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Outreach
  1. Outreach
  2. Access Programmes
  3. Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Our widening participation criteria help us identify students who may have faced barriers to accessing higher education. These criteria are used across Queen Mary’s outreach programmes to help us make sure our opportunities reach students who may benefit most.

Below, you can find out more about the different criteria we use, including priority and standard criteria. Not all criteria apply to every programme, so check the individual programme page to see which ones are relevant to you.

C | D | F | G | H | R | S | Y 

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C

  • Care Experience or Estrangement  - You are currently in, or have previously been in, local authority care, or you are permanently estranged from, or living independently without support from, both of your parents. (Priority Criteria).

D

  • Disability - You have a physical or mental health condition or impairment that has a substantial and long-term effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities, as defined under the Equality Act 2010. (Priority Criteria).

F

  • First in family to attend higher education - Neither of your parents or carers has attended higher education, either in the UK or abroad.
  • Free school meals - You were eligible for Free School Meals at any point during Key Stage 4 (Years 10 or 11), or you currently receive the 16–19 Bursary*.

G

  • Gypsy, Roma and Traveller background - You are from a Gypsy, Roma or Traveller background. This includes Showmen and Boater communities.

H

  • Home postcode - Your home postcode may meet our widening participation criteria if you live in an area with lower progression to higher education or higher levels of financial, social or economic disadvantage.

    We use two postcode-based measures to identify eligible areas:
    • Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD): You are eligible if your postcode falls within IMD decile 1 or 2. IMD deciles rank neighbourhoods in England from the most deprived 10% (decile 1) to the least deprived 10% (decile 10).
    • ACORN: You are eligible if your postcode falls within ACORN groups M, N, P, Q, R, S or U. ACORN is a postcode-based classification that groups neighbourhoods according to social and demographic characteristics.

R

  • Refugee or asylum seeker - You have refugee status or are currently seeking asylum in the UK.

S

  • Sponsored Academies - You attend one of the schools sponsored by Queen Mary:
    • Royal Greenwich Trust School
    • St Paul's Way Trust School
    • Drapers' Academy

Y

  • Young Carer - You regularly provide care or support for a family member or someone you live with who has a disability, illness, mental health condition or substance dependency.

*For students who studied up to Key Stage 4 at a school in Tower Hamlets, free school meal (FSM) eligibility will be based on whether you were entitled to FSM before universal free school meals were introduced in Tower Hamlets secondary schools in September 2023. 

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