CUSU Widening Participation Award (WPA) 2011/12
The CUSU Widening Participation Award (WPA) allows you to earn recognition for the access work that you do this academic year!
From freshers to finalists, and people with all levels of experience in widening participation activities, every student can sign up to the WPA using the form below.
It's simple, flexible and on your terms
The WPA works like this:
You simply sign up to the WPA programme. After that, every time you do one of these access activities and report back to CUSU, you will earn points for it:
| Points | CUSU Access activity |
| 1 | per used Ask-A-Student answer |
| 8 | per www.applytocambridge.com page written |
| 10 | per schools e-magazine contribution |
| 15 | per target visit resource created |
| 20 | per RAID or Target visit |
| 25 | per Cambridge E-mentoring mentee taken on |
| 50 | per Shadowing Scheme weekend completed |
| [?] | per other advertised task |
Once you've reached 100 points, you have obtained your WPA. You could even obtain a WPA+ by reaching 200 points, and a WPATop5 by being one of the top five points scorers in a year. All you have to do is complete the CUSU Access activities that you want, when you want, however many times you want to reach 100+ points, by 31 July 2012.
The WPA is great because you can pick the activities that you want to do, and do them whenever you want to do them, inside or outside of term time. It's a way for both CUSU and for you to keep track of the exceptional student-led access work that Cambridge University is known throughout the sector for doing.
The benefits
- A free CRB check.
- Support in your access activities from CUSU, including termly training sessions run by TeachFirst.
- Good preparation for other Access roles in the University such as JCR Access Officer or CAMbassador.
- A community of other people doing access work, with an invitation to the CUSU Access Garden Party in Easter Term and other Access socials.
- A special prize for the top points-scorer.
- An award from CUSU, the Students' Union in the country most recognised for its outstanding widening participation work.
Signing up is straightforward
Apply to join the WPA programme using the form here.There is no quota or maximum limit for us, so as soon as you've had an email or telephone exchange with the CUSU Access Officer, then you will be on the WPA programme! You'll be added to the WPA mailing list, where you'll receive updates, reminders and opportunities for access work. You can take up the advertised CUSU Access opportunities, or organise some of your own (with the CUSU Access Officer's help), and be well on your way to achieving the WPA!