Raising awareness, facilitating access, creating opportunity, enabling achievement

Abstract

The University of Wolverhampton is known within the higher education sector as a post-1992 university with an excellent reputation for widening participation. It is committed to being ‘the Opportunity University – renowned for our creativity and innovation…connected with our local, national and global communities delivering opportunity and academic excellence’ (University of Wolverhampton, 2015a) and to ‘recognis[ing] learning wherever and whenever it occurs’ (Felce, 2015). As part of this commitment the university accepts a broad range of entry qualifications including accepting learners who have no formal qualifications but who show, through interview or work experiences, that they are capable of succeeding at university-level study. This recognition of prior learning (RPL) extends to recognising learning at levels equivalent to those in higher education in order to allow exemptions from study which may be applied to individuals or cohorts, depending on the circumstances. This chapter presents the University of Wolverhampton’s approach to its engagement with Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and for the RPL for those within, and allied to, the Forces. Principles for RPL and why they are relevant to the university and the Armed Forces are set out. The university’s approach to raising awareness, facilitating access, creating opportunities and enabling achievement is also explained. The chapter concludes with a case study outlining the application of these four principles to enable readers to consider how this approach could be transferred to their own practice.