The Lancashire Compact is a HEFCE funded Widening Participation project running from January 1999 to December 2002.

The Lancashire Compact is a collaborative initiative between Edge Hill, Lancaster University, St Martin's College and the University of Central Lancashire. It aims to raise aspirations and awareness of higher education (HE) for those from groups currently under-represented in HE, but the HEIs also work together to assist anyone in Lancashire who can demonstrate their ability to benefit from the university or college experience. The Lancashire Compact has four themes; sharing resources to ease pathways to HE; working with adults; supporting decision making process with families who have no experience of HE; working with young people from backgrounds under-represented in HE to raise both awareness and aspirations.

Aims of Lancashire Compact are:

• To work collaboratively to raise awareness of, and aspirations towards, the diversity of provision in higher education institutions within Lancashire amongst potential students, families and staff in schools and colleges.
• To extend regional data on participation and retention rates, utilising and developing the analysis of data gathered in the pilot phase of the project.
• To implement appropriate institutional mechanisms to track and monitor students entering HE via the Compact route.
• To work collaboratively to break attitudinal and practical barriers to widening participation.
• To provide a variety of opportunities for students from Key Stage 4 onwards to engage directly with staff and students of the Lancashire Compact institutions.
• To target specific activity on areas and groups where there is evidence of high levels of non participation and to work in collaboration with other consortia and partnerships, in particular Lifelong Learning partnerships and Education Action Zones within the County, to create synergy with other projects in addressing issues of under achievement.
• To work within and between the Lancashire Compact institutions to provide opportunities to learn from one another's experiences, to disseminate good practice and to implement a programme of staff development with and for personnel across each HE that seeks to raise awareness about barriers to participation in higher education and enables changes to institutional practices relating to access for non traditional entrants.
• To develop the Working Together Website established for the HEFCE North West Regional Widening Participation conference into a tool for the dissemination of experience and practice in widening participation across the North West.
• To work collaboratively with partner FECs in the region and other partners to widen participation amongst adults by developing enhanced 'second chance' access and progression routes.

Each of the partner HEIs takes a lead in developing specialist activities, as follows:

• Edge Hill is working with young people through an intensive programme of interventions for cohorts of pupils moving through Years 10 and 11 and then into FE.
• Lancaster University has developed an awareness-raising course for families (with a complementary programme of interventions for young people). This course has been adapted for a variety of groups, e.g. different minority ethnic communities. Lancaster University also leads the Adult Strand of the Compact with all four HEIs contributing to the activities.
• St Martin's College has developed a range of activities related to vocational areas, underpinned with careers advice and guidance.
• The University of Central Lancashire has developed the Higher Education into Schools programme, using undergraduates to work in schools assisting with out-of-hours activities and supporting the curriculum.

• Centre for Local Policy Studies
• Department of Social and Psychological Sciences
• Research Centre for Studies in Crime and Social Justice
• Faculty of Education