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JAPP: Abstracts

Volume 3, Number 2, Summer 2006

‘My friends made all the difference’: Getting into and succeeding at university for first-generation entrants
Mary Stuart, Kingston University

ABSTRACT
This paper reports on research findings from first-generation entrants at university in the UK. It examines their reasons for taking on higher-level study and what enables them to succeed. It points out that the phrase ‘first-generation entrants’ has been used interchangeably with the term ‘working-class students’ when there is not always a direct relationship between the two. Drawing on life history methods to gather the data, the paper examines the different experiences of working- and middle-class students and highlights the role of friendship as a key determinant in deciding to study in HE as well as in creating student success once at university. The article argues that friendships should be seen as a form of social capital (Bourdieu, 1984; Coleman, 1994; and Field, 2005) which can operate to militate against the effects of middle class cultural and economic capital but can also be seen, in certain circumstances, to cement taken-for-granted practices.

KEYWORDS
Friendship, class, social capital, life histories, student success

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You can’t ask a leaflet a question: relevant information about HE for under-represented social groups
Jim Tate, Sue Hatt And Arthur Baxter, University of the West of England

ABSTRACT
This article addresses the importance of the provision of information in widening participation and argues for the continuous availability of information through a variety of formats and media to meet the diverse character of student information needs. The article draws on interview data with school and college students in the south-west of England to explore their attitudes towards higher education (HE), their information requirements, the extent to which these are being met and the ways in which provision can be improved. A number of issues are highlighted, such as the personalisation of information both in terms of the relevance it carries for the recipient and the strength of their identification with the information provider. The transition from generic information to specific information about courses of study and institutions is seen as crucial to ensuring that learners needs continue to be met as they progress towards HE. Similarly, it is important to make explicit the relationship between HE study and subsequent employment as learners from groups with little tradition of entering HE demonstrate an instrumental attitude towards HE study. The article recognises that students from under-represented groups face many barriers as they seek to enter HE and argues that the provision of information is not merely one barrier amongst many but is an intrinsic part of many other barriers

KEYWORDS
educational guidance, widening participation, employability

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What enables success in US higher education for students with General Educational Development credentials?
Olga Ebert, University of Tennessee

ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the success rates of students who take the General Educational Development programme, a second-chance secondary education programme in the USA, comparing them with students with more conventional qualifications. It argues that students with the GED are often disadvantaged in a university environment where certain expectations of knowledge and behaviour militate against students who are older and who have other demands on their time as well as having being prepared for HE differently to conventional students. It suggests that the problem of returners to learning is a world-wide issue and different approaches from different circumstances should be explored.

KEYWORDS
student success, standards, returners to education, preparedness for HE

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Foundation Degrees and widening participation: public sector employees’ work-based learning and Foundation Degrees
Eamon O'Doherty

ABSTRACT
This article presents case study evidence of changing dispositions to learning in three public sector Foundation Degrees. The context of the development of these Foundation Degrees is public sector modernisation and workforce development. Such a context does not automatically lead to educational change, as the outcomes of policy are not pre-ordained. The impetus for Foundation Degree development and collaboration is located within the actions of individuals responding to the changing policy and workforce demands. Involvement by employers in the design and development of Foundation Degrees provides the conditions for expansive learning opportunities for employees. The work-based nature of these Foundation Degrees and the opportunities for career enhancement provide the more immediate context for changing dispositions. The opportunities to engage with higher-level knowledge and to reflect on workplace practices with others in different settings provide the employees with a different future.

KEYWORDS
work-based learning, widening participation, collaboration, public sector modernisation, expansive learning opportunities, Foundation Degree

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‘This door is alarmed’: 35 years of attempting to widen participation in the UKOU
Ormond Simpson, The Open University

ABSTRACT
The UK Open University has been in the business of attempting to widen participation in higher education for 35 years. This article gives a brief history of widening participation in the OU, surveys some of the issues involved including an analysis of the costs and benefits, and reports on the successes and failures of a recent set of widening participation projects. It concludes that whilst there have been some successes, the ‘paradox of the title’ means that the OU has not made the progress in widening participation that some of its founders had hoped. Nevertheless the OU remains the largest single institution in the UK encouraging entrance to higher education for students with low previous educational qualifications, and its experience may be of interest to other institutions.
The OU’s most important contribution to widening participation appears to be the production of access materials such as the ‘Openings’ courses, although there is still scope for community-based projects. However, the OU is currently moving towards a policy of requiring its students to have access to the Internet by 2007. Current evidence suggests that access by disadvantaged groups will consequently be greatly restricted to the point where the OU’s widening participation mission may be effectively closed down and the OU will become ‘just another university’.
KEYWORDS
widening participation, educationally disadvantaged students, low previous educational qualifications, ‘Openings’ Courses, Open University, e-learning, retention, costs and benefits

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To see ourselves as others see us: Another approach to thinking comparatively
Chris Duke, RMIT, Australia

ABSTRACT
This paper derives from thinking about one’s society, its values and its educational provision from other perspectives, both from living and working in a second country – similar in many ways yet different in the way it handles its history and geography, its politics and its cultures – and from more fleeting opportunities of working for and within other both ‘first’ and ‘third’ world societies. In particular it comes from consultative involvement with two middle-income countries metaphorically ‘on the fringe of Europe’, and from asking how the UK experience especially of post-secondary or tertiary education and training looks, and may be relevant, to them through a lens of lifelong learning in an era when global competitiveness is all the rage. The two countries are South Africa, through an Action on Access study looking for lessons to do with widening participation, and Turkey, in connection with a national policy paper on lifelong learning. The paper presents a concise overview and summary of lifelong learning as it has evolved since 1970 and is now understood and used, followed by a selective review of relevant policy initiatives under the UK New Labour administration from 1997. It is introduced and set in a framework of purposeful comparative policy studies.

KEYWORDS
Lifelong learning, international comparison, globalisation, planning and innovation, higher education policy, widneing participation, European Union and LLL
 

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