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JAPP: Abstracts

Volume 2, Number 1, Autumn 2004

Parents and higher education in the north-east of England: Attitudes, concerns, influence and engagement
Richard Dodgson, Northumbria University

Abstract

The important role of parents in the choices their children make in relation to higher education (HE) is increasingly recognised. This article, based on research conducted in the north-east of England, examines the knowledge and attitude of parents towards HE; the concerns parents have about the participation of their children within HE; and the influence of parents on the decisions their children make in relation to HE. In examining these issues, the article also highlights and discusses differences that exist between working-class and middle-class families. It ends by discussing challenges and examples of good practice in engaging with parents. Overall, it demonstrates the complex and enduring influence of social class upon the knowledge, concerns and influence of parents in relation to HE.

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‘I really hated school, and couldn’t wait to get out!’: Reflections on ‘a wasted opportunity’ amongst Access to HE students
Richard Waller, University of the West of England, Bristol

Abstract

In constructing a narrative account of our lives, we may recall experiences of schooling with a mixture of resentment and regret, and perhaps a sense of ‘wasted opportunities’. This is particularly true if school has left us with a fragile academic self-esteem, through being labelled ‘a failure’ as a child. For some, this contributes to a desire to ‘make good’ the perceived deficit through re-engagement with formal education as an adult learner. This paper draws upon biographical data from longitudinal research that followed progress of a group of mature students on a further education Access to Higher Education course. It explores how themes of ‘waste’ especially and ‘desire’ are used in accounting for past, present and (anticipated) future lives and learner identities. It concludes that, despite some commonalities, experiences of adult learners are too individual and personalised to be meaningfully categorised, as some early studies had attempted to do.

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Student retention and the course choice process: the UK Open University experience

Ormond Simpson, The Open University

Abstract

There is evidence that a student’s initial choice of course is an important influence on their subsequent success and retention. This article argues that course descriptions on their own are an inadequate guide to the choice of appropriate course and that in mass higher education individual guidance will be costly to institutions. Other methods of course-choice advice delivery are needed, such as preview materials, students’ comments on courses and diagnostic materials. The article reviews the UKOU’s experience of these methods and suggests that not only do they promote more accurate course choice but that they also enhance students’ confidence in their choice. The article also argues that there can be considerable positive financial return on investment to institutions in the use of such materials.

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Learning communities: student mentoring as a ‘site’ for learning about higher education

Anna PaczUska, London South Bank University

Abstract

The term ‘student mentoring’ describes a variety of activities carried out by university students in their local communities to widen participation. Although activities are widespread there is little clarity about the nature of mentoring relationships or about their significance in enabling learning about higher education. This paper summarises the experience of developing a range of student mentoring and ambassador schemes at London South Bank University and how we brought them together under the title ‘Learning Communities’. Using expansive learning theory (Engestrom, 2001) the paper explores how mentoring relationships may be regarded as ‘sites’ for learning about higher education. The paper concludes that more work is necessary to identify the processes which support mentoring relationships and in particular asks whether the formation of cultural capital (Bourdieu,1978) may be influenced through such relationships in the educational sphere.

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Opening the door to opportunity: adult guidance holds the key

Jonathan Brown, The Open University in the North

Abstract

This paper is based on a keynote talk given at the Conference of the Adult Educational Guidance Association of Ireland in October 2003. The title of the conference at Waterford – Opening the Door to Opportunity: Adult Guidance in Ireland – came as a happy coincidence in that I had just completed a editing a version of a 1986 report on adult guidance The Challenge of Change (Brown, 2003; UDACE, 1986). The 1986 report had been published with a newly designed logo which represented an opening door, so the task so recently completed resonated with the theme of the conference. The current paper retains the original image and reflects on the role of adult guidance in the arena of widening participation. The 2003 version of The Challenge of Change was published in the same month (December) as the English Department for Education and Skills released a policy paper on Information, Advice and Guidance for Adults (DfES, 2003). This coincidence in publication explains the postscript to allow comment on this development. In preparing this paper much of the flavour of the spoken original has been retained. The paper considers three questions:

This is followed by a postscript on the English Policy Framework and Action Plan for Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG).

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Learning from the seaside

Fred Gray, University of Sussex

Abstract

This study of the local impact of higher education focuses on the coastal city of Brighton and Hove. The paper details the consequences of the substantial expansion of the city’s two universities. Higher education has made a generally positive contribution to the locality and, in contrast to the dramatic continuing decline experienced in many other British seaside resorts, is the major reason for the area’s recent economic and cultural success. However, higher education’s role in combating poverty and disadvantage in the locality is problematic, with local universities failing to engage fully with local communities. Using examples including the work of the University of Sussex Centre for Continuing Education the paper argues that, despite the difficulties, higher education should and does have a role in combating social exclusion and poverty at the seaside.

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