Shadow Minister for HE, FE and Skills to address conference on social mobility and access to higher education.

Gordon Marsden MP, Shadow Minister for HE, FE and Skills, will address delegates from colleges and universities at OCN London’s annual Access to Higher Education conference on Wednesday 12 October. A former Open University tutor and the first in his family to go to university, Gordon has been an enthusiastic champion of Access to HE and second chance learning. He has also campaigned to achieve the loan waiver and challenged the removal of the maintenance grant.

Theresa May has pledged to put social mobility at the heart of her premiership and Secretary of State Justine Greening has also declared her commitment to opening up opportunities for disadvantaged students. The White Paper Higher Education: success as a knowledge economy (published in May 2016) set out ambitious proposals for widening participation in higher education. This is a prime opportunity to question Gordon Marsden about these issues and find out the views of those on the left in Parliament about the role of education in social mobility.

Other speakers include:

• Julie Farmer, Head of Access, Quality Development Group, QAA

• Alan Jones, Professional Development Executive, UCAS

• Hugh Joslin, University of Greenwich – co-author of research on progression ofcollege students in England into higher education. He will be talking about the findings from their latest (yet unpublished) research.

Conference details. Link to full programme here. Note that Gordon Marsden will be speaking at 1.45pm.

Theme: Improving social mobility and inclusion through Access to HE

Date: Wednesday 12 October 2016.

Time: 10.00am to 4.00pm (registration from 9.30am)

Venue: Park Crescent Conference Centre, 229 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PN.

For more information contact: Anne Nicholls, Marketing and PR manager, OCN London. Email: [email protected] Mobile: 07973 491439.