Annual awards honour Access to HE students

The annual Keith Fletcher Awards took place at the Palace of Westminster on Wednesday 20 May.

Named in memory of Keith Fletcher, a passionate advocate for adult learning, these awards, now in their fourteenth year, honour the achievements of Access to HE students who have overcome significant challenges to demonstrate outstanding academic performance and commitment to their studies.

The Access to HE Diploma is a Level 3 post-16 qualification focused on providing adult learners who wish to enter higher education the opportunity to gain the necessary qualifications in the subject areas they wish to follow. QAA has been responsible for the regulation of this qualification since 1997.

Awards were won by Catherine Hennessy from City Lit, Jake Anderton from East Lancs Learning Group, and Amy Bartlett from Nottingham Trent University Brackenhurst.

Ann-Marie Karadia, Access to HE Diploma Officer at QAA, spoke at the event about the Access to HE Diploma and the success of our students.

"Next year, we at QAA will be marking 30 years since we started managing the scheme for the recognition and quality assurance of the Access to Higher Education Diploma," Ann-Marie said. "Two years ago, we celebrated the registration of our millionth student onto an Access to HE course, and, thanks to the commitment and efforts of our Access Validating Agencies, providers, teachers and students, that provision continues to go from strength to strength. 

"We at QAA are constantly overawed by the extraordinary achievements of our Access to HE students, and feel so very privileged to have played a small part in contributing to their progress into higher education and their future success.

"Access to HE graduates have included a Member of Parliament, a King’s Counsel and a university Vice-Chancellor – but, just as importantly, they've included hundreds of nurses, midwives, doctors, radiographers and paramedics, police officers and social workers, engineers and IT specialists, businesspeople, actors, artists, writers, teachers and academics – to name just a few of the many valued professions towards which Access to HE studies have helped to propel our alumnae.

"Today we're celebrating the work of the most important people in all of this – our students and graduates themselves. They are today's heroes – and I daresay, in many cases tomorrow's leaders. And leadership takes many forms. It may be leading in a profession, in a community, in a family, or simply leading by example – showing others what is possible."

The event was also supported by Julia Buckley MP who represents Shrewsbury in the House of Commons, who commended the superhuman effort made by those involved with these courses.