Social inequalities and the journey to postgraduate taught study: narratives and navigations of first-generation students in England

This research develops new understandings about the intersection between social inequalities and progression into postgraduate taught (PGT) education. Whilst undergraduate study has received substantial focus in the HE literature and from institutional praxis, M-level education has rarely attracted the same attention, despite its growing prominence in UK and international HE landscapes. Redressing this imbalance is a pressing endeavour, given the interconnected contexts of increasing massification, stratification and neoliberalisation, alongside the introduction of the Master’s loan. To achieve this, the research analyses life story interviews and workshops with UK-domiciled Master’s students in England, all of whom were part of the first generation in their family to attend university. Synthesising this data, the research explores the following important questions: 1. How do students navigate their trajectories into PGT study? 2. How do students’ subjectivities, resources and life experiences inform and shape their PGT journeys and navigations of social inequalities? Fieldwork involved biographical-narrative interviews with 41 Master’s students at four universities in England, taking place in two co-located pairs of institutions, one in the North and one in the South. Each pair included one ‘high-status’ and one ‘lower-status’ university. Students came from a range of social science, natural science, arts and humanities disciplines and ranged in age from their early twenties up to their seventies. Following initial analysis of interview data, four workshops were held (one in each university) with nine interviewees. Data was subsequently analysed using a framework which connected feminist scholarship, poststructuralism and Bourdieusian theorisations including insights from researchers who work within, beyond and against Bourdieu’s schemas. This theoretical assemblage facilitated a deep focus on relative and discursive power, multiple and nuanced lived experiences and the indefinite, ongoing and hybridised nature of the social realm. The research makes a number of analytical and empirical contributions. Firstly, it argues that to better understanding HE trajectories, the framing of non-linear journeys is productive and powerful. Speaking against approaches which focus on student decision-making or silo transitions into separate stages, the motif of the journey recognises people’s learning navigations as interconnected, personal, contextual and deeply embedded in the historical and socio-political conditions through which they unfurl. Secondly, the research highlights the importance of happenstance and serendipity, a critical third space between and connecting structure and agency. Although these ‘small moments’ are often hard to see and may fall outside of the current scope of HE support and practice, these can be some of the most significant turning points in people’s lives. Finally, the research evidences how a number of familiar dynamics which we know shape patterns of undergraduate participation – such as students’ capitals, geographical (im)mobility, prior educational experiences, finance, labour market precarity, ‘fitting in’ and identity constructions – extend to and remain salient for PGT study. However, they can sometimes become more obfuscated or take on new formations. This latter insight builds on the existing evidence base about undergraduate inequalities, posing significant questions for the academy going forward

Effective curriculum practice at below Level 2 for 16/17 year olds

In order to understand current, effective provision and delivery for students not yet ready for Level 2 courses in post-16 institutions the Department for Education commissioned two research projects, with aims to inform policy developments around the forthcoming transition year. This report provides an analysis of course content and curriculum that most effectively supports the progression of students participating in below Level 2 programmes at the age of 16 (defined as those without 5 A*-C grade GCSEs and who are not yet in a position to succeed at Level 2)

Learning experiences: understanding the experiences of BAME students in a post-92 university

During 2019-20 a qualitative study of the learning experiences of BAME students at a post 92 university was carried out. Utilising focus groups, the study aimed to explore experiences of teaching and learning. The data uploaded to RADAR are the transcripts from the focus groups

Understanding provision for students with mental health problems and intensive support needs:Report to HEFCE by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and Researching Equity, Access and Partnership (REAP)

This report presents the findings of a research project undertaken for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to update its understanding of institutional support provision for students with mental health problems and other impairments with high cost or intensive support needs

Workplace policy and management practices to improve the health of employees Evidence Review 3

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been asked by the Department of Health to develop guidance on management practices to improve the health of employees, with a particular emphasis on the role of line managers and organisational context. The guidance will cover support for managers, their training, and awareness of employee health issues including managing sickness absence, as well as policies and the organisational context. The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) in partnership with The Work Foundation (TWF) and Lancaster University have been contracted to undertake a series of evidence reviews of relevant effectiveness and qualitative studies and an economic analysis to support the production of this guidance. This report presents the third of these evidence reviews and is a qualitative review of non-intervention studies which explore the workplace factors that facilitate or constrain the ability of line managers to enhance the well-being of the people they manage. The first review examined the evidence on the effectiveness of interventions taken by supervisors that could enhance the well-being of the people they manage and the second examined the evidence on the effectiveness of organisational interventions that aim to support line managers to enhance the well-being of the people they manage

Gender back on the agenda in higher education: perspectives of academic staff in a contemporary UK case study

Higher education practitioners concerned with addressing gender on the curriculum inevitably come up against a complex range of institutional barriers. Research presented here, drawing on in-depth staff interviews, sheds light on such ‘gender work’ and the challenges and its complexities in the current moment in the UK context. Through an institutional case study, we identify multiple ongoing and contemporary challenges arising for those engaged in this work. A constellation of intersecting obstacles are elucidated, wherein gender, far from being ‘mainstreamed’, is continually side-lined and deprioritized due to being positioned as peripheral, optional and of questionable value in the neoliberal episteme. Yet with urgent challenges inherent in gender equity and social justice education in the contemporary socio-political context, we contend that addressing such barriers and moving the gender mainstreaming agenda forwards is crucial. Renewed emphases on curricula may yet offer an opportunity to re-open discussions, reimagine and reinvigorate gender mainstreaming

Understanding employers' graduate recruitment and selection practices. BIS Research Paper 231.

This research examined the approach to graduate recruitment adopted by employers and how this has evolved in recent years. In particular the study aimed to explore patterns in graduate recruitment, behaviours of graduate employers and interactions between graduate employers and universities. It therefore provides a picture of long-term trends in practice from pre-recruitment activities through to entry, induction and beyond, and before, during and after the recession; and indicates the ways in which employers’ thinking about recruitment and selection have, and are, changing and developing. The research was driven by a need to update the evidence and understanding of recruitment practice as the population of graduates has increased dramatically and become more heterogeneous; the labour market has changed, emerging from difficult economic conditions; and there is increasing policy interest in diversity and particularly in social mobility.Department for Business, Innovation and Skills