NERCOUTE Plugging the Leaks

This project focusses on the diversity of the NERC community in the South of England (excluding London), where there is a complex picture of both ethnic and socio-economic diversity, and the intersections between the two. It seeks to identify ways in which the University of Southampton (UoS) – as a core part of the South’s NERC recruitment pipeline - can increase diversity of students on undergraduate, postgraduate taught, and postgraduate research degree programmes that are relevant to NERC’s core remit. We will focus on people of colour and those from low-income backgrounds, as these are two areas which are historically underrepresented in NERC degree subjects and are geographically complex in the South. Our three work packages will: 1. Reflect on our current position and desired end goal 2. Identify barriers to progression along the NERC pipeline from those underrepresented communities 3. Understand what support and interventions have enabled UoS graduates from NERC-remit programmes to succeed in a NERC-relevant career, be that in industry or academia 4. Develop and evaluate a series of interventions that could be used to increase the diversity of students on UoS NERC-remit programmes at undergraduate, PGT and PGR level 5. Develop KPIs to monitor the success of these interventions based on readily available, national datasets. The core project team will work in partnership with local schools and sixth form colleges, and UoS professional service colleagues, to the following outputs: A Theory of Change to enable increased socio-economic and ethnic diversity among UoS NERC students A method for HE institutions to monitor diversity within their NERC pipelines using national datasets An understanding of the demographics of UoS students flowing in/out of the NERC pipeline A report identifying barriers experienced by current and past UoS NERC-remit students from the target communities, and how these barriers were overcome Posters highlighting successful PoC and low-income background alumni, with an associated editable template that other HE institutions can use A report presenting a range of potential interventions that may increase socio-economic and ethnic diversity in the UoS’s NERC-remit student body The core team consists of academics, from ECRs to senior staff, as well as professional services staff*. We will work in partnership with stakeholders both “downstream” and “upstream” of UoS along the NERC pipeline. Downstream, we will partner with three local schools, each of whom bring experience of working with very different student bodies. St George’s has a high proportion of English as a Second Language (ESL) students; this is used as a proxy for ethnic diversity. Bitterne Park is a large school, with a high number of FSM pupils. Woodlands Community College has 50% of pupils eligible for FSM. We will also partner with Barton Peveril 6th form college – they are one of the largest colleges in Southampton, yet have a lower overall ethnic diversity. JBA Consulting and JBA Trust are our “upstream” partners; they are a key part of the wider NERC community, through PGR sponsorship and contractual work with the EA. *Note: the core team includes EP, as well as the Research Culture Manager in the UoS Research and Innovation Service, and two partners from the UoS Widening Participation team. Because of the way the costings are set up in TFS, it was not possible to add them to the Core Team list below.