Student Success Projects Fund

• Complete the online application form. This form can be saved and completed at a later date

• If you would like to discuss a project idea with the Inclusive Education Team, we are happy to meet with you. Email us at inclusive-learning@york.ac.uk

• In the application, applicants will indicate anticipated activities, outputs and outcomes, as well as how they will work with student partners, timescales and funding required

• A Panel will select the successful projects based on the specific criteria

• Wednesday 24 September, 2025 - Fund application process opens 
• Thursday 27 November, 2025 (midnight) - applications close
• Wednesday 10th December, 2025 - we will aim to notify you of the Panel’s decision
• Please bear in mind that, due to institutional financial processes, it can take a further 14 days for funds to be available to you. You will also need to build time in for the recruitment of student partners, so do ensure these time frames are reflected in your project start date
• The Panel may place conditions on successful applications - e.g. deeper and more equitable involvement of student partners

The University welcomes proposals covering all aspects of learning, teaching and assessment, but they must align to one or more of the four strategic themes:

Inclusive Curriculum and Pedagogies

Definition

Inclusive curriculum and inclusive learning, teaching and assessment approaches ensure that the diverse backgrounds, identities and experiences of our students are represented in their learning experience, leading to an enhanced sense of belonging, engagement, and success. Inclusive practice offers an active and flexible approach to learning, allowing for engagement in diverse ways, connecting with students’ lives and lived experiences. Co-construction with students is central to this work, allowing for the centring of relationships, student perspectives, and agency in their learning.

Examples:

• ‘Learning through neurodivergence: Enhancing inclusive pedagogies and community in the School of Arts and Creative Technologies’ (2024-25 student success project - see here for a summary of the project)
• Co-development of inclusive Problem Based Learning (PBL) resources for tutors and students (Economics - 2023-24 Learning & Teaching Fund project)
• ‘Cohort Choice Initiative Data-Gathering Exercise’ (School of Arts & Creative Technologies - 2022-23 Learning & Teaching Fund project)

 

Decolonising and Diversifying the Curriculum

Definition

Critically engaging with current curricula, in partnership with students, to drive change at subject-level, focused on inclusive pedagogies and content that better reflects students' diverse experiences, wider global, political, and historical perspectives. Foregrounding marginalised voices, identities and perspectives makes curricula more inclusive, culturally diverse, and intersectional - enabling students from APP target groups to feel represented and see themselves in the curriculum, enhancing their sense of belonging, engagement, and academic success.

Examples:

• ‘YorTalk: creating a diverse conversational dataset for teaching, learning and research at the University of York’ (Sociology and Language & Linguistic Science, 2024-25 student success project - see here for a summary of the project)
• ‘Decolonising the accounting curriculum’ (School for Business & Society - 2023-24 Learning & Teaching Fund project)

 

Inclusive Assessment and Feedback

Definition

Assessment and feedback practices play a significant role in providing opportunities for learning. Evidence suggests that some practices can amplify and reproduce inequalities, impacting negatively on outcomes for underrepresented groups. Developing more inclusive approaches, based on a model of ‘assessment for inclusion’ (AfI), can improve students’ sense of belonging and success. AfI foregrounds practices such as: embedding diversity and optionality in assessment; authentic assessment; and developing student feedback literacy.

Examples:

• ‘Assessment optionality: Establishing a subject-specific case’ (Politics & International Relations - 2023-24 Learning & Teaching Fund project)
• Alternative dissertation for MA students in the Department of Education (Department of Education - 2022-23 Learning & Teaching Fund project)

 

Student-Led Learning Communities (SLLC)

Definition

Evidence indicates that positive peer relationships can enhance students’ sense of belonging and development of key academic skills, both of which influence the retention and success of APP target groups. The University’s strategic commitment to SLLCs is informed by evidence and feedback from students from numerous APP target groups at York, which indicates the importance of work on sense of belonging and building peer networks; and more broadly on developing academic literacies and knowledge to improve confidence and tackle ‘imposter syndrome’.

Examples:

• ‘Swarm Robotics Hackathon’ (Computer Sciences - 2022-23 Learning & Teaching Fund project)
• ‘Learning from Experience: developing inter-year undergraduate student academic learning communities at York Law School’ (2024-25 student success project - see here for a summary of the project)

To be considered by the decision-making panel, projects must demonstrate a clear alignment to one or more of the strategic themes:

• A clear indication of intended outcomes and outputs and a rationale for how they will contribute to closing gaps and/or the development of inclusive practice in the participating department(s)
• Demonstrates some knowledge of relevant and existing educational literature and/or engagement with department/school-level data on student outcomes and gaps
• A well developed plan for how the project will involve student and staff partners, including funding required and timescales
• A well considered rationale for how activities and/or practices could be embedded, sustained and operationalised within curricula - e.g. across multiple modules and programmes
• Demonstrates the potential for institutional-level impact (e.g. outputs / activities / practices that can be applied across departments and disciplines) when sustained and scaled up. 

• The project budget must be used by 31 July 2026
• Where necessary colleagues should apply for ethics approval from the relevant committee
• You will be expected to share an evaluative case study report after the completion of the project
• You will be expected to disseminate outcomes and good practice from your project through, for example, presentations within your department, at university-wide events and/or external conferences
• You will be expected to contribute to a structured community of practice, including sharing insights from your individual project and surfacing ideas to support the development to the University's Student Success (academic) interventions (i.e. the four strategic themes)
• Proposals must be supported and signed off by both the host department / school and other participating departments / schools (s) i.e. Head of Department or delegated deputy
• All academic departments / schools / centres are eligible to apply
• The Fund is not aimed at central professional service staff (PSS), although departmental colleagues can invite central PSS to participate in partnership. Whilst projects must be led by academic departments, this does not prohibit PSS in departments / schools from applying, as long as all other eligibility conditions and criteria are met
• Staff can apply for grants up to a maximum of £5000.

