June 18, 2013

Opportunity or Threat? The new national widening access strategy

Jun. 18, 2013 at 08:00 AM | By Dr. Graeme Atherton | Comment Count

This year will see a new national strategy for widening access to higher education jointly produced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). The issues it focuses on and how it addresses them will affect all those in Higher Education whose remit relates to the progression of learners from under- represented groups. While these issues appear relatively fixed, there may be opportunities to shape how they are tackled. Trends in Education

The first of these issues will be how the impact of an investment of over £700m per year in widening access activity is captured. There were significant resources put into widening access work in the 2000s by the previous government and marked improvements in participation by young learners from lower socio-economic groups (the latest figures released by UCAS in January 2013 show that there has been an 80% increase in progression by those from the lowest participation areas since 2004). But making the causal link between widening access work and changes in progression has been hard to do. The preference at the moment is to leave it to HEIs how they prove impact. This strategy is likely to usher in a more structured approach. The government wants large quantitative evidence of how the hundreds of millions make a difference. This means more uniformity in how HEIs collect data regarding admissions and the effect of their bursaries/scholarships programs. The danger though is that unless done right this will add to the perception of widening participation as a burden, rather than a benefit.

The second key issue is collaboration between HEIs in particular where outreach is concerned. OFFA in their most recent Access Agreement guidance have been quite clear that they would like to see more joint working between HEIs supported by shared targets for progression to HE. However, at a time when the government is explicitly encouraging HEIs to compete with each other more and create a more vibrant market for HE, merely encouraging greater collaboration may not be enough. They may need to put resources into the building of an infrastructure for widening access with the kind of regional and possibly national vehicles dedicated to partnership necessary to get diverse institutions to work together. But one of the things that is certain about the strategy is that there is no new money at the table. To build a new infrastructure, for which there is certainly some support politically, will mean that HEIs will have to accept that some funds that were previously theirs alone they now have to share.

The third major issue that may become one of the major talking points in this strategy is the balance between what HEIs spend on outreach and on bursaries/scholarships. The Director of OFFA has been quite vocal since his appointment in his support for a shift in expenditure away from financial support to outreach. If his desire translates into policy this could have implications for how HEIs position themselves in the broader HE market. Bursaries/scholarships form a significant part of how HEIs price what they offer at present. If they are less able to fund these from student fee income then they will have to make some hard choices about how they market themselves in the future.

The final most important issue is one that HEIs may want to see more attention paid to in this strategy, but where they risk disappointment. There is a growing concern in the sector regarding the impact of the new student finance regime on post-graduate progression. It is far too early to say what the impact of higher fees will be, and the data concerning post-graduate progression by social background is sketchy but some Vice Chancellors describe this as the ‘new frontier for widening participation’. A pro-active approach to this problem that tackles not just the finance problem, but what ‘outreach’ for post-graduate study means would get strong support. The fear though is that this too big an issue and it may get ducked.

An opportunity exists in 2013 to enable all of those in HEIs connected to widening access to do this more effectively, but this won’t happen if we leave the government to produce this strategy alone.

This article was originally featured at Hobsons University London in February. Dr. Graeme Atherton is the head of AccessHE and director of the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) based in the United Kingdom.

Looking for more trends in education? Check out "5 Trends Transforming the Higher Education Business Model."