Supporting University Entry in the Age of Widening Participation PDF Download

Author: John R. D. Blicharski
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000635171
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Designed for those working with widening participation students, this key guide provides all of the information needed to support learners from widening participation backgrounds and ensure fair admission to university can be effectively delivered. Providing the reader with a theoretical and practical understanding of how to reach non-traditional students, this book addresses the realities of the challenges the modern university widening participation applicant faces. Each chapter offers a fresh and engaging insight into widening participation and explores the fascinating range of factors that determine whether students from non-traditional backgrounds successfully access university and benefit from it. This book systematically considers the barriers, approaches and solutions required to reach university and encourages a ‘best evidence’ approach that could enable the people of tomorrow to have more equal access to learning and through that, a positive and healthy future on a planet under severe challenge. Ideal reading for all those working in widening participation or committed to expanding the diversity of their student populations, this book offers the insights, advice and considerations needed when deciding how best to help often highly vulnerable and unsupported students transform their lives through learning.

Author: John R. D. Blicharski
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781003217916
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Designed for those working with widening participation students, this key guide provides all of the information needed to support learners from widening participation backgrounds and ensure fair admission to university can be effectively delivered. Providing the reader with a theoretical and practical understanding of how to reach non-traditional students, this book addresses the realities of the challenges the modern university widening participation applicant faces. Each chapter offers a fresh and engaging insight into widening participation and explores the fascinating range of factors that determine whether students from non-traditional backgrounds successfully access university and benefit from it. It systematically considers the barriers, approaches and solutions required to reach university and encourages a 'best evidence' approach that could enable the people of tomorrow to have more equal access to learning and through that, a positive and healthy future on a planet under severe challenge. Ideal reading for all those working in widening participation or committed to expanding the diversity of their student populations, this book offers the insights, advice and considerations needed when deciding how best to help often highly vulnerable and unsupported students transform their lives through learning"--

Author: T. Hinton-Smith
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137283416
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
This collection offers an authoritative, up-to-date commentary on the challenges facing higher education today across both the UK and internationally. The book charts the impact of global economic trends and recent policy developments for students, academics, providers and changing course provision.

Author: Liz Thomas
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
ISBN: 0335230288
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
“This book does not focus simply on the employment prospects of first generation higher education entrants but rather engages with the wider possibilities of social engagement and transformation that can arise from participation in higher education. It provides essential reading for administrators, policy-makers, managers, academics and indeed anyone else interested in how to widen the socio-economic base of higher education so that the process is informed by a significant concern with social justice and reducing inequality.” Rosemary Deem, Professor of Education, University of Bristol This book examines the proposition that parental education is a key factor contributing to the access and success of students, but that insufficient attention is paid to this by researchers, national systems and institutional interventions. Analysis of research findings from ten countries, plus a UK wide study, indicates that parental education is more important in determining access to higher education than parental employment or financial status. The book provides a clear conceptualisation of first generation entry, exploring its complex interrelationship with social class. Furthermore, it demonstrates that when first generation entry is used as a lens, it disrupts the taken for granted assumptions regarding widening participation and helps produce much more effective approaches to targeting access and supporting student success. First Generation Entry into Higher Education provides a unique and insightful examination of how first generation entrants are supported or otherwise by different national approaches and institutional responses. The book is essential reading for all with an interest in widening participation in higher education.

Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102954203
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
Some progress is being made in encouraging under-represented groups to continue into higher education, but particular sections of society remain significantly under-represented and too little is known about the link between measures taken by institutions and any improvements in access. The attainment of qualifications at secondary school is the principal reason for the difference in participation rates but social class remains a strong determinant of higher education participation. Women are better represented than men and those from non-white ethnic groups are better represented than white people. The report finds that white people from lower socio-economic groups are the most under-represented group in higher education institutions. There are also significant variations between academic institutions in how good they are at widening participation. In 2006-07, one sixth of institutions made less progress than expected in recruiting students from areas with low participation. Those that became universities post-1992 generally do better than the Russell Group universities (an association of 20 self-selected major research intensive institutions). Incomplete data on student background hinders accurate assessment of which groups are under-represented. There is insufficient information about the full range of activities aimed at widening participation, making it difficult to identify which activities are most effective. Higher education is not always provided in ways that make it accessible to individuals from under-represented groups. Some students and potential students have limited understanding of the different types of financial support available to them. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills should lead efforts to create a comprehensive and accessible source of information to support potential applicants from under-represented groups.

