Duty: Fostering Good Relations / Advancing Equality of Opportunity
Breaking the Cycle Conferences
New College Lanarkshire's (NCL) ground-breaking inaugural conference Breaking the Cycle: Crime and Poverty was delivered at our Coatbridge Campus in 2023. It was driven by the necessity to delve into how poverty and crime intersect, creating a challenging cycle for individuals to break free from once they become involved in a criminal lifestyle. The initiative aimed to provide students and the community with a deeper understanding of these issues, thus fostering a more informed and empathetic approach.
The event brought together a diverse group of speakers, including an ex-police chief, a victim of crime, a Sociology professor, and a former criminal, to explore the intricate links between poverty and crime in Lanarkshire.
Following the success of our first conference, NCL delivered its second conference in 2024 - Breaking the Cycle: Pure class perspectives on Mental Health. Our second conference aimed to raise awareness surrounding the socio-economic challenges linked to class and access to mental health and well-being services. The conference was an opportunity to promote the college’s latest retention campaigns while exploring the underlying factors driving the need for these initiatives. Many of our students come from areas of significant deprivation, and we wanted to inspire them to overcome the barriers imposed by poverty, class, and limited access to services.
The speakers shared diverse lived experiences and examined the factors influencing access to mental health services and the role of class in shaping these challenges. By aligning the event with the Be Well to Do Well campaign, the college demonstrated its dedication to creating an inclusive environment where well-being, regardless of background, is integral to student retention and success.
Both conferences welcomed over 300 staff and students.
As a college we are committed to bringing social inequalities and their intersections to the forefront and challenging them to help us become a more diverse and inclusive college. Given the success of these conferences, discussions are in motion to prepare for the next conference in late 2025.
‘The Breaking the Cycle‘ conferences were born out of a need to provide students with tangible, lived experience to bring their theoretical subjects to life. Many of our students and staff are emotionally moved by these conferences and they have highlighted the positive impact they can have on other people through their academic journeys and careers.
Levi White , Lecture, Humanities
Women's Aid Project results in She Means Business
The Women’s Aid Project launched in 2023, to help survivors of domestic abuse, often facing challenges such as low self-worth, feeling devalued, and having limited control over their daily lives, to reclaim their lives by breaking down barriers and providing a pathway to education.
Partnering with Cumbernauld and District Women’s Aid (CADWA), college lecturers in our Access and Progression department designed a unique trauma-informed 12-week pilot course for 14 women in Women’s Aid refuges. Women from diverse backgrounds, were offered the opportunity to share unique talents and skills, boosting their chances of a brighter future and form friendships.
The students worked hard over the 18-weeks and created fabulous pieces of craftwork, which has been sold at our spring fayre. This was made possible through the utilisation of the wellbeing fund by providing CRICUT machines, materials and external guest workshop facilitators. Each survivor has been encouraged and empowered to share their ideas and skills and one was able to demonstrate the construction of beautiful tissue paper flowers which were handed out for International Women’s Day in 2024. A total of £300 has been raised and donated back to Women’s Aid to help support others in need.
“The ladies have built a fabulous rapport with the staff members and have demonstrated that they have grown to trust us over the weeks and feel able to talk to us about any concerns. This in turn has allowed us the opportunity to signpost additional supports where appropriate such as to the college clothing and beauty banks”.
Lucie Armstrong , Academic Leader, Access and Progression
“Just talking to other women on the course has been really relaxing and distracting. We are all from different backgrounds, but we all have a lot in common, even if some of that’s bad. I don’t want to speak for everyone here but think we’d all lost ourselves - who we were - and this has helped us find ourselves again. I don’t have nice enough words for what Lucie and Nicola have done for us.”
Course participant
Following the positive success of our pilot, it has led onto a second year of the programme running in 2024/25 being devised as ‘She Means Business” at Cumbernauld Campus. Progression discussions have also resulted in some students wishing to pursue full-time education within other NCL departments.
NCL has also mirrored the pilot project at our Coatbridge campus in 2024-2025 with the support of Monklands Women’s Aid. There are plans to further enhance the Social Enterprise into a full time “She Means Business” programme, which will hopefully widen participation to females throughout Lanarkshire.
Global Dental Partnerships
The Women’s Aid Project started in 2023, to help survivors of domestic abuse, often facing challenges such as low self-worth, feeling devalued, and having limited control over their daily lives, reclaim their lives by breaking down barriers and providing a pathway to education.
Partnering with Cumbernauld and District Women’s Aid (CADWA), college lecturers in our Access and Progression department designed a unique trauma-informed 12-week pilot course for 14 women in Women’s Aid refuges. Women from diverse backgrounds, were offered the opportunity to share unique talents and skills, boosting their chances of a brighter future and form friendships.
Launched in 2019 and completed in 2024, the DHTP initiative has set a new standard in international dental education by partnering with institutions in China, Mongolia, and the Philippines to address skill gaps in dental healthcare.
Funded by the UK-China-BRI Countries Partnership Initiative Fund, the project involved in-depth research and analysis of global dental nursing standards, leading to the creation of a standardised Certificate and Diploma in Dental Nursing, complemented by comprehensive support materials. One of its key accomplishments is the Dental Teaching Manual, now widely adopted by all partner institutions.
DHTP’s research-driven curriculum has enriched learning for students and staff, bolstering both educational standards and international cooperation.
To celebrate the project coming to an end, a 2-day event was held for delegates from the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, the National University of the Philippines and Shijianzhuang Medical College attended the event to represent China.
Although this funding has now come to an end, all partners wish to continue this collaboration in order to strengthen international relationships and upscale the quality of dental nursing education worldwide through multilateral activities. As a result, a memorandum of understanding was signed, committing all partners to future collaborations in dental education.
In addition to meetings specific to the project, partners had the opportunity to meet a group of NCL’s HNC Dental Nursing students who delivered a presentation on their course and provided feedback on the Dental Nursing manual which was written by the 5 partner organisations as a project outcome.
The project itself won 2024’s CDN Research Project Award with judges praising the project's achievement, with the award announcement celebrating their ‘incredible work' in transforming dental healthcare education on a global scale.
NCL International Week
International Week at NCL has become a key fixture in our calendar of activities. It is an opportunity to celebrate the fact that there are staff and students of more than 40 nationalities at NCL.
It is not just about ticking boxes at NCL; but our driving force is to embrace a culture of respect and belonging into the fabric of NCL. This means recognising and appreciating the unique strengths and perspectives that each individual brings, regardless of their race, ethnicity, nationality, cultural background, religion, or any other aspect of diversity.
Our International Week in 2024 provided some of our ESOL students with a platform at Motherwell Campus to talk about their cultures and stories.
In 2025, the college hosted a number of activities around the theme 'Journeys to NCL' exploring staff and students experiences going from around the world to Lanarkshire and the challenging and beautiful parts of those voyages.
This year, with support from The Scottish Government’s Scottish Educational Exchange Programme (SEEP), NCL was delighted to host an event at which partners from Europe and beyond came together to share information and practice on internationalisation in education.