University aims to further enhance its positive impact on Mansfield and Ashfield communities

The first two reports looked at how NTU’s presence in Mansfield and Ashfield is helping to drive levelling up and economic growth in the East Midlands through the provision of higher education and business support.

This third report focuses on NTU’s drive to provide more community support and collaborating with schools, community groups and local charities, in particular on educational and community support.

The continued programme stems from the initial consultations that began back in 2018 about NTU making towns like Mansfield into university towns through sites like West Nottinghamshire College.

Prof Edward Peck, vice-chancellor at NTU, in the report, said: “Our aim is to ensure that local people are able to acquire and use the skills they need to prosper and thrive.

"There has been much debate in recent years about the contribution of universities to social mobility, citizen well-being, and levelling-up within those communities in which they are located and described as anchor institutions.

"However, there has been less focus on what it would be mean for a university to play such a role within towns or districts within which they have not had a presence historically.

"The truth is that our activities are going to prove transformational for communities, schools, and business with which we engage.

"I am very proud of what we have done so far in Mansfield and Ashfield, and there is so much more yet to come.”

NTU’s programme provides outreach services at a range of schools in Mansfield and Ashfield, helping schools close the attainment gap for children from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

This is by delivering sessions at its Higher Education Centre in Mansfield, delivering courses and training from in Mansfield and schools.

At primary level, year five and six pupils at Sutton Road Primary School in Mansfield have taken part in NTU’s children’s university scheme and more than 200 pupils from three schools are receiving approximately 500 hours of additional one-to-one support as part of the Primary Advocates programme.

Additionally, more than 700 pupils from 15 schools took part in the START programme, helping children prepare to move up to secondary school, and NTU’s widening access and outreach team has worked with seven primary and secondary schools in the last year.

At secondary level, in the Mansfield and Ashfield area, NTU’s core outreach programme has been delivered in almost 2,000 pupils across four schools; the NTU hub has visited three schools and helped more than 180 year eight and nine pupils; achievement coaches have supported 60 pupils in three schools with one-to-one coaching, and the Raising Attainment With Resilience programme has been delivered to 19 students at Kirkby College.

At post-16 level, a total of 72 activities have been delivered across Mansfield and Ashfield to 2,652 students from local colleges and sixth forms and an additional eight subject-specific sessions have been delivered at NTU’s Mansfield and city sites.

In addition, NTU’s Getting...Ready programme, which involves multiple stakeholders and is designed to build the life skills of young people, currently has two working groupsat Oak Tree Primary School and Nursery in Mansfield and Greenwood Primary and Nursery School in Kirkby.

As part of being a presence in the wider community, NTU’s Community Participation work aims to helps the university understand the experience of students in Mansfield who study at the Mansfield Hub and to strengthen the voice of local residents.

The report highlights how this has led to NTU working with the NHS’s social prescribing prgramme and Ashfield Voluntary Action (AVA) helping hundreds of residents access social and financial support.

NTU is also actively involved in other projects that support the communities of Mansfield and Ashfield.

These include:

Parent Power, a scheme working with three schools in Mansfield to empower parents to make changes to support their children’s future.

Creating an online map of all lonelinessreducing services to inform Nottingham County Council’s Tackling Loneliness initiative, which includes Mansfield and Ashfield.

Collaboration with Mansfield’s Business & IP Centre to provide advice and support to business owners, entrepreneurs and inventors.