Transcript Slide 1

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Presented by Professor Sue Webb, Faculty of Education, Monash University
The 'widening participation'
agenda in VET and higher
education in the UK – what does it
mean and for whom?
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Overview
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Widening participation in UK - overview
Relevant literature - overview
An empirical case of F/HE transitions
Key issues and findings
New understandings?
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From elite to mass system
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Widening participation in UK overview
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A largely unplanned shift from elite to mass higher
education until early 1990s led to more WP
• Regulated expansion by funding followed
• Late 1990s, a mass system had massive inequities,
& institutional stratification, old binaries continued
From 1997 the New Labour Government targets
expansion using institutional funding levers to
recruit equity groups & promote social mobility
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Widening participation in UK overview
By 21st century, equity targeting isn’t enough!
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High level skills are needed to compete in globalised
knowledge economies (Leitch, 2006; DIUS 2008)
• Divided academic/vocational pathways restrict potential for
social mobility through tertiary education (HEFCE, 2004)
In England the policy response:
• Funding for new sub-bachelors Foundation degrees
• Funding to expand vocational pathways to HE via institutional
partnerships –Lifelong Learning Networks of FE and HE
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Literature - overview
Research about participation in HE tells us…
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System massification, associates with
differentiation and stratification (Trow, 1999)
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Patterns of participation and equity are enduring
(Bourdieu; Tomlinson, 2005)
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Institutional discourses & practices need to be a
key focus (Foucault; Burton Clark, 1966)
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Individual experiences – risky transitions need to
be understood (Bourdieu; Reay et al 2001)
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Vocational transitions literature (1)
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Those entering UK universities through vocational
qualification routes enter less prestigious institutions
(Crozier et al. 2008; Connor & Little, 2007; Foster, 2009;
Hoelscher et al., 2008; Purcell et al., 2009).
This is an enduring pattern that replicates earlier system
expansion in the 1980s- early 1990s (see Webb et al 1994)
Vocational qualifications as hybrids (Davey & Fuller,2010) are
weakly occupational and weak currency for academic transfer
But expansion of the English system has continued in FE and
middle and lower tariff universities where hybrid vocational
qualifications are most accepted (Purcell et al., 2009)
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Vocational transitions literature (2)
•
This pattern of vocational qualifications with weak academic
currency for tertiary education progression is found in other
countries (Australia) with vocational- academic status divide
in upper secondary & post compulsory education (Harris et al,
2005; Moodie & Wheelahan, 2009)
•
Transfer from vocational to academic tertiary education is
limited even in countries like Germany with high status VET
(Hoeckel & Schwartz, 2010)
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The research question
How are vocational qualification routes
and the UK policy mechanism of Lifelong
Learning Networks (LLNs) operating to
widen participation to research intensive
universities?
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The transition: from the local college to
the ‘red brick’ on the hill…
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The case study…
• Mainly qualitative study
• Drawn from one regional LLN in England
• Focusing on the policies, practices & experiences
of staff in a research-led university in the LLN
• And the students who entered this institution with
vocational qualifications from the FE sector
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Lifelong learning networks explained
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Usually Further/Higher Education consortia
Most HEIs in England engaged
Focus on vocational routes to HE
Changing demand/supply for skills & people
Focus on curricula in F/HE, cultures and
practices, expanding new sub-bachelors,
the Foundation degree in FE
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Data collection at institutional level,
• Interviews with key leaders & managers
• Interviews with practitioners & student
transition support staff
• Analysis of documents
• Interviews with other Network members
including advice and guidance workers
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Data collection at student level
• Analysis of admissions data
• Survey of vocational entry students in two
faculties (Medicine & Engineering)
• In-depth qualitative interviews
(repeated)with sub-sample & key individuals
in their networks of influence
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The case study HEI…
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A global university
Mid range elite HEI
Tension between global & local
WP – a strong commitment, and long
institutional narrative
• Yet WP – a ‘cream’ skimming activity
• Bursaries to reward the highest achievers &
access given only to highest tariff
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Findings (1)…
• Tensions heightened at faculty & departmental
level closest to Learning & Teaching
• Department learning cultures premised on
traditional A(cademic) level entrants’ characteristics
• Assumes students have high levels of social &
cultural capital and the selection of the most able
• Characteristics of academics similarly very
selective & prime focus of their role is on research
activity rather than teaching
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Findings (2)…
Students report learning culture dissonance
compared to Further Education as in…
• Large student cohorts
• Intensification of workload
• Lack of personalised support
• Support is voluntaristic, when available
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Findings (3)…
Staff report…
• High commitment to WP
• Developing institutional arrangements
• Responsive behaviour to make it work
• Frustration at the difficulties faced by
themselves and students
• High transactional costs
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Student Biographies
‘Emily’
• BTEC entrant to University
• Progressed from FE
College
• Institutional resistance to
aspiration
• Working class background
• Aunt attended University
• Sister attends University
• Aspirational disposition
• Timely support
• Dissonance of learning
experience – structure vs.
