An ecological fallacy in higher education policy: the use,overuse and misuse of ‘low participation neighbourhoods’

One form of ecological fallacy is found in the dictum that ‘you are where you live’ – otherwise expressed in the idea that you can infer significant information about an individual or their family from the prevailing conditions around their home. One expression of this within higher education in the UK has been the use (and, arguably, overuse and misuse) of ‘low participation neighbourhoods’ (LPNs) over the last 15 years. These are areas that have been defined, from historic official data, as having a lower-than-average propensity to send their young people on to university. These LPNs have increasingly become used within the widening participation and social mobility agendas as a proxy for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who have the potential to benefit from higher education, but who would not attend without encouragement, support and/or incentives. In this article, we explore the various uses to which LPNs have been put by policy makers, universities and practitioners, including the targeting of outreach activities, the allocation of funding and the monitoring of the social mix within higher education. We use a range of official data to demonstrate that LPNs have a questionable diagnostic value, with more disadvantaged families living outside them than within them, while they contain a higher-than-expected proportion of relatively advantaged families. We also use content analysis of university policy documents to demonstrate that universities have adopted some questionable practices with regard to LPNs, although some of these are now being actively discouraged.     

Participation and equity in higher education: are we going back to the future?

The December 2008 special issue of the Oxford Review of Education provided a review of education policy during Tony Blair’s tenure as Prime Minister. This paper forms a response to the ten contributions to that special issue and discusses some of the issues raised in them. While a few positive aspects of education under New Labour were identified in the special edition, it focused more on the failures of New Labour than its achievements. A common theme to emerge from the papers included the government’s pursuit of neo‐liberal market policies at the expense of its professed commitment to social justice. While accepting that the government’s failure to tackle the differences in educational outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils constitutes a major failing, the present author argues that significant achievements, such as early years provision, were neglected in the special issue. He also discusses the electoral considerations facing New Labour and the personal role of Tony Blair in determining policy. The paper goes on to consider whether New Labour’s education policy has changed since the departure of Blair and identifies some hints of a potentially more progressive approach developing under Brown. It concludes by suggesting that contributing towards a debate about alternatives to Blairite policies should now become a priority for the ‘educational establishment’.     

Who is missing from higher education?

This paper discusses the difficulties of establishing a clear count of UK higher education students in terms of the categories used for widening participation, such as occupational background or ethnicity. Using some of the best and most complete data available, such as the annual figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the paper then establishes that there is little evidence of a simple consistent pattern of under‐representation within these categories, except perhaps for men and students of white ethnicity. However, once prior qualifications are taken into account there is no evidence that potential students are unfairly and disproportionately denied access to higher education in terms of occupation, ethnicity, sex or disability. This has important implications for what we mean by widening participation in higher education and how we might achieve it.     

Unlocking the gates to the peasants: are policies of ‘fairness’ or ‘inclusion’ more important for equity in higher education?

Attempts to make higher education more equitable more readily succeed at the aggregate (sector) level than at the institutional, with students from disadvantaged groups being overrepresented in low-status institutions. It is suggested that this is because policies of ‘fairness’ (i.e. proportional representation) dominate the contemporary policy framework and are strongly resisted by elite universities. However, using the Australian higher education sector as an example, this paper argues that equity policy is actually a mix of ‘proportional fairness’ and ‘inclusion’ and elite institutions resist not because the policy is deficient but because it might actually work. An alternative approach to higher education equity policy is proposed; one which requires elite institutions to engage meaningfully with disadvantaged students but allows them to retain their status advantage.     

‘Frictional’ relationships … tension in the camp: focusing on the relational in under-represented students’ experiences in higher education

Drawing upon data collected as part of a research project exploring diversity in Irish higher education, this article focuses on the relational realm of under-represented students’ experiences. It commences with a brief overview of the background and context as well as the methodology of the study. The article then presents and explores a number of interrelated findings with regard to the relationships experienced by these undergraduates, both with other students and with their external friends and acquaintances. Friction was evident in the accounts of the respondents and this article argues that an increased focus on the relational is required by institutions, given the central role played by the social experience in the retention of students in higher education. Further, it is argued that education for diversity and inclusion be incorporated as an explicit and integrated component in all higher education curricula in order to foster mutual understanding and respect between student groups, within the broader educational community and ultimately in the wider society.     

Does accelerating access to higher education lower its quality? The Australian experience

In the pursuit of mass higher education, fears are often expressed that the quality of higher education suffers as access is increased. This quantitative study considers three proxies of educational quality: (1) prior academic achievement of the student, (2) attrition and retention rates and (3) progression rates, to establish whether educational quality suffers when supply is significantly increased. The period of analysis (2009–2011) saw just such an increase in higher education places in Australia, as universities prepared for the removal of all caps on undergraduate domestic student places in 2012. Our analysis reveals that, whilst widening access results in more students with lower levels of academic achievement entering higher education, this does not necessarily equate to a lowering of educational quality. Furthermore, although on average student progression rates dropped slightly, retention rates actually increased in the majority of universities, suggesting high levels of student perseverance. In addition, there were already wide variations in attrition and progression rates between universities, and the changes observed between 2009 and 2011 did not lead to substantial alterations.     

