HLN Meets: Lesley Braiden…

By Becky Hardy

Lesley Braiden is a bit of a legend in these parts. Not that you’ll probably recognise her name. But for nearly 5,000 graduates from Newcastle University, she’s the reason they’ve even got a degree.

See, the university’s former Academic Registrar has spent her 32-year career dedicated to making higher education more accessible for everyone here in the North East, especially for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. As well as countless community activites and schemes, this included her development of the trailblazing PARTNERS initiative – an initiative which helped this very writer earn a place on her degree course, as well as 4,667 other Newcastle University students.

Congratulations on your MBE! What did receiving that award mean to you?

Thank you! It was a huge surprise and came completely out of the blue.

Being awarded an MBE is a wonderful and very public way to mark the end of my career, (I retired in July 2019). I feel thrilled and delighted, and many other emotions besides, but most importantly I feel humble and greatly moved by the fact that this honour reflects the views of my colleagues who so kindly nominated me. It’s been such a privilege to work at Newcastle University alongside these dedicated and talented colleagues, who have supported me throughout my career, and I owe them immense gratitude.

A big part of your career was focussed on attracting students who, at first, didn’t think higher education was for them. Why was this so important to you? 

Education has always been a key issue for me. Even as a teenager, I knew that I wanted to devote my career in some way to education. I felt convinced, through my own experiences, that education leads to opportunities for self-realisation, personal growth and development and is the basis for being able to make a positive contribution to the world.

How did that manifest at university level?

When I first worked at Newcastle University, I was struck by the way applicants from some regions and schools were at a disadvantage, and how much harder their teachers had to work to promote their genuine talents. So, when ‘widening participation’ became a government priority in the late ‘90s, it provided a real chance for change and I was keen to grasp the opportunity to try and make a difference.

I think the situation at the time is possibly best summarised in this extract from a report by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE):

‘Our research shows that young people from the wealthiest backgrounds are 12 times more likely to enter HE than those from the poorest backgrounds (‘The Influence of Neighbourhood Type on Participation in Higher Education’. HEFCE April 1997).

 You developed the PARTNERS Programme – a flagship approach to widening participation which has become nationally acclaimed. How did the idea for PARTNERS first come about?

PARTNERS emerged from discussions in the University in the late 1990s, when the Labour government, led by Tony Blair, set a target of 50% of young people to have the opportunity to participate in Higher Education. There were some key challenges for us to tackle:

• Students from less advantaged backgrounds were more likely to achieve lower grades, which didn’t reflect their genuine ability.

How did PARTNERS work?

PARTNERS meant that students could still be accepted into the university, despite having achieved slightly lower grades than normally required – provided they also successfully completed an assessed summer school designed to give an indication of their academic potential.

I had great support from the University and the wider public, as it was clear from quite early on that PARTNERS was genuinely supporting the admission of talented and able students from more challenging backgrounds.

We’ve also taken great care to monitor the progress of PARTNERS students and evidence that the grades they’ve gone on to achieve are comparable to those of other Newcastle students has been an important driver for the scheme’s continued success.

The involvement of our own students – including many former PARTNERS students – as ambassadors, mentors and role models for the next generation has also been vital. Our students have always been our best ambassadors and advocates.

During your career, you led a series of collaboration initiatives with local schools, colleges and other HE providers. Can you tell us more about those initiatives?

Over the past 20 years, there has been a deluge of collaborative initiatives to promote widening participation in the region, and I’ve been very actively involved in developing and leading them! I worked mainly to create a coherent approach, which built on existing schemes as part of a framework of activities which would have a real impact. Building the link between schools, FE colleges and universities was a fundamental part of the overall drive to raise attainment, aspirations and skills, and I was proud to be part of that.

What do you look back on as one of your greatest professional achievements? 

I feel especially proud to have had responsibility for leading such a wide range of university activities during my career. I’ve been able to improve students’ experiences and I feel like I’ve made a real difference to their lives. It’s always been a real privilege to work with our students.

I also feel a great sense of pride in seeing the legacy of my work continued by my colleagues, who are now carrying the flag for current and future generations of students. It gives me great pleasure to see them flourish in their careers, leading further evolution and innovation and contributing to developing the solutions to today’s challenges.