Case Study: Education

University of Derby

The brief

The University of Derby commissioned GCL to assess its main campus and teaching areas for accessibility and inclusivity. The purpose of the review was to establish the university's keys strengths and weaknesses in terms of inclusive learning and teaching practices and to provide the basis of an access roadmap for going forward. The University of Derby also required its Virtual Learning Environment and Intranet to be assessed and for student feedback to inform the review's findings.

Our approach

GCL undertook an Access Review of:

• We carried out a physical Access Review of the university's Kedleston Road Campus
• We carried out a digital Access Review of the university's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), E-books and Intranet platforms
GCL also undertook a survey of disabled students registered with Derby's Disability Service to gauge their perspectives on access and inclusion. The focus of this survey was the Library, the Wellbeing Centre and the Student Centre
• We consolidated the findings from the physical and digital Access Reviews and the survey into a detailed report and suggested a multi-dimensional action plan that comprised of a number of quick wins, medium and longer term solutions that immediately improved the inclusion agenda at the university

What the client said

"We were really pleased with the report. It will enable us to push forward on many of the issues that have been raised and where things are more long term, we can put these into our planning to take forward in a strategic and progressive way."