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Those who have spent time in state care as children, and are therefore 'care-experienced', are known to have lower life chances than the general population. While we know that care-experienced young people are significantly underrepresented in Higher Education nationally and internationally, little is known about their progression to postgraduate level study. Using data from the national Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, this paper explores patterns of postgraduate progression for care-experienced graduates in the United Kingdom. As postgraduate qualifications have been found to provide numerous benefits, this is important to understand; these benefits could be particularly transformative for those with care experience – mitigating their background disadvantages. The authors' data present a positive picture, showing that care-experienced graduates who successfully access and complete an undergraduate degree are significantly more likely to progress to postgraduate study than non-care-experienced graduates. We propose explanations for these findings, and make recommendations for practice to establish further equality in these patterns of progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life outcomes for people who spent time in the care of the state as children ('care-experienced') are known to be significantly lower, on average, than for the general population. The reasons for this are complex and multidimensional, relating to social upheaval, disrupted schooling, mental and physical health issues and societal stigmatisation. Previous studies across several countries have demonstrated that they are significantly less likely to participate in higher education and more likely to withdraw early. However, little is currently known about their outcomes after graduation. This paper therefore explores the initial outcomes for the 1,010 full-time students identified as care-experienced within the cohort graduating from an undergraduate degree programme in the UK in 2016/17—the most recent year for which data are available. They were found to be slightly more likely to be unemployed and less likely to be in work (and particularly professional work) than their peers, but, conversely, more likely to be studying. These differences largely disappeared once background educational and demographic factors were controlled. The paper discusses the relationship between care-experience and other sites of inequality, concluding that care-experienced graduates are crucially over-represented in groups that are disadvantaged in the graduate labour market—e.g. by ethnicity, disability or educational history. This intersectional inequality largely explains their lower graduate outcomes. While there are important limitations with the data available, this speaks for the transformational potential of higher education in enabling care-experienced graduates to transcend childhood adversity. Recommendations for national policy and local practices conclude the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the rapid increase in the numbers of Pakistani and Bangladeshi girls entering higher education, practitioners of widening participation (WP) interventions continue to focus on access, under the mistaken belief that both groups have a strong cultural prevalence for early marriage and motherhood, have low attainment levels, or lack sufficient or effective careers guidance to help inform their academic or career choices. While more recent research has set out to challenge these stereotypes, there remains a paucity of research exploring the experiences of those who have successfully made the transition into, through and beyond higher education (HE). As a result, these stereotypical perspectives continue to prevail. This qualitative study examines the ways in which young Pakistani and Bangladeshi women have not only absorbed these stereotypical views but also, explicitly and implicitly, use stereotyping to define themselves in opposition to those women they deem 'unsuccessful'. In adopting a position of 'defensive othering', taken in opposition to what they perceive to be 'your typical Asian', the women also position themselves as the Other. Drawing upon interviews with young women, we explore how the tensions between constructions of identity and the use of stereotypes from within their communities reveal some of the emotional difficulties they encounter in accessing both higher education and the workplace. Our paper therefore has importance for policy makers and academics involved in widening participation and student progression activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including widening participation (WP) access initiatives and student support in England; recognition for research personnel in Australia, and introduction to international writing programme to support WP.

An introduction is presented with topics including prevalence of claims of excellence in higher education, role of teaching excellence awards in South Africa, and academic metrics and their influence on the construction of excellence in research and publication.

This paper argues that simple dissemination models do not work. One of the strengths of close-up research, with its emphasis on depth and understanding, is that it can identify why things are as they are and, by extension, when we identify wrongs seek to challenge them. The paper suggests, however, that making a difference is fraught with contradictions and that the translation from research to action is far from straightforward. We illustrate these tensions by reflecting on our experiences of conducting two projects for the UK Higher Education Academy. At the same time as exploring the slippages of translation and loss of criticality, however, we want to defend notion of praxis as theoretically informed change for critical social purposes. This involves a view of making a difference and research that moves beyond thinking of research as a discrete act and invokes the significance of corporate agency and the possibilities of acting collectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although not new, the concept of internationalisation, the inclusion of intercultural perspectives and the development of cross-cultural understanding, has gained particular currency and support across the United Kingdom ( UK) higher education sector over the last decade. However, within the academic literature, as well as within institutional policy and practice, there has been little disaggregation of the concept of 'culture'; rather there appears to be a tacit belief that all aspects of students' cultures should be valued and 'celebrated' on campus. Through the stories told by fifteen Sikh, Muslim, Jewish and Christian students studying at a UK post-1992 university the paper highlights the ways in which religion, a fundamental aspect of the cultural identity, values and practices of many students, is rarely recognised or valorised on campus. This lack of recognition can act to 'other', marginalise and isolate students and thus undermine the aims of internationalisation, in particular cross-cultural understanding. The paper concludes by arguing that religion should be considered within debates around internationalisation so that all students are represented within a multicultural institutional ethos and to ensure meaningful cross-cultural engagement for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the attitudes to work and experiences seeking employment of professionally qualified refugees enrolled on a course to enhance their employability skills in Leeds, United Kingdom ( UK). We analyse the results within the framework of conceptual models describing the transition of refugees into employment (which are essentially linear) and those that categorize refugees according to their resettlement styles based on their social features and the host society's response. Our data reinforce that these people are (initially at least) highly motivated to work, strongly identify with their profession and suffer considerable loss of self-esteem as they are unable to secure appropriate employment. Attitudes to securing employment were often related to their length of time in the UK. Recent arrivals were more positive about returning to their profession, even if this meant retraining, developing skills and time spent in alternative employment. Many of those here for longer were resigned to retraining, and the worst cases felt despair and feelings of betrayal. Our work showed that many had poor job search strategies and a lack of