Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts

Policies and programs to address higher education disadvantage reveal four distinct approaches, each revealing certain assumptions about the nature of educational disadvantage. These are: creating mass higher education systems; redistributing or allocating certain places to disadvantaged students; c...

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Main Author: Pitman, Tim
Format: Journal Article
Published: National Tertiary Education Union 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54219
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author Pitman, Tim
author_facet Pitman, Tim
author_sort Pitman, Tim
building Curtin Institutional Repository
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description Policies and programs to address higher education disadvantage reveal four distinct approaches, each revealing certain assumptions about the nature of educational disadvantage. These are: creating mass higher education systems; redistributing or allocating certain places to disadvantaged students; changing the cultural practices of institutions; and shifting the policy focus from access towards higher education outcomes or benefits. Using the Australian higher education sector as a case study, each of these approaches is defined, identified and examined in regard to its impact on widening access and participation in higher education. An alternative approach – a fifth act – is proposed; one which concentrates on the need to understand the identity of the student, both in terms of how he/she understands disadvantage and what he/she wants out of higher education.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-542192017-11-23T01:29:50Z Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts Pitman, Tim Policies and programs to address higher education disadvantage reveal four distinct approaches, each revealing certain assumptions about the nature of educational disadvantage. These are: creating mass higher education systems; redistributing or allocating certain places to disadvantaged students; changing the cultural practices of institutions; and shifting the policy focus from access towards higher education outcomes or benefits. Using the Australian higher education sector as a case study, each of these approaches is defined, identified and examined in regard to its impact on widening access and participation in higher education. An alternative approach – a fifth act – is proposed; one which concentrates on the need to understand the identity of the student, both in terms of how he/she understands disadvantage and what he/she wants out of higher education. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54219 National Tertiary Education Union fulltext
spellingShingle Pitman, Tim
Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts
title Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts
title_full Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts
title_fullStr Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts
title_full_unstemmed Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts
title_short Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts
title_sort widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54219