Enduring Inequalities and New Agendas for Widening Participation in Higher Education: Student Access, Mobilities and ‘Success’

This event will be of interest to widening participation practitioners, students, professionals and academic staff whose research interests lie in equal access, student success and social mobility.

The UK government’s focus on Higher Education reform has recently been laid out in the White Paper: ‘Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice’ (BIS, May 16th, 2016). Its aim is to introduce the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) intended to reshape teaching standards, graduate employability and university entrance. This publication has revitalised longstanding concerns about widening participation and inequality in access, progression and outcomes for disadvantaged students. While the paper states a recommitment by the Prime Minister to widening participation via increasing participation among students from disadvantaged and BAME backgrounds, concerns have been raised that a number of the proposals will mitigate against this stated ambition.

Against this backdrop, we warmly invite you to this free one-day event which will bring together practitioners, researchers and students to discuss current research and practice concerned with addressing inequalities in Higher Education. The event will focus on questioning our definitions of student ‘success’, ‘progress’, ‘mobility’ and ‘achievement’ imposed within dominant policy and institutional discourse.  It will provide the opportunity to explore the distinctive and diverse experiences of disadvantaged and ‘non-traditional’ students and consider innovative ways to challenge enduring and evolving inequalities through inclusive policies and practice.

This event will be of interest to widening participation practitioners, students, professionals and academic staff whose research interests lie in equal access, student success and social mobility. We welcome delegates with practical experience or a research interest in any of these areas.

For more information and a Programme for the day, please visit the FLaG website