The primary goal of the University of East London Schools and Colleges  is to bring new ideas, opportunities and experiences to young people from a widening participation background to. This encourages them to make informed decisions about higher education and their future careers, promoting social mobility.

When we talk about people from widening participation backgrounds, our focus is on young people who might:

• Have few or no immediate role models who have experience of higher education
• Be eligible for free school meals or pupil premium
• Be a looked after child, carer or care leaver
• Have a disability or special educational needs
• Be a refugee, estranged from their family, or come from a traveller community
• Be a pupil from a particular ethnicity
• Be a pupil from a military family background
• Live in an area that is economically disadvantaged or where few people progress into higher education
• Be a mature learner seeking to change career through a degree.

When we develop new partnerships to reach people from widening participation backgrounds, we work with institutions who meet specific criteria. In particular, we prioritise institutions that:

• Are located in a borough with high levels of deprivation
• Are located in a postcode that has low progression into higher education
• Have pupils attaining below average or well below average for progress 8 (secondary only)
• Have an above average number of pupils eligible for free school meals or a large proportion who are eligible for pupil premium (secondary only)
• Have an above average number of pupils whose first language is not English
• Have a higher percentage of pupils from white socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds or pupils that fall into the categories above.
• Have a higher percentage of pupils from a military family background
• Are a partner school or federation post 16 institution, and have signed a Service Level Agreement.