Sue Hatt

Expensive and failing? The role of student bursaries in widening participation and fair access in England

English universities currently spend £355m each year on bursaries to student groups who are under-represented in higher education. However, there is little evidence to suggest that this investment has had any meaningful impact on patterns of student demand. This article examines the policy objectives of the 2004 Higher Education Act in the context of one of the policy tools that the Act implemented: an effectively mandatory bursary system operated locally by individual universities, designed to widen participation in higher education among students from lower socio-economic groups and ensure fair access to the highest status universities. It reviews evidence suggesting that students targeted for bursaries are unresponsive to financial inducements, and place a high priority on provision that is local and socially comfortable. It concludes that this is a fatal flaw in bursaries as a policy tool, contributing to slow progress on the widening participation and fair access agendas.

Towards a Typology of Debt Attitudes among Contemporary Young UK Undergraduates.

As the UK sits on the verge of a major change in the financing of both universities and students, this study seeks to capture and analyse attitudes to money, borrowing and debt among contemporary young undergraduates. It reports findings from a qualitative study of 62 individuals in the second term of their first year at university, these being representatively sampled from volunteers across gender, social class, ethnicity and subject discipline. The semi-structured interview data was subjected to thematic analysis and this was used to derive a tentative typology of debt attitudes ranging from ‘debt-positive’ to ‘debt-angry’. The findings of this study suggest that student attitudes are more complex than assumed in some previous research and journalistic commentary, especially with respect to social class. Counterintuitively, many students from lower social-class backgrounds show a positivity about debt as a means of enabling them to access higher-level careers; this is consistent with admissions data following the 2006 increase in tuition fees and student indebtedness. More generally, the mainstream of student attitudes appears to fall between the ‘debt-savvy’ and ‘debt-resigned’ types, with students being relatively well-informed about repayment terms and accepting large-scale indebtedness as ‘normal’, with most students being ‘in the same boat’. The implications of these findings, the limitations of the study and future opportunities for research are discussed.

Who benefits from widening participation? A study of targeting in the South West of England

As the Aimhigher programme is a targeted initiative, partnerships have to find ways of locating groups that are under‐represented in higher education (HE) and selecting participants for interventions. If the selection criteria are not robust, resources will be misdirected, while overly narrow indicators can exclude legitimate participants and risk stigmatizing beneficiaries. Striking the right balance is difficult but essential if the programme is to be effective. This article explores the ways in which the Aimhigher partnerships in the South West of England have targeted participants and considers the extent to which their approach has directed the programme towards its intended beneficiaries. Using dual criteria of potential to benefit from HE and no parental experience of HE, these partnerships worked with schools to identify school students to take part in their activities. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data about a sample of 557 school students, 80% had no parental background in HE and 83% achieved five or more A*–Cs at GCSE. Although the criteria for selection were being accurately operationalized, only a third of the sample were from socio‐economic groups IIIm, IV and V that have been identified as under‐represented in HE. Nevertheless, the programme was reaching those without parental experience of HE who might need more support to progress to HE. In addition, those from manual backgrounds were most likely to have obtained most exposure to the programme through multiple interventions. This evidence suggests that the Aimhigher programme in the South West is indeed reaching its prime target group.

Knowing the ‘unknowns’: investigating the students whose social class is not known at entry to higher education

This paper originates from the National Audit Offices 2008 report into widening participation policy in the United Kingdom. The report found that while there appeared to be modest improvements in the proportion of students coming from lower socio‐economic groups over the last ten years, reliable analysis was hampered by a high proportion of missing data. In the 2007/08 academic year, the proportion of entrants whose socio‐economic status was defined as ‘unknown’ was 26%, up from just 10% a decade earlier. This paper uses a random sample of 1000 such students, aged 18 or 19 on entry, to investigate why they have been designated as ‘unknown’ and what other information can be gleaned from their university application form. It was found that 46% of the sample could in fact be coded to a specific socio‐economic grouping from the parental information provided by the student and it was difficult to see why this had not happened. The social profile of these students was comparable to the national picture. A further 23% provided information which was too vague to be coded. The focus of the paper, however, was the 32% of students who either did not provide parental information or who stated that their parents were not working. These students were strongly and disproportionately drawn from areas of high deprivation and low participation in higher education; the precise target of widening participation initiatives, yet they are effectively not acknowledged. This finding causes difficulties for the reliability of official statistics on social class.

Opportunity knocks? The impact of bursary schemes on students from low‐income backgrounds

In England, the government target that 50% of young people should gain experience of higher education has prompted many initiatives to widen participation. National policies, however, are often implemented at institutional or local level. As a result, the impact upon the individual participants can vary according to the context in which the measures are enacted. The Opportunity Bursary scheme was first introduced in 2001, and institutions were allowed considerable discretion over the allocation of these awards. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this article reports differences in the ways in which two institutions administered their bursary schemes, and the effects on the students. At both institutions, bursary students were more likely to continue with their studies one year after entry than students from low‐income backgrounds who were not in receipt of financial assistance. The interview data suggests that bursary students are well motivated and determined to succeed, but it is unclear whether this is due to the additional financial support or to the process of conscious choice through which they have entered higher education.

Labour Market Policies

Introduction. Equal pay legislation and economic discrimination. Equal pay legislation and productivity differences. Equal pay and single sex occupations. The consequences of the equal pay act. Maternity leave. The introduction of a minimum wage. A minimum wage in competitive labour markets. Monopsonistic labour markets and a minimum wage. Summary.

Undergraduates’ memories of school-based work experience and the role of social class in placement choices in the UK

This paper reports findings from a study of 49 young first-year UK undergraduates who had undergone one or two weeks of work experience at school between the ages of 14 and 16. Previous studies focusing on the whole school cohort suggested that the nature of work experience placements was strongly predicted by class. In particular, middle class families were seen as being able to secure higher-quality placements than working class families through their higher levels of social capital. This study of young people in the large minority subset subsequently progressing to higher education also found evidence of stereotypical placement choices. However, this was situated in low-quality placements that were irrelevant to the participants’ eventual career path. One notable finding was that a significant proportion of working class students had exercised considerable personal agency to secure high-quality placements. This could challenge structuralist interpretations of young people’s decision-making, although the possibility of a retrospective construction of an explanatory narrative is noted. This paper concludes that more effort is needed to push academically-able working class young people towards placements that will increase motivation and widen horizons and that government needs to be clearer about its policy aims in this area.

Women in the European Union

The formation of the European Union. The political, social and economic dimensions of Europe. Equal pay, the single market and the Social Charter. Women’s economic activity in the member states. Part-time employment in Europe. Women’s pay, employment and unemployment. Women’s employment and family friendly policies. Summary.

Changing Employment Patterns

Changes in employment. Economic analysis of employment patterns. Segregation in labour markets. Industrial segregation and employment patterns. Part-time employment. Changes in the participation rate formen and women. Conclusion.

Work or Leisure

Households and labour supply. The individual worker’s supply curve for labour. Income and substitution effects. Women’s employment, income and substitution effects. Women and part-time employment. Men’s employment, income and substitution effects. Part-time employment for men. Summary.