Access and Participation Plans
Our Access and Participation Plan (APP) sets out measures to promote equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups, as required by the Office for Students (OfS). Below you can find links to our current plan and to our previous plans and Access Agreements.
What is an access and participation plan?
Access and Participation Plans set out how higher education providers will improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented 探花精选 undergraduate student groups to access, succeed in and progress from higher education.
Our APP enshrines our commitment to working towards equality of opportunity for students. It is also a requirement that any institution wishing to charge more than the basic fee rate has to submit an Access and Participation Plan to the Office for Students (OfS). Having an approved Access and Participation Plan is also a requirement of registration with the OfS for certain categories of provider.
For more information on the OfS or Access and Participation Plans please visit
Our Access and Participation Plan identifies those student groups within our University and region that are most at risk of experiencing barriers to opportunity, and how we plan to address these. It focuses on three key areas, including the intersections between:
- tackling socioeconomic barriers
- challenging structural racism
- ensuring an inclusive environment for mental wellbeing.
Our new APP for 2025-26 (starting Summer 2025) focuses on:
Access: increasing access to higher education for students who have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) while at school, as well as for other groups that are currently underrepresented in higher education, including those from gypsy, Roma, traveller, showmen, boater (GRTSB) backgrounds and those with experience of care.
Success: addressing current gaps in on-course outcomes for students with a declared mental health condition, mature students, students who have been eligible for free school meals (FSM), and students from Black, Asian and mixed-heritage backgrounds.
Progression: reducing the gap in progression into highly skilled work or higher study for students with a declared mental health condition, and students domiciled in postcodes from the lowest quintile in the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD).
Find out more about access to education, and . Students are involved in the co-creation and evaluation of many of our initiatives, primarily through the Connector Programme, the APP Student Panel and working closely with the .
Our current Access and Participation Plan (from 2020-21 to 2024-25)
You can also read a short summary of our Access and Participation Plan [DOCX 37.94KB].
See our tuition fees pages for detailed information about our fees.
You can also read our fee summary for 2023-24 [PDF 21KB].
Our new Access and Participation Plan (from 2025-26 to 2028-29)
Our new Access and Participation Plan, which will come into effect in September 2025, has recently been approved by the Office for Students.
You can read our new Access and Participation Plan (2025-26 to 2028-29) [PDF 8.30MB].
You can read a short summary of our Access and Participation Plan (2025-26 to 2028-29) [DOCX 37.79KB]
You can also read our fee summary for 2025-26 [PDF 33.50KB]
Our previous Access and Participation Plans
See our Access and Participation Plans from previous years on the .
Contact
If you have any questions or suggestions about our Access and Participation Plans, please email APP Programme Manager Jo McKinney-Green (j.mckinney-green@sussex.ac.uk).