University News Last updated 16 February 2016
Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson visited Birmingham City University on Monday 15 February, emphasising the importance of attracting more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into Higher Education.
Mr Johnson was attending a Universities West Midlands (UWM) roundtable meeting of Vice-Chancellors from across the West Midlands region, hosted in Birmingham City University’s new £63 million Curzon building. He went on to explore a Shakespeare-themed art installation in the nearby Parkside Building.
"Birmingham City University has already made great progress in this, making it an excellent host to discuss our reforms putting teaching quality at the forefront of Higher Education."
Professor Cliff Allan, Vice-Chancellor, Birmingham City University, gave strong support to the Minister, highlighting his institution’s strong record in widening participation to Higher Education:
"Birmingham City University fully supports Mr Johnson's ambitions for enabling more young people from less advantaged backgrounds into Higher Education and is proud to say that in the 2013-14 academic year 45.2 per cent of our students came from low income households.
"It is vitally important to stress that attracting under-represented groups into university isn't something that happens by accident – it takes intensive work reaching out into under-represented communities. Birmingham City University visits well over a hundred schools in low-participation neighbourhoods every year to show young people how Higher Education can transform lives."
During the visit, Mr Johnson met with Design for Theatre, Performance and Events students who have created life-size models of some of Shakespeare's most-famous characters from nearly 5,000 metres of paper.