Widening Participation, Social Mobility andHigher Education in Further EducationColleges
Kevin Orr
University of Huddersfield
Overview
Policy Exchange described HE in FE as havingthe potential to be an “engine for wideningparticipation and social mobility” (Hartley &Groves, 2011, p. 5)
•What is social mobility?
•How does widening participation in educationrelate to social mobility?
•What is the value of HE in FE?
Statistics and statistical reports
•Types of HE in FE: prescribed and
non-prescribed
Main sources of data:
•HEFCE
•HESA
•UCAS
What is social mobility?
•The former Coalition government was keen to promotesocial mobility (Cabinet Office, 2011) defining it as “ameasure of how free people are to improve their position insociety” (Cabinet Office, 2011, p. 15).
•The government specified its commitment to a relativemeasure of social mobility and to the upward movement ofpeople by comparison to general society.
What is Widening Participation?
The Higher Education Funding Council for England(HEFCE) describe WP as “the opportunity of successfulparticipation in higher education to everyone who canbenefit from it” (HEFCE, n.d.).
Office for Fair Access (OFFA) states on their website thatWP “refers to the participation of disadvantaged groups inhigher education generally.”
Trends in English higher education
Application rates to all higher education for thoseaged 18 in 2014 and 19 in 2015 increased inEngland to 44 per cent by the January 2015deadline. There are significant regionalvariations.
Fall in applications from those aged over 19.
(UCAS, 2015)
First year HE enrolments bylevel of study and mode of study2009/09 to 2013/14
Trend in young participation rate for areasclassified by HE participation rates(POLAR3 classification, adjusted)
Trend in young participation rate for areasclassified by HE participation rates(POLAR3 classification, adjusted)
Social justice or human capital?
The OECD (2001: 18) defines human capital as: Theknowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodiedin individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, socialand economic well-being.
The concept of human capital has the effect of renderingindividuals responsible for their own perpetualdevelopment to enhance their value in the market place,regardless of structural restrictions.
Destinations of full-time first degree qualifiersfrom English HE providers byacademic year and institution type
Full-time first degree qualifiers in full-time paidUK employment by salary band and institutiontype six months after graduation
So…
We have seen significant widening participation inhigher education.
Widening participation in college-based HE has notsystematically led to social mobility measured inincome or by occupation.
So, can HE in FE promote social justice?
“While university student recruitment departments focuson ‘bums on seats’, equity advocates draw attention towhich bums, in what proportions and, more to the point,which seats, where. But if the counting of ‘bums’ is crude,so is the differentiation of seats. Just distinguishingbetween courses and universities and scrutinizing thedistribution of groups is a limited view of equity.”
(Gale, 2012, p. 138)
HE in FE practitioners
“Progressive educators practicing (sic) in less elitesettings are trapped into a series of promisesthey cannot realise, while those in eliteinstitutions are largely involved in a logic ofreproduction not transformation.”
“Thinking about curriculum is essential for a critiqueof the utilitarianism that underpins muchpedagogy” (Clegg 2011: 94)
Curriculum matters
“If vocational education qualifications are to enablepeople to gain valuable knowledge and skills,and are to open up opportunities rather thanconstrain and limit futures, then questions ofknowledge in these qualifications, and how thesequestions are decided, are crucial.”
Bathmaker (2013: 88)
For many individuals who otherwise would never accessHE, HE in FE courses are transformative because theyopen up fields of knowledge that may explain andenhance experience and they may also open upopportunities for employment.
That may not change society, but it might change lives.