Promoting Transparency, Remedying Academic Inequality, Centralising Access  

Experience: 

Class Act Co-Chair  

Class Act working class Officer  

Exeter Class Officer  

Outreach Ambassador for Exeter College  

Editor for Working Class Section of Oxford Blue HT 22 

Introduction 

Hello! I’m Jenni, a third year English student at Exeter and I am running to be your VP for Access and Academic Affairs to continue working to improve the academic and social experience of Oxford for students like me. As a first generation, low-income, Crankstart Scholar who benefitted from the Liverpool to Oxford Labour access scheme, I understand the importance of access support in initially getting an offer for Oxford. 

However, from working on access issues on both a college and university-wide basis, it is clear that access support is stunted following admission and students are let down. The socio-economic inequalities that affect students are not diminished upon acceptance to the university and the access support that is in place during university should reflect this.  

Improving Access at Oxford is not just about lobbying for policy change to improve admission statistics and attainment gaps, it is about ensuring that students feel like they belong here and most importantly that they can thrive.  

Policy Plans 

Improving Support Beyond Admission  

• Ensuring that first-year students from underprivileged socio-economic backgrounds receive sufficient support in adapting to Oxford 
• Creating a university-wide Bridging-Programme that is open to all state-school students to provide academic support and reduce the attainment gap 
• Rolling out mandatory class awareness workshops for students and provide advice to tutors on how best to level the academic playing field in order to promote a university-wide class conversation and 
• Running an access-specific fresher’s fair to allow societies to improve the diversity of their membership and ensure that students don’t miss out 
• Working with the careers-service to promote events for access students to improve employability

Promoting Academic and Access Transparency  

• Gather information on college bursaries, hardship funds, academic rights, and suspended students policies to create a comprehensive report to understand which colleges are carrying out their responsibilities and which are letting students down 
• Investigating how colleges are responding to the cost-of-living crisis and ensuring that sufficient financial support is in place to assist students 

Access beyond Academia  

• Creating an ‘Access Approval’ stamp that university societies and sports can attain if they adopt initiatives to improve access and promote diversity amongst membership so that all students feel welcome and have a fair shot at joining 
• Mandating access ball ticket across all college to bypass financial issues that stop students from attending 

Targeted Access Policies   

Access for LGBTQ+ Students  

• Creating a centralised gender expression fund that students can access through the SU to bypass college inequalities and discrepancies  
• Creating gender neutral and unisex toilets in Exam Schools to make students feel more comfortable during in-person exams  

Access for women  

• Working with The Oxford Period to ensure that menstrual products are free in all College JCRs 

Access for Care Leavers and Estranged Students  

• Creating a comprehensive report on the inequalities that care leavers and estranged students experience across colleges to ensure that all colleges offer these students a fair deal 

Voting begins 6^th February!