self-directed learning
‘Sarah’
• BTEC entrant to University
• Progressed from FE
College via Grammar
School
• Institutional resistance to
aspiration
• Working class background
• No previous family history
of HE
• Tenacious disposition
• Importance of critical
moments
• Dissonance of learning
experience – maths
support
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Key Concept: Learner Biographies
‘Normal’ biography
• University a ‘normal’
aspiration
• Family access to
necessary supports and
knowledge
• ‘Effortless’ progression
• Institutional ‘socialisation’
for HE
‘Risky’ biography
• University a break from
family trajectory
• Few family resources to
support progression
• Determination necessary to
overcome obstacles
• ‘Luck’ very important
• No institutional
‘socialisation’
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Key Features of Transitions
• Serendipity of support can compensate for
lack of family or institutional ‘socialisation’
• Institutional support in FE or HE can add to
existing dispositions reducing risk
• Strong personal or family dispositions
critical to making a difference
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So what…?
We have found that staff and students in HE bear the brunt of
what Lunt (2008:746) calls
“the trade off between excellence and equity”
But as the globalisation of higher education plays out in tension
between global, national and regional roles for universities, is
there a space for challenging the Mohrmam’s Emerging
Global Model (aka elitism) of the top strata of universities?
Can a focus on the third mission and the region informed by
Boyer’s (1990) concept of the scholarship of engagement
moderate the struggle between excellence and equity?.
How should FE work in enabling vocational transitions?
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References
Bourdieu, P., (1987) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press
Boyer, E., L., (1990) Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate Princeton NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching
Clark, B., R., (1960) The “Cooling-out” Function in Higher Education, The American Journal of Sociology, 65 (6), 569-576
Connor, H., & Little, B., (2007) When will diversity of higher education mean diversity of entry routes for young people?, Journal of
Access Policy and Practice, 4 (2), 134-156
Crozier, G., Reay, D., Clayton, J., Colliander, L. & Grinstead, J. (2008) Different strokes for different folks: diverse students in
diverse institutions - experiences of higher education Research Papers in Education, 23(2), pp. 167- 177.
Davey, G., & Fuller, A., (2010) Hybrid Qualifications - Increasing the Value of Vocational Education and Training in the Context of
Lifelong Learning - Country Report, England, Southampton School of Education: University of Southampton
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk
DIUS, Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills (2008) Higher Education at Work High Skills, High Value, London, The
Stationery Office
Foster, T., (2009) Alternative Routes into and Pathways through Higher Education, London, Department for Business Innovation
and Skills
Harris, R., Sumner, R., & Rainey, L., (2005) Student Traffic: Two way movement between vocational education and training and
higher education, Australia: NCVER
HEFCE (2004) ‘Lifelong Learning Networks’ (Joint letter from HEFCE and the Learning & Skills Council) HEFCE circular letter
12/2004, dated 3 June 2004
Hoeckel, K., & Schwartz, R., (2011) Learning for Jobs OECD Review of Vocational Education and Training in Germany OECD
Hoelscher, M., Hayward, G., Ertl, H. & Dunbar-Goddet, H. (2008) The transition from vocational education and training to higher
education: a successful pathway?, Research Papers in Education, 23(2), pp. 139-151.
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References
Leitch, (2006) Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills, Final Report, London, The Stationery Office
Lunt, I.,(2008): Beyond tuition fees? The legacy of Blair’’s government to higher education, Oxford Review of Education, 34:6, 741752
Moodie, G., & Wheelahan, L., (2009) The Significance of Australian Vocational Education Institutions in Opening Access to Higher
Education Higher Education Quarterly Special Issue: The College Contribution to English Higher Education: International and
Contextual Commentaries, Volume 63 ( 4), 356–370
Mohrman, K., Ma, W., & Baker, D., (2008) The research university in transition: the emerging global model, Higher Education
Policy 21 (1): 34-37
Purcell, K., Elias, P. and Atfield, G. (2009). Analysing the relationship between higher education participation and educational and
career development patterns and outcomes, A new classification of higher education institutions, Coventry: IER University of
Warwick.
Reay, D., Davies, J., David, M. & Ball, S.J. (2001) Choices of Degree or Degrees of Choice? Class, 'Race' and the Higher
Education Choice Process, Sociology, 35(4), pp. 855-874.
Trow, M., (1999) From Mass Higher Education to Universal Access: The American Advantage, Minerva, 37,303-328
Tomlinson, S.,(2005) Education in a post welfare society, Maidenhead, Open University Press/McGraw Hill
Webb, S., Davies, P., Williams, J., Green, P., & Thompson, A., (1994) Access and Alternative entrants to higher education: routes,
tacks, triggers and choices, Journal of Access Studies, 9(2) 197-214