The Outreach Programme

Some of the first year's intake of the London School of Architecture School

The London College of Fashion has been committed to widening participation since well before the current changes to arts education funding. Its Compact Agreement for Progression Scheme (CAPS) is an exemplar for getting talented young would-be fashion and textiles students from diverse and often financially challenged backgrounds into higher education, thanks to relationships they have built up over the past 12 years with its partner colleges -- schools, sixth forms and further education colleges in the East and north east London areas. A full year of free workshops, summer courses and advice sessions are available to help promising pupils decide which part of the fashion industry their skills might be best suited to, as well as to assist them in preparing a portfolio in support of their application.

Its track record hasn't faltered in the current climate -- 75 per cent of the students with the CAPS scheme are accepted at LCF (with the remaining 25 per cent all going on to higher education, elsewhere), according to Terry Finnigan, LCF's head of widening participation. She says: 'The reason why it has worked so well is the team approach. We can work with the schools' tutors but also very closely with the courses' admissions tutors, so they have a better understanding of students and their needs. We get them involved so they meet the students and realise what they are like. They can see their potential.'

The criteria for selection are rigorous: the CAPS students are either the first in their family to apply to university or from a family with a low income. Just as importantly, they have been nominated by their FE tutors on the basis of talent, aptitude and commitment. Finnigan thinks the success rate has been maintained in large part thanks to grants from Student Finance England -- £3,500 a year is provided free for students with a combined family income of £15,000 or less. Sadly, the Chancellor threatened to remove them in the July budget. 'If that grant goes, which is a piddling amount to them but means the world to these students, that would make a really big difference to numbers,' says Finnigan.

The alternative architecture school

During a workshop at the Open School East, established in 2013

Will Hunter, formerly executive editor of the Architectural Review, first put out a call for the industry to research and assess the challenges facing architecture education in 2012. By 2013, he was announcing the launch of a new architecture school -- one that offered a two-year postgraduate course (Part 2) that was 'lower cost and better value' than the norm.

This September, the London School of Architecture embarks on its first year, with 25 handpicked students -- all graduates in architecture from a diversity of colleges, with a balance of 80 per cent Brits and 20 per cent continental European (the college is too small, its resources too limited, to justify applying for a Tier 4 licence to teach international students). The 'better value' in the proposition is born of the close relationship each student will have with the world of practice, among other things.

There are 50 UK practices (including the well-established Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Grimshaws, AHMM and Cullinan Studio as well as innovative younger studios, such as DSDHA) signed up as partners to the course, which will take on students to mentor and train. In their first year students receive a small salary from their chosen practice (£12,000 a year minimum) out of which they pay fees directly (£6,000 a year).

The final collection of Arthur Sinclair, a BA (Hons) bespoke tailoring year 3 student at the London College of Fashion. Bianca Guthrie Ba (Hons) Fashion Styling and Photography, Photographer: Elle Sillanpaa, Model: Efua Boateng, Mua: Dora Simpson

For this, the student receives two days a week of education and three days in practice. The second year focuses on study, with practices providing technical teaching, and students working collaboratively on self-directed research clusters, to which practices can contribute as well as benefit from.

London itself forms the heart of the curriculum, with a different borough every year selected for live project work. Its academic partner is the Cass School of Architecture at London Metropolitan University -- a natural ally, given its commitment to access as well as bringing practice into research and vice versa. The culture, says Hunter, is 'collaborative' and 'outward-facing'.