No poverty 2023
Impact for students
The University of Huddersfield is proud of its record in widening participation in higher education, enabling students, their families and communities to transform their lives. Further, the work of colleagues in developing sustainable communities and economies addresses the challenge of poverty regionally, nationally and internationally.
The University provides a £1,000 scholarship to approximately 1,000 of the least financially privileged of its new undergraduate students each year, potentially amounting to £1m of support. The scholarship is targeted at those with less than £25,000 pa household income. (According the UK’s Office for National Statistics, median household disposable income in the UK was £32,300 in financial year ending 2022.)
In addition to the financial support represented by the Huddersfield grant mentioned above, the University also offers support to address the deficit in the form of specific computing and IT resources for low-income students. September 2021 saw the second implementation of an additional digital bursary, to enable students with fewer resources to purchase hardware and /or software and address issues with connectivity.
The total sums allocated through the Huddersfield bursary for home students, and the digital bursary in 2021/22 were £786,500 on bursaries, and £259,147 digital/laptops.
As part of the Access and Participation process overseen by the Office for Students, the University sets and monitors targets for applicants and students in lower quintile of income (and more specifically of IMD), including on completion of their qualifications.
The University is also proud of its long-standing record in working with students from low and low-middle income countries. At present, the University is offering fee-reduction scholarships to many applicants to support participation from these countries resulting in high levels of participation relative to the UK HE sector as a whole, as indicated by the University’s market share, examples including:
- Vietnam - 5%
- Congo - 4%
- Algeria - 4%
- Egypt - 3%
- Bhutan - 3%
- Nigeria - 3%
- Rwanda - 3%
- Pakistan - 2%
- Angola - 2%
- Sudan - 2%
- Myanmar (Burma) - 2%
- Senegal - 2%
- Laos - 2%
- Bangladesh - 1%
- Sri Lanka - 1%
Public and Business Engagement
The University’s 3M Buckley Innovation Centre is a centre for enterprise and innovation for businesses across the region, with a strong focus on SMEs. We help businesses to innovate, connect and grow through access to knowledge, support and technology, all contributing to regional economic growth and productivity. The Centre works with pioneering businesses to help develop ideas and solve issues; design and prototype new or improved products; facilitate high quality, high impact R&D; and support growth and success. The Centre promotes collaboration between the University and industry to create value, business growth and R&D opportunities.
Support for SMEs through the Huddersfield Business School was assessed as part of the Small Business Charter process in 2022. As a result, the University was the first to be awarded the Charter for five years and with compliance against all 31 of the Charter’s criteria.
The University has recorded significant increases in the numbers of businesses with which it engages – from 3974 in 2020/21, to 4173 in 32021/22, to 4423 in 2022/23.
Learning and students
The University through its Enterprise Team helps student start-ups which support a low-carbon economy. Many (perhaps most) of those involved in University Enterprise programmes are considering the environment and sustainability as part of their idea, or approach. For example:
- A recent graduate has set up a circular economy business where they collect festival waste tents and turn them into clothing items to sell at festivals and online.
- A masters graduate has recently been awarded £50,000 by Innovate UK to advance her business concept which encourages females into STEM from an early age.
- A graduate, who is visually impaired, has recently been awarded £15,000 by Innovate UK to develop a platform to assist visually impaired games developers to create code using sound and vision that enables their creations to be more inclusive.
The Enterprise Team contributes to curriculum development, for example, teaching about social enterprise in the School of Human and Health Sciences. The team are in the process of developing a ‘thinking green’ programme which they hope to start delivering in 2024. They also promote enterprise and sustainability through the University's Global Professional Award. The team has recently secured funding from Enterprise Educators UK to run a project where it will facilitate wider briefing and dialogue about the climate and ecological context with sustainability and business stakeholders in and around the university.
Research
The University’s research and knowledge transfer activity contributes to the Goal of No Poverty. A notable example is the work of the Centre for Wetlands, Environment and Livelihoods, connecting communities with sustainable economies, notably in sustainable coffee production.