Box of delight

This blog has been kindly contributed by Dr Graeme Atherton, Director of the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON).

With the exception of those working on international student recruitment, no professional community in higher education was left scratching their head by the challenges of Covid-19 more than those in widening access and outreach.

The closure of schools and colleges meant hundreds of activities across the country were stalled, re-arranged or cancelled overnight. Several universities have responded to this challenge by furloughing their widening access staff. One even tried to furlough staff that were not paid for from its own budget but by the Office for Students (OfS) funded Uni-Connect programme.

Applicants to higher education from less advantaged backgrounds are much less likely than others to achieve the high academic entry qualifications usually required by the most selective universities.

For example, if higher-tariff providers in England wanted to admit the highest-performing ten per cent of free school meal-eligible pupils from state schools, this would mean admitting everyone with qualifications roughly equivalent to at least BCC at A level. Similarly, if medium-tariff providers wanted to admit the next highest-performing ten percent of free school meal-eligible pupils, this would mean admitting everyone with DDD and above at A level.

The Office for Students Access and Participation data, released on 29 March, exists to support registered providers in developing an access and participation plan for submission in May.

But for such a potentially explosive release, response has been muted. We are offered a tantalising glimpse of the student experience for a range of disadvantaged groups, and the chance to identify the providers where admirable progress is being made along with those where the progress is yet to come. If higher education is indeed, as Justine Greening suggests, all about social mobility we need this data more than ever. But the design of the data presentation means that few have been able to see the full scope of what we now know about the sector.

However, we must place these achievements in a broader context and admit that, for many older learners, this story of improved access to university is not one they recognise. The focus of reforms in the last ten years has been on the ‘traditional’ school-leaver, generally studying full-time on a three-year degree programme.

But, for other parts of the student body, the picture is very different. There have been significant declines in the number of both mature students and part-time learners studying at university, particularly in England where there have been the most significant reforms – in fees, in funding arrangements, and in student number deregulation.