‘It’s not enough’, says John Blake, ‘that learners from underrepresented groups can get into college and university – access is about successful higher education, not just any higher education’ (OfS, 2022).
And here’s the stick:
Blake, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students, goes on: [Providers] should also be under no illusion that every power the OfS has, including removing providers’ access to higher fees, will be deployed to ensure providers abide by their responsibility to improve access, participation and quality’ (OfS, 2022).
What does ‘widening participation’ mean?
Widening Participation (WP) has been an aim in HE since the Robbins Report (1963), but ask around, and it quickly becomes clear that there are some confusions in the way of progress.
First, ask around again, this time about what WP actually means, and you may find a very narrow definition emerging. Figures for access will be derived from students who had free school meals or come from ‘low participation’ areas, and there may be no mention of, say, mature students, travellers, carers and refugees in reports, some of whom will intersect with the BAME population – another catch-all grouping. Further: ‘Individuals often have multiple or hybrid identities and are simultaneously members of a number of different groups’ (Moore et al., 2013:10); there is ‘diversity within diversity’.
Then, maybe ask what access and participation actually mean. You may well find the two have been conflated and the response you get is largely concerned with access and access courses. Less attention is paid to the diverse needs of those who gain access through those widening access schemes. And this is borne out by Blake’s findings:
I have heard more often than I would like that students feel their providers fell over themselves to bring them into higher education, but interest in their needs trailed off the moment they were through the door (OfS, 2022).
Using learning design to widen participation
Evidence from effective interventions is ‘scant’, says Campbell. ‘There is a lack of robust evidence of its effectiveness and that much of the available evidence has design limitations (2020:13).’ And, as OfS’s Blake says: ‘We can’t share what works, and we can’t make it work better, if we don’t actually know what does work (OfS, 2022).’ It behoves us to think very clearly about what interventions we are creating and on what basis. Four major issues emerge from current research:
Moore et al (2013) recommend specific, targeted approaches, particularly for care leavers and disabled learners. The OfS wants to ‘prioritise’ care leavers (2022a).
Recurring themes lie around ‘fostering a sense of belonging’, which Moore et. al. (2013:v) say is ‘at the heart of retention and success’. That belonging is closely connected with learner identity, which is likely to undergo radical and destabilising shifts, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. ‘Fostering an HE learner identity is, therefore, deemed essential for positive and successful transitions’ (Campbell, 2020:32). It is a key factor in student retention.
Butcher et al. (2012; 2017) believe the language of our institutions must change, particularly around assessment, which, they say, has an impact on retention. No point in trying to fit square pegs into round holes, they think: it makes more sense to change university language and culture (Campbell, 2020:32).
And, says, Blake (2022):
I absolutely reject any suggestion that there is a trade off between access and quality – if providers believe the regulation of quality justifies reducing their openness to those from families and communities with less experience of higher education or who have travelled less common, often more demanding, routes to reach them, they should be ashamed of themselves.
It’s worth remembering, perhaps: this man carries a stick.
Bibliography
Blake, J. (2022) Next Steps in Access and Participation (accessed 1 Sept. 2022)
Campbell, K. (2020) Widening Participation in Higher Education: immersion prior to entry as an enabler. (accessed 13 Sept. 2022)
Moore, J., Sanders, J. and Higham, L. (2013) Literature Review of Research into Widening Participation to Higher Education Report to HEFCE and OFFA (ARC Network) (accessed 13 Sept. 2022)
OfS (2022a) Care Experienced Students and Looked After Children. (accessed 18 Sept. 2022)
Younger, K., Gascoine, L., Menzies, V. and Torgerson, C. (2019) ‘A systematic review of evidence on the effectiveness of interventions and strategies for widening participation’ in: Journal of Further and Higher Education, 43:6
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Thank you to:
- Ray Martin for researching and preparing this article
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