Book Review: Access and Expansion Post-Massification: Opportunities and Barriers to Further Growth in Higher Education Participation Jongbloed, Ben W.A and Vossensteyn, Hans (eds.), 2015

Most of us will be familiar with the concept of the journey from an elite to a mass and then a universal system of Higher Education, first introduced by Martin Trow in 1973. Taken as a whole this book suggest that HE systems worldwide are now moving beyond mass participation and into a universal phase with participation rates of 50% or more now common among developed and developing nations. The theme of the book, as its subtitle suggests, is to explore what is different about post-massification in relation to both opportunities and barriers there may be for further growth. The book asks what international policy lessons, about quality, value for money and public spending restraints (especially in the wake of 2008 crash) can be drawn on

Marketisation and widening participation in English higher education : a critical discourse analysis of institutional access policy documents

This paper uses critical discourse analysis of English higher education institutions’ policy statements about access to explore the changing ways that institutions have used language to shift their market positionality away from widening participation for all and the process of higher education to ‘fair access’ (i.e. social mobility for the ‘brightest’) and the outcome of producing ‘professionals’. Analysis is drawn from the Access Agreements two sets of sampled institutions (ten large prestigious pre-1992 universities and ten former polytechnics, known as post-1992 universities ) at two points in time: 2006-07 (the first wave of Access Agreements) and 2012-13 (the first set of Access Agreements in the new funding regime)

The impact of the changing English higher education marketplace on widening participation and fair access : evidence from a discourse analysis of access agreements

This article uses a discourse analysis of access policy statements to trace the impact of differentiation and marketisation among English HE institutions that was evident before but accelerated by recent policy developments, including the increase in tuition fees. A result of this has been a shift in institutions' policy discourses that indicate less propitious circumstances for widening participation, particularly among post-1992 institutions which are now expected to improve retention and employability outcomes. Pre-1992 institutions including members of the Russell Group of selective, research intensive universities have been encouraged by policy changes to differentiate further by concentrating their outreach only on the 'brightest' of applicants from poorer backgrounds. The article concludes that widening participation of the traditional 'raising aspirations' kind becomes a much more difficult project for post-1992 institutions and correspondingly a more difficult basis for a future business model

Does Aimhigher work? evidence from the national evaluation

During 2005 the Centre for Research and Evaluation in collaboration with the Widening Participation Policy Unit at Sheffield Hallam University conducted three surveys on behalf of HEFCE to evaluate the impact of Aimhigher . Surveys were sent to all higher education institutions and a sample of further education colleges and work based-learning providers. All three surveys contained a set of core questions for the purpose of comparative analysis. The surveys focused on which activities are delivered through the Aimhigher partnerships, how the activities are perceived to impact on the provider and the apparent effect they have on the progression of target groups to higher education

Cultures of career development: senior leaders' and early career teachers' views of career

Background The TDA-funded NQT Quality Improvement Study is a 4 year, England-wide longitudinal, combined methods study of both SLT and early career teachers (ECT's) views of key issues in the first few years of teaching. The first two phases of the study focussed on entry into the NQT year and the NQT year itself; the third phase looked at the second year of teaching. This paper utilises data from this third phase - particularly case study interviews with teachers and SLT members - to consider the issues of ECTs' careers and career development. The topic is of particular interest, since whilst the picture in terms of teacher supply and retention in the profession overall is much improved in recent years (for example, proportions of unfilled vacancies have declined according to DCSF data, and Smithers and Robinson (2003, 2004, 2005) found that the retention issue tailed off and stabilised over the period of their studies), it is clear that schools vary widely in their ability to recruit and retain staff in their early careers. This paper aims to explore these variations in different contexts and school cultures, to illuminate these differences. Research Questions This focus of this paper is to examine how SLT members in different contexts and cultures manage, and view, career development for ECTs in their schools and to compare these views with those of ECTs in the same schools

The strange death of number controls in England : paradoxical adventures in higher education market making

The paper analyses the impact of a higher education funding mechanism, the 'High Grades' policy, introduced as part of a student number control regime in England that was introduced in 2012/13 and withdrawn after only two years. This marked the end of an experiment in market making based on quality and price within a fixed student number cap. The paper analyses the impact of policy in key areas of institutional behaviour which taken together illustrate why the specific higher education market mechanism failed. The focus will be on two key areas of institutional behaviour which taken together illustrate why the specific higher education market mechanism failed, and how longer term marketisation is affecting the different institution types in the sector in ways inimical to equity and social justice. The two areas are: 1) strategic responses by selective universities (pre-1992s ) to the 'high grades' policy reform and its impact on attempts to protect subject breadth and widening participation (WP); 2) the market pressure felt by post-1992 universities to differentiate themselves from their competitors due to the demands of institutional league tables. These in turn illustrate the ways that longer term marketisation is affecting the different institution types in the sector in ways inimical to autonomy, equity and social justice

Evaluating the impact of number controls, choice and competition : an analysis of the student profile and the student learning environment in the new higher education landscape

The context for this research is the introduction of several reforms designed to change the ways that higher education institutions operate. The government white paper Students at the heart of the system (BIS 2011) set out a new context for improving the student experience in English higher education based on consumer pressure on institutional behaviours, practices and, ultimately, systems. The following analysis of how institutions responded to student number controls (SNCs), choice and competition in relation to the student profile and the student learning environment draws on data from two sources, a national survey and a representative set of interviews with senior institutional managers. Together, data from these two sources provide the sector with the first comprehensive analysis of the strategic changes in approach and the rationales behind them. The research took place in a context of a volatile policy environment and the paper highlights the complex effects of two concurrent and linked processes: one, the ongoing effects of marketisation and how institutional decision-making processes were inflected by the daily realities of a system based on choice and competition; and two, the traceable effects of the specific 'core and margin' policy in operation after 2012-13. The analysis provides valuable insights into ways in which institutions may act after student number controls are removed altogether from 2015-16

Evaluating the impact of number controls, choice and competition : an analysis of the student profile and the student learning environment in the new higher education landscape.

The research project Evaluating the impact of number controls, choice and competition: an analysis of the student profile and the student learning environment in the new higher education landscape sought to develop an understanding of the impact of the stimulation of choice and competition on the sector. The research took place in the context of a volatile policy environment and the report highlights the complex effects of two concurrent and linked processes: one, the ongoing effects of marketisation and how institutional decision-making processes are inflected by the daily realities of a system based on choice and competition; and two, the traceable effects of the specific Student Number Control (SNC) 'core and margin' policy since 2012-13