The Synergistic Thesis: Student and supervisor perspectives

The quality of the student-supervisor relationship is paramount in achieving many of the goals of postgraduate study. A self-regulatory, synergistic model of supervision is described briefly and a supervisor and student whose experiences closely fitted such a model each reflect on aspects of their roles and the outcomes, and evaluate their experience in terms of personal and professional development. The model incorporates four major aspects of the postgraduate experience-Motivation, Beliefs, Management strategies and Affect. Motivation requires a shared commitment to the usefulness of, and interest in the topic as well as mutual respect and a willingness to learn. Conceptualising the thesis topic requires a shared language between supervisor and student. Managing the process involves organisation of self and task, and selection and use of strategies and relevant resources at optimal stages of the research. In addition, the fundamental importance of Affect needs to be acknowledged in the development of strategies to address inevitable fluctuations of positive and negative feelings. Suggestions for practice that could facilitate a self-regulatory, synergistic research process are made.     

Chinese whispers? Investigating the consistency of the language of assessment between a distance education institution,its tutors and students

Ensuring the fairness of assessment is important in all areas of higher education. It is particularly so in distance education, where the communication around assessment and feedback is a principal method of supporting learning, and even more so when the students are at the entry point into higher education. This research explores the nature of the language used in explaining the purpose and process of assessment on an access programme at The Open University, UK, from the perspective of the module team, the tutors and the students. It takes a qualitative approach to examine the clarity and consistency of assessment tasks, assessment guidance and TMGs. Analysis revealed inconsistencies in the language used in relation to assessment, which has led to a revision of how assessment tasks and guidance are communicated to students and tutors.     

Have the changes introduced by the 2004 Higher Education Act made higher education admissions in England wider and fairer?

‘Widening participation’ and ‘fair access’ have been contested policy areas in English higher education since at least the early 1990s. They were key facets of the 2003 White Paper – The Future of Higher Education – and the subsequent 2004 Higher Education Act, with stated objectives that the reach of higher education should be wider and fairer. In particular, there has been considerable concern about admissions to ‘top universities’, which have remained socially as well as academically exclusive. The principal policy tools used by the Act were the introduction of variable tuition fees, expanded student grants, discretionary bursaries and the new Office for Fair Access (OFFA). This paper draws on publicly available statistics to assess whether the changes implemented by the 2004 Office for Fair Access (OFFA). 2004. Producing Access Agreements: OFFA guidance to institutions, Bristol: OFFA.  [Google Scholar] Act have indeed made access to English higher education wider and fairer in relation to young people progressing from state schools and colleges and from lower socio‐economic groups. It concludes that, while there is some evidence for modest improvements, these have been concentrated outside the ‘top universities’, which have seen slippage relative to the rest of the sector. The paper concludes with a discussion of the reasons why financial inducements appear to be a flawed and naive approach to influencing student demand.     

Participation disadvantage in Australian higher education: An analysis of some effects of geographical location and socioeconomic status

This paper describes the resultsof a study that re-examined the relatively lowhigher education participation rate of peopleliving in rural or isolated Australia. Thefocus of the study was the goals and plans ofAustralian school students in their seniorschool years and the underlying attitudestowards education. The study suggests highereducation participation for people in rural andisolated areas may be affected less by distancefrom university campuses than by socioeconomiccircumstances and the influences of ruralsocial and cultural contexts. Socioeconomiceffects are generally more pronounced andpervasive than any effects of locationidentified by this study. The implications ofthe findings for equity policy and programs arediscussed.     

Working for change in higher education: the possibilities for collaborative research

This paper explores the potential for conducting collaborative and critical research in higher education which problematises the role and practices of the academy in maintaining exclusion. It begins with a brief discussion of UK government discourse on widening participation, and contrasts this with the research literature which indicates the persistence of exclusionary practices in higher education, particularly in relation to social class. It then utilises a retrospective account of a small‐scale participatory research study undertaken between 1996 and 2003 with a group of adult students from working class and minority ethnic backgrounds, to explore the possibilities for research which seeks the collaboration of those who, in other traditions, are constituted as research ‘objects’. The paper discusses some of the lessons from the research process and explores the challenges for academics conducting research within the academy – challenges arising from their social positioning and their location in the academic field, but also from the ‘scholarly gaze’ which they ‘cast upon the social world’. The paper advocates research which shifts the focus from deficit discourses around students, turns a critical and reflexive gaze towards academia and academics, and directs its efforts towards challenging existing power structures within higher education.     

List of Books Received 44:4

ABSTRACT

How should academic staff engage in outreach with communities outside of the university? The need of academics to answer this question has intensified in the UK given the changing priorities of academic job roles, shaped by increasing institutional concern for widening participation, graduate employability and research impact in an era of austerity and high tuition fees. While university outreach professionals, such as those in widening participation, have access to a range of networks, resources and support mechanisms for outreach activity, academics often face a series of profession-specific pressures that make engagement in outreach complex and contingent. This article draws upon the experience of 25 academics from 18 different subject areas and 18 institutions to examine and provide responses to key challenges faced by academics involved in outreach in the UK. We examine such issues as: the conceptualisation of outreach; funding; recognition and management of workload; nurturing relationships with internal and external partners; capacity-building; commercial interests, payment and responsibility; pedagogical style and content; integration of outreach into curricula, and evaluation of programmes. The examination offered is not all encompassing, but acts as a series of reference points to consider the challenges faced by UK academics in an evolving outreach sector.