Do Pre‐entry Interventions such as ‘Aimhigher’ Impact on Student Retention and Success? A Review of the Literature

This paper reviews the potential impact of pre‐entry widening access interventions on student retention and success in higher education. It thus addresses two contemporary policy concerns: What is the impact of pre‐entry widening access interventions; and how can we improve student retention and success? A review of academic and practitioner literature finds limited research about the impact of pre‐entry interventions in general and very little on the impact of pre‐entry interventions on students' retention and success in higher education. A review of the research, however, identifies the importance of factors which pre‐entry interventions address: pre‐entry decision making, expectations about higher education and academic preparation. To date, however, the impact of pre‐entry interventions on retention in higher education has been largely ignored. Thus pre‐entry activities, such as Aimhigher, should be evaluated for their impact on student retention. The paper offers an outline evaluation framework, including evaluation topics and suggested key performance indicators to bridge this gap.     

Distancing to self‐protect: the perpetuation of inequality in higher education through socio‐relational dis/engagement

This paper explores the social class‐differentiated behaviours of access and traditional‐entry students, based on a three‐year constructivist grounded theory study with 45 undergraduates at an Irish university. The participant groups behaved significantly differently within the socio‐relational realm, engaging in various forms of distancing behaviours motivated by a desire to self‐protect and based on perceived relative social positioning. The paper illustrates some ways in which both disadvantage and privilege are performed at the post‐entry stage in a widening participation context. It is argued that the ‘closure’ behaviours of class‐based groups constrain the building of social capital by working‐class students, thus potentially limiting the ability of widening participation policies in achieving equality goals.     

Access to and Participation in Higher Education in Northern Ireland

This paper summarises some of the key characteristics of access to and participation in higher education. In particular, it focuses on the key social characteristics of participation and the interaction with migration to study outside Northern Ireland. Key policy areas relating to student finance and widening access are also considered. The paper also reports on qualitative research conducted with Protestant and Catholic pupils from less well‐off backgrounds about attitudes to further and higher education. The paper concludes by suggesting higher education policy issues for a newly restored devolved administration.     

Where Shall We Widen It? Higher Education and the Age Participation Rate in Wales

This paper examines the range and quality of data sources available to calculate the representation of minority ethnic groups and different social classes in higher education. The focus is on widening participation in Wales, although some of the datasets and the implications of their re‐analysis are more general. The paper also identifies a number of problems with many existing pieces of research in this field – including the routine, and ironic, exclusion of nonparticipants from studies of widening participation, and the small scale of much work. Using the limited datasets that are available for re‐analysis shows that the qualified age participation rate for traditional undergraduate entry to university is near 100 per cent. Social classes and ethnic groups are, therefore, represented in proportion to their prevalence in the more general population, and in proportion to their prior attainment of entry qualifications. The solution to widening participation for these groups lies not in universities but in schools, colleges and the wider society.     

Informational capital and the transition to university: First‐in‐family students' experiences in Austrian higher education

The agenda for widening participation in higher education has led to increasing numbers of students with a broader range of education and family backgrounds. However, transitioning to the university landscape remains a highly complex negotiation process, especially for first‐in‐family students, who cannot draw on previous experience from higher education in their families. Gaining access to informational capital—a combination of cultural and social capital—plays a crucial role in managing education transitions. We draw on rich empirical data obtained from 26 autobiographical narrative interviews with first‐in‐family university students in Austria to investigate how transitions to university are affected by informational capital. We also explore how access to informational capital was influenced by (1) institutional practices, such as initiatives to support students, especially first‐year students; and (2) cultural fit—the extent to which a student's cultural capital corresponded with the dominant cultural capital in the field of their chosen discipline or higher education establishment. Our findings show that gaining access to informational capital was strongly affected by the institutional practices at universities within the different disciplines, thus highlighting the importance of higher education institutions in supporting their students during transition processes. We conclude with policy implications for how higher education institutions can assist first‐in‐family students to succeed at university.     

Advocates for Access: Do We Really Need a European Access Network?

The “European Access Network” is the only European‐wide non‐governmental body that focuses exclusively on widening participation in higher education, but in an age of “mass” higher education, who needs advocates for access? Surely the case for greater equity has already been made and won? A close look at the evidence, however, indicates that those who were under‐represented before are often under‐represented still. The European Access Network highlights this problem, demolishes the myths by examining the evidence, identifies solutions, promotes good practice, and puts on pressure for a more equitable higher education. This article investigates the progress that is being made, identifies what remains to be done, and suggests the most effective strategies for success.     

