Widening Participation and Higher Education
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2006.00348.x |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 33, NUMBER 1, MARCH 2006
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 74±91
Widening Participation and Higher Education
Lois S. Bibbings*
This article considers higher education `widening participation' policy
and practice, focusing upon attempts to widen access in relation to
applicants from under-represented socio-economic groups and
educational backgrounds. Some key United Kingdom approaches are
described and discussed in the light of the concept of affirmative action.
The article also examines the legal support for widening participation.
INTRODUCTION
Undergraduate admissions to higher education have been the subject of some
controversy in recent years, with some (home) university applicants from
independent schools, along with their parents and teachers, claiming that
they have been unfairly treated because of `positive discrimination' in favour
of applicants from the state sector and that, as a consequence, institutions are
`dumbing down'.
1
The allegations relate to oversubscribed courses at
prestigious universities and `widening participation'
2
policies, which seek to
74
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9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
* School of Law, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queens
Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, England
Lois.S.Bibbings@bristol.ac.uk
Papers on this subject have been given at a variety of conferences including events run by
Universities UK, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, the Department for
Constitutional Affairs, and the Socio-Legal Studies Association. I would like to thank
those who attended for their comments along with the editors of this volume. In addition,
thanks go to Luke Clements, Richard Huxtable, Wambui Mwangi, and Phil Thomas for
their assistance with this research and to those involved with widening participation at
Bristol ± in particular, Lucy Collins, Antti Karjalainen, Jules Pickles, Pat Rayfield, Kate
Tapper, and also Barry Taylor. Last, but by no means least, a big thank you to the pupils
and students that I have worked with on summer schools and other events.
1 See, for example, `These Insidious Social Engineers Destroying Merit and
Aspiration' Daily Mail, 26 February 2003; `March of the Social Engineers' Daily
Mail, 1 October 2002.
2 There is some variation in relation to the terminology in this context, however,
`widening participation' has become the most commonly used term in policy-making.
increase the numbers of students from under-represented groups within
higher education. Most notably, such concerns led to the announcement by
the Girls' Schools Association and the Headmasters and Headmistresses
Conference (representing the independent sector) of a `boycott' of the Uni-
versity of Bristol because, allegedly, the institution had `been very public
about a policy which unfairly discriminates against applicants from good
schools, whether independent or state.'
3
Subsequently, research has shown
that the increases in participation by under-represented groups have been
accompanied by increases in independent school applicants proceeding to
higher education as a result of the overall expansions in student numbers. In
addition, instead of standards falling, the average A level attainment of
entrants to leading universities increased from 26.4 points in 1997/98 to 26.8
in 2002/03.
4
Moreover, a survey of independent school pupils' experiences
of applying to university, conducted by the Independent Schools Council
(and presumably seeking to prove discrimination), found that private school
pupils tended to receive the same conditional offers as any other student and
were no less likely to secure a place. The research concluded that there was
`no evidence of discrimination against independently schooled students' and,
thus, `rejections which may have seemed discriminatory to parents and
schools have in fact, been due to a large rise in suitably qualified appli-
cants'.
5
In light of such evidence it is unsurprising that complaints and
accusations about widening participation are no longer at the fore; though
there is no guarantee that such policies will not provoke further controversy.
This article focuses upon higher education widening participation policy
(including admissions) in relation to teenage students from socio-economic
groups under-represented in this sector, drawing upon widening participation
policy, research, law, and practice. Although the policy extends to other
groups, socio-economic disadvantage, along with the linked issu e of
educational background, has been the focus of both efforts to widen access
and the allegations of discrimination.
6
The article draws upon both published sources and my own experience of
widening participation work both at the University of Bristol and beyond.
7
It
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3 See, for example, `Private Schools Boycott Bristol Over Selection' Guardian, 5
March 2003.
4 Sutton Trust, State School Admissions to our Leading Universities: An Update to `The
Missing 3000' (2005) 1.
5 `Private Schools Admit No Bias in University Selection' Guardian, 17 August 2005.
6 There are, of course, other important access issues in relation, for example, to mature
students, studen ts with disabili ties, and those fr om ethnic minori ties. Also,
intersectionality is particularly relevant to socio-economic disadvantage.
7 My experience at Bristol includes working as a widening participation admissions
tutor, being involved in University policy development, coordinating summer
schools, teaching school pupils, and devising new outreach initiatives including the
Meriton Project. The latter programme involves working with the Meriton Centre, the
local teenage mothers' unit, and has been recognized by Universities UK as one of the
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