3. NS-SEC classes 4-7
2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09(#4)
UK 28.6 28.2 29.3 29.8 29.5 N/A
England 28.2 27.9 29.1 29.8 29.4 N/A
Wales 29.5 28.4 29.0 30.1 30.4 N/A
Scotland 26.9 26.7 27.3 25.9 26.3 N/A
Northern
42.4 41.2 41.0 41.7 40.6 N/A
Ireland
Percentage of young entrants to full-time first degree courses from
NS-SEC Classes 4, 5, 6 or 7
Source: HESA 2011
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
4. Young
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09
UK 8.6 9.0 9.7 10.1
England 9.2 9.6 9.9 10.2
Wales 8.9 10.2 9.4 10.2
Scotland(#
N/A N/A N/A N/A
5)
Northern
6.5 6.7 6.7 6.7
Ireland
Percentage of young entrants to full-time first degree courses from low
participation neighbourhoods
Source HESA 2011
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
5. Mature
2006/07 2007/08 2008/09
UK 10.6 11.6 11.6
England 11.4 11.6 11.8
Wales 12.5 12.5 12.0
Scotland(#5) N/A N/A N/A
Northern Ireland 8.7 9.2 6.0
Percentage of mature entrants to full-time first degree courses
(who also had no previous higher education qualification) from low
participation neighbourhoods
Source: HESA 2011
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
6. 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09
Young Mature Young Mature Young Mature
UK 12.2 6.4 12.4 6.7 13.3 6.8
England 13.0 6.7 13.0 6.8 13.4 6.8
Wales 12.2 7.2 9.4 6.4 12.4 6.8
Scotland
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
(#5)
Northern
10.9 1.3 4.6 2.3 6.4 3.5
Ireland
Percentage of young and mature entrants to part-time undergraduate courses
(who also had no previous higher education qualification) from low participation neighbourhoods
Source: HESA 2011
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
7. Full-time first degree Part-time undergraduate
2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09
UK
(excl. 3.6 4.1 4.4 4.5 4.7 1.6 1.9 2.3 2.4 2.6
OU)
England
(excl. 3.7 4.1 4.4 4.6 4.8 1.6 1.9 2.3 2.5 2.7
OU)
Wales 4.7 5.2 5.4 5.8 5.8 1.7 1.9 1.8 1.4 1.8
Scotland 3.1 3.4 3.6 3.7 3.6 1.3 1.5 2.4 1.7 1.6
Northern
2.7 3.4 3.3 3.5 3.7 2.0 2.1 2.3 2.1 2.4
Ireland
The
Open
.. .. .. .. .. 2.4 2.5 2.7 .. ..
Universi
ty(#9)
Percentage of students in receipt of DSA, for full-time first degree and part-time undergraduate
students
Source: HESA 2011
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
8. Young entrants
2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08
UK 7.7 7.2 7.1 7.4 7.2
England 7.2 6.8 6.7 7.1 6.9
Wales 8.5 8.2 7.8 8.9 7.4
Scotland 10.0 9.0 8.7 9.0 8.3
Northern
11.2 10.1 11.0 8.8 9.9
Ireland
Percentage of young full-time first degree entrants not continuing in HE after their first year
Source: HESA 2011
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
9. Mature entrants
2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08
UK 15.6 14.4 14.3 14.8 14.0
England 15.4 14.0 14.2 14.5 13.9
Wales 17.2 16.7 15.2 17.1 14.9
Scotland 16.9 17.0 15.1 16.0 15.0
Northern
12.1 11.3 12.3 11.3 11.7
Ireland
Percentage of mature full-time first degree entrants not continuing in HE after their first year
Source: HESA 2011
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
10. Five schools 'send more to
Oxbridge than 2,000
others‘
BBC 2011
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
11. ‘Education strengthens the ties
which bind people, takes the fear
out of difference and encourages
tolerance’
Baroness Kennedy, Learning Works, 1998
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
12. “Higher education is fundamental to the social, economic
and cultural health of the nation. It will contribute not only
through the intellectual development of students and by
equipping them for work, but also by adding to the world’s
store of knowledge and understanding, fostering culture for
its own sake, and promoting the values that characterise
higher education: respect for evidence; respect for
individuals and their views; and the search for truth. Equally,
part of its task will be to accept a duty of care for the
wellbeing of our democratic civilisation, based on respect
for the individual and respect by the individual for the
conventions and laws which provide the basis of a civilised
society”
Lord Dearing, 1999
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
15. Some things we have found out
• Socio-economic status is a major indicator of the likelihood of HE
participation
• More BME students will be found in computing science than fine art
degrees
• Young people growing up in care are more likely to end up in the
criminal justice system than in HE
• Fewer working class white males will progress into higher education
than middle class females (for now)
• State school pupils in Russell group universities are likely to come
from a very small number of schools
• Students with low PEQs are less likely to be retained and achieve in
HE than those with high PEQs
• Achievement levels for BME students in HE are generally lower than
those of white students
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
16. …and some of the reasons we think these
things happen
• Historically, our education system has been classed,
gendered and racialised
• Cultural and social capital are linked to economic
capital
• Macro-economic and social policy objectives shape
the context in which WP is implemented
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
17. Critiques of WP research I
• (…) has produced a reactive widening participation
research agenda focused on narrow issues, discrete
aspects of learning and a lack of awareness of prior
studies.
• (…) distinctions in widening participation research
reflect scholarly division within sociology, generate
limited research agendas and produce a sense of déjà
vu when we review work in this field.
• (…) limited research agendas reduce the power of WP
research to generate policy recommendations that will
promote social justice.
• (Kettley, 2007)
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
18. Critiques of WP research II
• (…) generalised criticism of the research is
broadly defendable (lack of rigour, unclear or
even no research questions, questionable
methods, lack of control or comparator groups,
limited data and analysis and unjustifiable
conclusions and claims making in many of the
reports). (Doyle and Griffin, forthcoming)
• Widening participation is ‘both under-researched
and under-theorised’, resulting in it to date being
‘all about grand designs and inadequate
realisations’.( Reay et al, 2005)
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
19. The solution?
• The future of WP research does not reside in
identifying gaps in the literature, nor in
plugging these gaps by modifying existing
approaches. (Kettley 2007)
• (…) for policy and interventions to be more
effective they need to be informed by a range
of high quality research involving an inclusive
methodological vision and a rich theoretical
tapestry. (Doyle and Griffin, forthcoming)
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
20. So what do we do?
• Be aware of constant change in context
– Technology Society
– Economy Policy
• Be aware that an individual’s experience is
shaped by a multiplicity of factors (not just
ethnicity, age, social class) and is at the same
time impacted by context
• Avoid being trapped into narrow theoretical
positions which limit analytical framework.
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
21. How do we do it?
• More rigorously
• With a combination of qualitative and
quantitative techniques (rather than one or
the other)
• Using much larger sample sizes (eg a
collection of case studies rather than a single
instance).
• Looking outside as well as inside
• Building on what has already been done
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
22. What should we focus on?
Wide Open Symposium November 2011