Men accessing education: masculinities,identifications and widening participation

Drawing on ESRC‐funded research (RES‐000–22–0832), this article examines the accounts of men participating in London access and foundation programmes in relation to their shifting masculine identifications. I consider how the men’s early memories of schooling shape their student masculinities. Their accounts are contextualised in relation to hegemonic discourses of widening participation and neo‐liberalism. Drawing on feminist critique, I pay attention to the men’s self‐regulating practices in their struggle to be recognised as deserving of higher education access and participation. The interconnections and contradictions within men’s identifications across a range of differences are considered in relation to their experiences and imaginaries of accessing higher education.     

Access to Higher Education in Germany: The Career of an Issue

After the Second World War, the widening of access to higher education became a central issue of higher education policy in all developed countries. Over recent decades, most of them have experienced an unprecedented expansion of higher education access, which is a matter of creating equal educational opportunities and also of assuring economic growth. This article analyzes the development of access to higher education in Germany in the transnational context of the issue and, at the same time, considers the specific German situation and its development. After more than thirty years of expansion, widening access even further is no longer the problem. Questions of quality, efficiency, and funding have come to the fore of German higher education policy.     

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.     

Re-conceptualising sustainable widening participation: evaluation,collaboration and evolution

This article discusses the future of university-based programmes aimed at enabling the access and successful participation of students from traditionally under-represented backgrounds in higher education. It builds a case for adopting three strategies in ensuring the sustainability of widening access and participation work: (1) embedding broad-ranging and reflexive evaluation practices; (2) developing partnerships with industry partners; and (3) evolving the conceptual and strategic framework of widening participation. The article's reflections are contextualised within the framework of current higher education policy and practice in Australia, and its arguments are advanced from a close reflection on a mentorship programme aimed at media students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds at Macquarie University.     

Policy-Participation Trajectories in English Higher Education

The pattern of expansion that brought mass characteristics to English higher education is very different from that intended to achieve near‐universal access by the end of the present decade. The spectacular growth of the late 1980s and early 1990s was neither projected nor planned, with important consequences for the shape of the English system. By contrast, the policies of renewed expansion and widening participation from the late 1990s represent a radical attempt to change the traditional pattern of demand for English undergraduate education, with future growth focused on the short‐cycle forms of vocational higher education. Although influenced by the example of Scotland in building expansion at levels below the first degree, the policy experiment pursued in England is highly distinctive, including the invention of a new undergraduate qualification and a partnership role for further education colleges.     

扩大开放远程学习的规模并提高保持率——马来西亚开放大学的策略(英文)

作为马来西亚第一所开放远程学习机构,马来西亚开放大学的创建旨在通过向不同背景的人士提供高等教育机会,从而帮助政府实现教育民主化的倡议。然而,这里存在两个明显不相容的议题,一是无所不包,另一个就是卓越。为了应对这一挑战,马来西亚开放大学设计并实施了一些策略,以确保获得学习机会的学习者能有成功的机会,这些策略涉及到开放远程学习的很多方面,例如入学要求、提供相关专业和课程、适当的评估和监控。本文还介绍了规模和保持方面的问题,以及未来一些新的确保教育公平、灵活的方法。     

Men accessing education: gendered aspirations

Raising aspirations has been identified as a key strategy for widening educational participation in lifelong learning policy. This article deconstructs the hegemonic discourse of raising aspirations through Economic and Social Research Council‐funded research on men, masculinities and higher educational access and participation. The article examines the ways that men students on access and foundation programmes talk about their aspirations and considers the multiple influences and practices that shape their decisions to participate in education. It is argued that a range of interlinked, and contradictory, masculine identifications are central to understanding the formation of aspirations, which are not fixed but shifting through different kinds of life and learning experiences, orientations and relations. The article suggests that widening participation policy and practice is too narrowly focused on simplistic notions of ‘raising aspirations’, leaving hidden intricate operations of power, privilege and inequality.     