Author: Nalita James
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131737326X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning investigates the experiences of mature adult learners returning to formal education. The book challenges the policy discourses in which Access to Higher Education survives by suggesting that continuing education is more about determination by students to alter their identities and career opportunities than meeting narrow performative criteria of financial targets. Chapters explore students’ struggles with institutional and social structures in the current political and socio-economic climate, before identifying how the transformation of their learner identities is facilitated in the courses by collaborative cultures and supportive tutors. The book addresses a research gap in knowledge about students’ and tutors’ experiences of Access to Higher Education courses, presenting a broad perspective on the importance and difficulties of such courses through listening to the voices of students and tutors undertaking a variety of Access to HE pathways. The authors argue that despite success on their courses benefiting the national economy as well as students individually, the social and financial costs of continuing education is almost entirely shifted onto students’ shoulders by policymakers. Despite the costs, students can still see Access to HE as a chance to improve their lives, reflecting the neoliberal discourse of personal responsibility and risk embedded in broader national social and policy discourses. Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of further and higher education, widening participation, social justice and sociology of education, and education policy and politics.

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0102947686
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
This report finds that, when compared internationally, England achieves a high rate of student retention. However the variation between retention rates of different institutions and the worsening of some institution's continuation rates shows that there is scope for further improvement. This will be increasingly important as access to further education is broadened, bringing in students who are likely to need more support. Amongst the recommendations are: the monitoring of retention at student, faculty and course level; the use of early-leaver surveys when problems are identified; more positive student support that emphasises ways to improve grades; identification of students eligible for Disabled Students' Allowances; the adoption of good practice from other institutions.

Author: Dilshad Sarwar
Publisher: Transnational Press London
ISBN: 1912997460
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
"This book arrives at a timely moment. The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of widespread shock felt across the world over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police in the US has triggered a renewed concern with race equality and encouraged organisations, including universities, to reflect on what they are doing to address this issue. While we shall have to wait to see whether fine words are translated into effective actions, there is little doubt that universities are currently more willing to listen to BME voices." - Professor Andrew Pilkington, University of Northampton, UK. "Historically, CRT follows the notion that there is considerable White bias evident in education and society generally (Bimper, 2017). Studies carried out by Ladson Billings believe that there is clear marginalisation regarding students coming from a BME background and in particular, those students for whom English is not their first language (Carrera, 2019). The author further examined the start of the movement for CRT. CRT began when a small group of activists wanted to understand better race, racism and power (Allen, 2017). The first real CRT movement began by focusing their attention on issues relating to conventional civil rights and ethnic study discourses which existed. They began by really questioning the liberal order addressing equality theory, legal reasoning, rationalism and the fundamental principles of constitutional law in America (Dixon, James, & Frieson, 2018). Regardless of the fact that CRT originated from a movement within Law it did, however, move beyond that discipline. The author further established within her research that educators in the main link themselves to CRT quite holistically (Garcia & Velez, 2018). Educational theorists apply CRT quite loosely to HEIs under the guise of school discipline and hierarchy, tracking, controversies over curriculum and history, IQ and achievement testing. Educational theorists do consider and associate CRT and endeavour to use its core principles to change the social situations present in society today." Contents CHAPTER 1 - Introduction CHAPTER 2 - Critical Race Theory An Educational Construct CHAPTER 3 - Research Methodology CHAPTER 4 - Academic Attainment CHAPTER 5 - Black Minority Ethnic Experiences CHAPTER 6 - The Societal Curriculum CHAPTER 7 - Government Strategy CHAPTER 8 - Thematic Analysis CHAPTER 9 - Discussion and Theorising the Findings CHAPTER 10 - Conclusions and Recommendations

Author: Karen Evans
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 140209759X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
The concept of individual responsibility has taken on a signi?cance comparable to that of ‘choice’ in the global rise of neo-liberalism of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The rise of neo-liberalism is most often analysed through the lenses of theory, governmentality and societal structures. There has been a tendency for an- ysis to become overly abstract with the subjective experiences of the social actors missing dimensions in the literature. This book draws on more than 20 years of international research that has focused on the subjective experiences of people as actors in changing social landscapes. These landscapes are differently positioned politically, economically and socially, in relation to the rise of neo-liberalism. Comparisons enable the differences in people’s experiences to be located, explored and explained in relation to different soc- economic landscapes, thus throwing into relief the effects of neo-liberal policies where they are found. My approach is to create an extended dialogue between ideas and evidence, starting close to home, and then extending to speci?c international comparisons and to wider explorations of the central themes of the book: human agency and social responsibility. Finally, I return to social landscapes of Britain, to review the position and potential for social change in societies that exemplify what Sennett has termed ‘Anglo-American regimes’, in contrast to ‘Rhine regimes’ as exempli?ed by Germany.

Author: Kerry Shephard
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819989604
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
This book is a narrative of conversations between two professors, with different backgrounds, academic disciplines, life experiences, and from different continents. It shows how their discourse has brought them to a single destination defined by a mutual interest in the social purposes of universities, and a hope in common that their academic efforts will somehow do good in the world. The seventeen internationally-agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide focus for aspirations and plans regarding sustainability, but notably, the SDGs’ targets and indicators rarely provide detailed accounts of who is expected to enact change. This book addresses the role of higher education in this context and explores the social purposes of universities and their relation to the Sustainable Development Goals. It presents an academic analysis of this complex situation, based on insights from published literature on higher education, and the personal but very different experiences of two professors with this shared interest.