The University is interested in receiving proposals for new enhancement projects oriented towards inclusive education. Generally, applications tend to be focused on educational research, learning & teaching enhancements, or a combination of both. The University also wants to fund projects focused on developing learning communities - e.g. through student-led peer learning or peer networks. Examples include:

• Learning, teaching and assessment enhancements 
• Developing, piloting and/or evaluating enhancement areas and/or resources e.g. new pedagogies, assessment and feedback designs, inclusive teaching activities; discipline-specific toolkits, teaching resources

• Innovations in building learning communities

• Developing or evaluating approaches to peer learning or student-led peer learning
• Developing or evaluating student-led approaches to skills development, induction and/or transition activities

• Educational research / Scholarship of Teaching & Learning
• Inquiry into how students learn in your discipline or in specific educational settings (e.g. field trips or placements). The University’s Academic Practice Team has some excellent resources on SoTL, including on SoTL methods and design of projects. 

Project proposals centred on typical revisions to content or delivery, minor changes to assessment, or an adjustment in service or support offered to students, are not recommended. If curriculum development is part of your proposal, you should make it clear why this idea is an innovative project and isn't 'business-as-usual' teaching practices.

Evidence-informed projects

The University will prioritise applications that provide an evidence-informed rationale for the design of their projects. This does not mean applications will be expected to provide a substantial literature review. Rather, the decision-making Panel will be looking for an effective description of the relevant information drawn upon as the foundation of the project - e.g.:

• Relevant and existing educational literature;
• Theoretical or conceptual influences; and/or
• Engagement with department/school-level data on student outcomes and gaps (speak to your teaching & learning leads about the data and key priorities in your department / school. You can also access the data directly via tableau)

Funding will be allocated on a project basis, depending on the scope and anticipated outputs. You are encouraged to ask your Department / School about match funding - e.g. should you require more resources and/or where you know your Department / School is interested in funding enhancement projects. Interdepartmental applications are also welcomed, so match funding could be shared between departments, where feasible (or taken on by one department).

As a guide, it is likely that funding for each individual project will be up to a max of £5000 and could include costs for:

Paying student partners

• In your application, you will be asked to identify the rate of pay you are using for your student partners and the number of hours they will work 
• For consistency, and to reflect the project-based nature of the work, we suggest using the ‘intern’ rate (real living wage), which is currently £12.60. If you want to depart from that - i.e. where you think the student partner role(s) better aligns to a different hourly rate - please provide a short rationale in the ‘budget’ section of your application. For more information on pay rates and employing casual workers - see the University’s casual workers page 
• When specifically recruiting PhD students - e.g. to facilitate workshops or training for other student partners - previous projects have used graduate teaching assistant (GTA) rates (£16.63)
• When working out your budget for student partners, remember to add on holiday pay (which is added automatically, but not included in the rate of pay) - 12.7% of the hourly rate for casual workers; 17.12% of the hourly rate for GTAs

Incentives for student participation

E.g. consultations, evaluative research (surveys, focus groups), co-design workshops etc. The University recommends payment by gift / voucher for this type of student engagement:

• Surveys - the University recommends using ‘student prize draws’ for student survey participation, but total costs of vouchers for a survey should not exceed £200, unless there is a strong case for engaging a large number of students - e.g. a large-scale faculty or institution-wide project. It is up to the project to decide how they breakdown the costs - e.g. 5 prizes up to £40 or two larger prizes of £100
• Focus groups - £15 (worth of vouchers) per hour, for more involved and discursive forms of engagement - e.g. focus groups, workshops, discussion events

Staff costs

Costs linked to the actual expenses of the role required in the project - e.g. additional hours for part-time staff and/or hiring a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) and/or a casual staff member

Production costs

Such as graphic design, printing, video editing and production (where this can’t be supported in-house)

Delivery of discussion and dissemination events at York

E.g. payments for student partners to participate

Funds cannot be spent on:

Food and drink

One exception to this is if you want to use catering as a preferred method for incentivising students to attend a focus group or listening event. In this instance, food and drink would be provided instead of vouchers (not in addition to)

Payment for duties that should already be the responsibility of departments / schools

E.g. routine course development and other activities that staff should do as part of their usual roles

Costs linked to dissemination outside of the UoY

E.g. conferences 

Equipment or software 

A department / school would normally be expected to purchase in ongoing budgets

All proposed projects should include a clearly defined and feasible evaluation plan that sets out how you will assess whether the research or enhancement has met its intended outcomes. Evaluation approaches might include how you are going to assess feedback from student partners (e.g. about the process of co-construction) and/or students more broadly (e.g. if you pilot or implement an enhancement). Proposals should also note down ideas for how you might identify and measure long-term impact (e.g. once enhancements, findings or resources are embedded). If you need assistance with developing an evaluation plan, prior to submitting, just get in touch with the Inclusive Education Team (inclusive-learning@york.ac.uk).

Within 4 months of the project finishing, the ‘lead applicant’ and team will be expected to produce a short evaluative report, which will be published on the Inclusive Education Team webpages. We strongly encourage Student Success Projects to provide copies or links to any final outputs - e.g. teaching resources, journal/newsletter articles, conference papers or presentations.

Nick Glover (inclusive-learning@york.ac.uk) - project lead for the Student Success Projects Fund and also Inclusive Education Adviser for Social Sciences.