The research environment of universities

Part‐time study is one of the foci of the widening participation agenda in the UK. The experiences of part‐time students, however, have received remarkably little attention from scholars, especially in a comparative context. This paper explores existing historical data going back over a decade to identify the main themes of part‐time experience at a number of UK higher education institutions and how it compares and contrasts with the full‐time experience. The surveys use the Student Satisfaction Approach. The main themes emerging from institutional survey data over time are the work/family/study balance, assessment and feedback, access to learning and catering resources, and students' financial situation. There is sometimes a question of identity, but unlike many studies of part‐time student experience, which focus on aspects of disadvantage, social, and cultural capital, the data for this paper indicate that many part‐time students have a sense of themselves as being ignored or at worst marginalised in contemporary higher education.     

School processes and the transition to higher education

Previous research has indicated significant variation between schools in the proportion of their students who go on to higher education. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the specific school characteristics influencing application and entry to tertiary education. This paper sets out to analyse the individual and school factors which influence the transition to higher education in the Irish context. The paper draws on a large‐scale study of 4,400 students within 108 secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Almost three‐quarters of the students in the sample applied for a higher education course. However, schools varied in the application rates of their students. These differences are found to be related to the background characteristics of students (in terms of gender, social class and prior ability) along with the institutional habitus of the school. It is found that school factors associated with increased college application rates do not necessarily appear to yield higher rates of college entry but rather that successful entry to tertiary education is related to general academic effectiveness in the school.     

Higher education learner identity for successful student transitions

Student success in higher education (HE) is dependent on the possession of a positive learner identity, the development of which is a complex longitudinal process of change. Exploring the growth of learner identity within the transition between school and university is therefore apposite, especially for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds who may not have sufficient cultural capital to make an easy intellectual transition from school pupil to university student. Learner identity is positively linked with both the academic and social context of learning as well as with concepts of engagement and a sense of belonging in HE. This article explores the findings of a Scottish study involving 30 students who took part in a unique widening participation model based on immersing learners in the university environment whilst still at school. Findings include evidence of the development of a transformative HE learner identity which is enabled by an immersive experience of university prior to entry. A model for HE learning identity formation is suggested. In the context of the current dialogue on fair access and widening participation to HE internationally, findings point policy makers to the benefits of long-term immersion in HE prior to entry for successful transition to university.     

Reconceptualising fair access to highly academically selective universities

Higher Education - The higher education regulator for England has set challenging new widening access targets requiring universities to rethink how merit is judged in admissions. Universities are...     

To be or not to be ‘a disabled student’ in higher education: the case of a postgraduate ‘non‐declaring’ (disabled) student

This paper draws on data from a research project that was funded by the UK's Higher Education Academy. The project focused on the experiences of disabled students in one English higher education institution, and a key feature of the project was to attempt to access the perspectives of ‘non‐declaring’ disabled students. This paper draws on the experiences of one of the ‘non‐declaring’ respondents, Anna, a postgraduate student. In the UK, some students declare their disabled status on entry to a higher education institution, some do so once at the institution and some never let the institution know of their impairment. It is the perspectives of this latter group that are particularly difficult to access. Anna's experiences as a postgraduate student provide some insight into what may affect decisions about declaration of impairment. Drawing on a social‐relational understanding of disability, factors that influenced her decision not to ‘declare’ and the consequent effect on her experience of higher education are explored.     

Student Finance and Widening Participation in the British Isles: Common Problems, Different Solutions

Across the British Isles there are common forces encouraging an expansion of higher education (HE) while constraining the ability and willingness of governments to finance it. We examine the nature of these forces and conclude that together they are likely to lead over time to the general taxpayer funding a declining share of HE costs. While there are some potential efficiency and social equity benefits from reforms of student finance motivated by switching more of the costs towards students and their parents, the likely impact of these reforms on widening participation is unclear. We examine the current student finance systems in the British Isles and assess whether or not a system based upon income‐contingent student loans, means‐tested grants and targeted bursaries can deliver both the desired expansion and widening access.     

Access Courses After Ten Years: A Review

In the 10 years since 1978 there has been an explosion of courses aimed at widening access to higher education. This paper reviews the development of those courses and the issues surrounding them. In general the courses developed in an ad hoc fashion determined at local level. However as the DES draws access provision into the centre of educational policy that local diversity may be threatened. If DES policy on widening access is to succeed then it will have to move beyond exhortation to face major policy issues such as the reallocation of resources: but if it does this then the initial emphasis of practitioners on directing resources at disadvantaged groups may itself be constrained. A coherent strategy is necessary if the original aims of access provision are to be realised.