1st Edition
Educational Opportunity The Geography of Access to Higher Education
While in recent years the burgeoning Higher Education (HE) sector has been set an agenda of widening participation, few HE institutions have strategies in place for reaching the full range of potential students most likely to benefit from (and successfully complete) their current subject and course offerings. Universities and colleges are often unsystematic in the ways in which they identify schools and colleges for outreach and widening participation initiatives, and sometimes uncoordinated in how they present the full institutional profile of subjects of study in these activities. Using innovative methodology, this book sets out some relevant aspects of the changing HE policy-setting arena and presents a systematic framework for broadening participation and extending access in an era of variable fees. In particular, the book illustrates how HE data and publicly available sources might enable institutions to move from piecemeal analysis of their intake to institution-wide strategic and geographical market area analysis for existing and potential subject and course offerings.
Biography
Dr Alexander D. Singleton, University College London, UK
'Dr. Singleton is one of the UK's experts on higher education data and its analysis. This is a richly illustrated overview of what can be learned about higher education, and particularly access. The geodemographic perspective adds considerable value. All with an interest in the further development of higher education, and especially all those involved in marketing courses, will find this an invaluable guide.' Sir Alan Wilson, University College London, UK 'This book provides a fascinating description of the nature of HE participation in the UK, providing an accessible and rich account of the historical forces that have shaped our HE system and how we have ended up with the inequities in the system we see today.' Anna Vignoles, Institute of Education, University of London, UK 'The book should appeal to a wide audience concerned with widening participation and access in an era of increasing variable fees and political scrutiny.' Environment and Plannind C: Government and Policy 'The book will be of particular use to those interested in demographic and statistical dimensions to access and widening participation, as well as senior management, and those in the recruitment and marketing of courses, especially as we enter into the era of the UK post-Brown funding review and variable fees. Indeed, although this reviewer specialises in qualitative approaches to data collection, this book offers a refreshing alternative to what we normally see quite a lot of in widening participation research, that of the qualitative, sociological and small scale intervention.' Educational Review
