoke at the conference about the partnership between UCAS and Health Education England to research “Who are the future nurses” and better understand the next generation of nurses. Key findings included: the role the pandemic has played in inspiring people to pursue nursing as a career, the rise in mature acceptances, and the outstanding fact that 99% of nursing applicants were extremely confident in their choice of career. Jim Bird, Lecturer and Senior Admissions Tutor within Health Sciences at University of Southampton, and Rebecca Jordan, Access to HE Lecturer at South and City College Birmingham, also highlighted in a panel discussion how Access to HE students bring valuable life experience that heightens their empathy and understanding in the health and social care sector. Former Access to HE students highlighted how the wide range of Diplomas free up adults to dream and choose different careers to pursue.

The Skills and Post-16 Education Act also looks to introduce more flexible delivery models, with modular delivery and funding. Ann Cotterill, Quality Enhancement Specialist at QAA Scotland, explored a subset of modular delivery: micro-credentials. While there is currently no unified definition of micro-credentials, Ann highlighted the common aspects: a small package of focused learning; stand-alone but able to combine with other micro-credentials; range of educational levels; varying in size; and certificated and/or awarded a digital badge. QAA will create a common framework through a Characteristics Statement on micro-credentials for the UK. The presentation raised questions about how micro-credentials could support Access to HE delivery, for example, with micro-credentials in wellbeing and resilience supporting student retention. Through the CAVA Promotions and Recruitment Working Group, CAVA is exploring creating an e-learning resource for students to support their transition onto their Diploma.

Another key aspect of the Skills and Post-16 Education Act is the aim to boost the quality of education and experience for students. To ensure the Access to HE Diploma remains sustainable, flexible, with robust quality assurance into the future, the QAA is undertaking a review of its AVA licensing agreement; the Access to HE Diploma specification; and the Diploma’s grade scheme between 2022 and 2024. A series of consultations on proposed changes will be run in the 2022-23 academic year; with the 2023-24 academic year designated as an ‘enabling’ year to allow providers and AVAs to prepare for full implementation in the 2024-25 academic year. Alongside this, case studies from University of Exeter and the Training, Education, and Consultancy Hub shared ways that quality and student experience could be enhanced through study skills. University of Exeter was working with Exeter College to part deliver, support, and provide enrichment activities around the Access to HE study skills unit, to enhance the student experience and further students’ academic skills which are so essential in supporting a smooth transition from FE to HE. The Training, Education, and Consultancy Hub are developing a new dedicated textbook to support Access to HE students with developing their study skills. The book is anticipated to be published in early 2024.

Finally, the Skills and Post-16 Education Act included academic integrity legislation, which has criminalised essay mills for all post-16 education including Access to HE Diplomas. It is important to note that the legislation criminalises essay mills providing services and marketing their services – however, it does not criminalise the students themselves in accessing the services (though that would be classed as academic misconduct at an educational provider). Students may need support to understand that essay mills are now criminal entities and that students would put themselves at risk when engaging with criminals. Essay mills have engaged in further criminal activities, such as blackmailing students after use; and using the essay service to collect personal data about students to enable identity theft. The QAA has created an Academic Integrity Charter for providers to take a proactive stance on academic integrity and create a common framework of positive principles. The Charter can provide a starting point for conversations with students, to help them understand the value of academic integrity and the dangers of academic misconduct.

The CAVA team would like to thank the QAA for an excellent conference.