Transcript Slide 1
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Presented by Professor Sue Webb, Faculty of Education, Monash University
Patchwork social inclusion: the
case of vocational qualifications
and transitions to higher education
in England
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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
Patchwork social inclusion?
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Widening participation in UK overview
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Until early 1990s – unplanned expansion
Regulated expansion by funding followed
By late 1990s = massified patchwork
From 1997 new expansion, fair access
2010 policy turn…
What does this mean for widening
participation and social inclusion?
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What do we know from literature…
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 of research (Burton Clark, 1966)
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).
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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)
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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)
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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 shift to ‘fair access’: role of lifelong
learning networks…
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A 2004 initiative for WP under new Labour
Usually Further/Higher Education consortia
Most HEIs in England engaged
Focus on ‘hybrid’ 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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‘Hybridity’ and vocational qualifications
• Hybrid qualifications can be used for multiple
purposes – labour market or academic progression
• Assume exchange values: currencies such as
UCAS points or guided learning hours
• Require system mechanisms regulating levels of
learning e.g. credit or qualification framework
Example: BTEC National Diploma (level 3) in a
vocational area, DDD grade
= A level benchmark, 3 AAA grades = 360 pts
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The research questions
How are vocational qualification routes
and the UK policy mechanism of Lifelong
Learning Networks (LLNs) operating to
widen participation to research intensive
universities?
Are LLNs helping to create ‘fair access’?
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The case study…
• Mainly qualitative study
• Drawn from one regional LLN in England – a
network of 10 F/HE colleges and 3 HEIs
• Focusing on the policies, practices & experiences
of staff in the research-led university in the LLN
• Understanding experiences of the students who
entered this institution with vocational qualifications
• Focused on Faculties of Medicine & Engineering
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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 extensive
historical institutional narrative
• Yet WP – a ‘cream’ skimming activity
• Bursaries to reward the highest achievers &
access given only to highest tariff students
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Findings (1)…
• Tensions heightened at faculty & departmental
level closest to Learning & Teaching activities
• 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
• Lack of specific knowledge (Maths)
• Little experience of assessment modes
• 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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2010 the policy turn…
• ‘Students at the heart of the system’
• UK Gov opens up competition in HE
• More HE in FE, and private HE providers
“Our goal is a sector that is freed to respond in
new ways to the needs of students” Willetts,
UK Gov. 2012
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Current issues:
• Increased competition among students
without the highest grades
• Increased competition between institutions
• Tensions in the ’squeezed middle’
• Hybrid qualification students pushed to the
low tariff institutions
Patchwork social inclusion
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How to make sense of this
…. Bourdieu on Distinction
The struggle to keep up…
“The overproduction of qualifications, and the
consequent devaluation, tend to become a structural
constant when theoretically equal chances of obtaining
qualifications are offered to all the offspring of the
bourgeoisie while the access of other classes also
increases in absolute terms. The strategies which one
group may employ to try to escape downclassing and
return to their class trajectory, and those which another
group employs to rebuild the interrupted path of a
hoped-for trajectory, are now the most important factors
in the transformation of social structures” 1979, p147
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Bourdieu’s struggle to keep up…
• Is played out by individuals & groups,
• And by institutions where individuals and groups
engage in classifying practices,
• And at State level in constructing the ‘taken for
granted’ meritocracy & the A level ’gold standard’
The result:
• Institutional distinctions & the patchwork social
inclusion are made in ecology of everyday
practices
• Staff and students manage tensions between
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So where next…?
We have found that staff and students bear the brunt of
what Lunt (2008:746) calls
“the trade off between excellence and equity”
Globalisation of higher education plays out in tension
between global, national and regional roles for universities
creating patchwork social inclusion.
But how can we challenge the Emerging Global Model (aka
elitism) of the top strata of universities (Mohrmam et al. 2010)?
If universities focus on third missions and their regions,
drawing on Boyer’s (1990) concept of the ‘scholarship of
engagement’, will it moderate the struggle for Distinction?
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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