The Access Project
Supporting disadvantaged students to get to top universities.

The Access Project
We support students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access top universities, through a unique combination of tuition and in-school mentoring. We work with them to make good applications, get the grades and transition to university.

The Access Project
At The Access Project we believe that every young person regardless of background can make the most of education, unlocking their potential and creating a fairer society.
Our volunteers are trained and supported to be effective tutors who work with our students for an hour a week to raise their grades. In addition, a dedicated school-based staff member mentors the students so they have the knowledge and support to make strong university applications. Our results show this approach works.

Did you know?
Disadvantaged young people are five times less likely to go to a top university in comparison to more advantaged students, according to the Department for Education.
That’s why we support students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access top universities, through a unique combination of tuition and in-school mentoring. We work with them to make good applications, get the grades and transition to university.
Find out how you can get involved:
Our programme makes a real difference
- Students with The Access Project are more than twice as likely as similarly disadvantaged students to attend top universities.
- The charity helps more students access top universities every year. 67% of our students placed at top universities in 2021.
- GCSE students with The Access Project make on average half a grade more progress than their peers, in their tutored subjects.
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The Access Project is committed to working with the teenagers who need us most. This year we ensured that 96% of our students came from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.
Our latest news

Celebrating our partnership with SOAS
The Access Project has partnered with SOAS University of London for over two years. They are matched with Wood Green Academy in the West Midlands.

Neurodiversity Week: How Jo uses her experience to support her students
Neurodiversity Celebration Week aims to help people learn more about neurodiversity and develop a more positive perception of the unique traits and skills of neurodivergent people. Neurodiversity means that people experience and interact with the world in many...

Two years since lockdown: Ahsan’s experience during the pandemic
To say that this pandemic has been disruptive to young people’s education is an understatement – particularly for the disadvantaged students that we work with. Over this time, we have shared how online tuition has helped young people during the pandemic and what we...

Esther Holland, Headteacher, Central Foundation Girls’ School, London

The legacy of The Access Project tutor will be felt by these students in the short term, measured by the students in the medium term as they reach their aspirational grades, but really understood and recognised in the long term as these students start careers in places they never thought they could access or even dreamed existed.
Esther Holland, Headteacher, Central Foundation Girls’ School.
Get In Touch
Contact info
128 Aldersgate Street
Barbican, London
EC1A 4AE
Unit 302B, JQ Modern
120 Vyse Street
Birmingham, B18 6NF
020 4513 5999
info@theaccessproject.org.uk
Media enquiries:
07767 100 581
media@theaccessproject.org.uk
The Access Project safeguarding line: 020 4513 5999 (available Monday - Friday 9am-5:30pm)
NSPCC 24 hour line:
0808 800 5000
Get in touch
Contact info
128 Aldersgate Street
Barbican, London
EC1A 4AE
Unit 302B, JQ Modern
120 Vyse Street
Birmingham, B18 6NF
020 4513 5999
info@theaccessproject.org.uk
Media enquiries:
07767 100 581
media@theaccessproject.org.uk
The Access Project safeguarding line: 020 4513 5999 (available Monday - Friday 9am-5:30pm)
NSPCC 24 hour line:
0808 800 5000