The right to higher education: beyond widening participation

The landscape of higher education in the UK has undergone change and transformation in recent years, partly as a result of diversification and massification. However, persistent patterns of under-representation continue, raising questions about current strategies, policies and approaches to widening participation. In this book, the author reviews and critiques contemporary widening participation policy and practice to investigate the underpinning assumptions, values and perspectives shaping current concepts and understandings of widening participation. Using a range of perspectives...  [+] Show more

The landscape of higher education in the UK has undergone change and transformation in recent years, partly as a result of diversification and massification. However, persistent patterns of under-representation continue, raising questions about current strategies, policies and approaches to widening participation. In this book, the author reviews and critiques contemporary widening participation policy and practice to investigate the underpinning assumptions, values and perspectives shaping current concepts and understandings of widening participation. Using a range of perspectives within the field of the sociology of education, the analysis examines the ways in which wider societal inequalities and misrecognitions, which are related to difference and diversity, present particular challenges for the project to widen participation in higher education.