knowledge of the culture and norms of their chosen profession. We argue that the generic support of statutory employment services or the voluntary sector is inappropriate and that there is a role for professional bodies to be more active in their engagement with these groups of people. The results suggest that conceptual models need to be more nuanced to capture the experiences of these refugees: attitudes to work can cycle from optimism to disillusionment, so a linear model will not capture the full complexity, and we also found evidence of shifting among categories of resettlement styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the ways in which mature students orientate themselves towards the future in making decisions to access higher education (HE). Their narratives connect their past, often difficult, educational and personal lives to their future aspirations and to their current experiences in further education (FE) and HE. The research was part of a larger project undertaken for the UK Higher Education Academy Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics (C-SAP) exploring FE and HE mature learners' future ‘possible selves’ including those selves that are desired and those that are not. Students were asked to reflect on both their past journeys as well as on what their possible future(s) might look like. In this paper, we focus on the mature learners in our study as they emerged as having distinctive orientations towards their futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper makes a number of arguments about the research interview and maintains that, despite the near ubiquity of the method in higher education research, the interview remains under-theorised and mis-described. We argue that by virtue of being ‘insider’, higher education research involves a form of tacit ethnography where multiple sources of data impact on the interpretation of events. The ‘interview’ therefore needs to be understood in its rich contextual setting. The paper critiques the genre of journal writing and the tendency to under-describe methodology, with a reliance on a description solely of method. Papers that challenge this practice are discussed as offering alternative ways of writing research. Finally the paper analyses the role of reflexivity in interviews, both the researcher's and the researched. It points to the contradictions involved when the forms of reflexivity evoked are tied to the very policies and practices (for example, ‘employability’) we are attempting to critique. The paper concludes that we need a much richer understanding of our methodologies and of knowledge making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite a decade of research into 'inclusion', religious students have been largely ignored within the widening participation and diversity literature. Researching religion and higher education (HE) in the UK, unlike within the US context, is seen as potentially risky territory. Where religion is discussed it is largely in relation to a discourse that problematises and demonises religion around ideas of religious fundamentalism - in particular within the Muslim community - or as formal and technical responses to equality legislation. Consequently, unlike considerations of class, race or gender, the widening participation literature has mostly ignored or racialised religious affiliation, and religion remains, for the most part, unrecognised within institutional policy making. Drawing on research with Christian, Sikh, Muslim and Jewish students, this paper highlights the ways in which such a tacit avoidance of the subject of religion on the 'secular' campus, punctuated only by the discourse of fundamentalism, results in the silencing and marginalisation of many religious students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the assertion that higher education is becoming increasingly ‘feminised’ and that male students are the relative losers, gendered meanings continue to permeate higher education in ways that mean that the recognition of women's experiences are frequently marginalised. Our paper reports on research designed to explore student participation in extra-curricular activity from a perspective informed by a broader conceptualisation of the extra-curricular as a site of gendered, raced, and class practices intimately tied to the development of an employable self. We found that women frequently undervalue their participation and are more likely to be dismissive of extra-curricular activity as of value to their employability than men and that they rarely consider caring to be a form of capital which can be utilised or invested in to support their future employment. We argue that higher education institutions need to support students, in particular women, to recognise the value of their participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the under-researched area of extracurricular activity undertaken by students through the lens of the possible selves literature, which has largely been developed in the North American context. In the UK the employability agenda assumes an orientation towards the future and employers are increasingly expecting students to display capacities beyond those of simply achieving a degree. Extracurricular activity is one site where students might be able to develop these additional capacities towards their future imagined selves. Our case study, based on in-depth interviews with 61 students, found different orientations towards the future, with only some displaying future selves attuned to employability. Other students were more firmly orientated to the present and developing student identities or unable to elaborate or act on imaged futures because of the contingencies of the present. We conclude that paying attention to differing temporalities and to the insights derived from the possible selves literature are likely to be fruitful for further research on extracurricular activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as its focus the contradictory discourse of widening participation (WP). We argue that given the conflicting accounts of WP it is highly unlikely that higher education staff will be able articulate a coherent definition of WP practice. We illustrate our thesis with an institutional case study which analysed policy documents and was based on in-depth interviews with staff. We found that not only did staff have contradictory definitions of WP, but that those who saw themselves as committed questioned the commitment of others. Thus despite institutional rhetoric our participants fell back on personal values when implementing WP activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores conceptions of curricular and extracurricular in UK higher education. Reporting on a case study of staff understandings of the extracurricular we argue that our data highlight the lack of debate about curricular matters. We found that there was considerable blurring of boundaries in conceptions of the curricular and extracurricular and argue that this is related to the lack of any stable or explicit conception of the curriculum in UK higher education. The paper highlights issues of recognition and non-recognition of the sorts of cultural capital which flow from traditional and other forms of extracurricular activities (ECA) and points to the continued gendering of caring and its valuing. Recognition of capital from within diverse communities and derived from activities which have not been traditionally conceptualised as ECA might contribute to graduate outcomes, but there are limitations to a politics of recognition. We argue that account also needs to be taken of the materiality of student lives and the constraints they face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our case study university's stated aim is to be 'a healthy, ethical, environmentally-friendly and sustainable community which values well-being, diversityí' and 'a university whose membersí value belonging to this community and sharing a sense of identity'. However, the notion of what it means to be 'ethical' has not always been made explicit and there is, perhaps, an assumption that all individuals and groups understand ethics in the same way. Since educational institutions are microcosms of an increasingly diverse culture and the society that supports them, 'claims to universal principles can easily be a mask to excuse one particular group imposing their ethics on another' (Strain, 2005) whilst a set of universal ethical principles that is no particular people's principles is not a set of principles at all (MacIntyre 1981). Our paper presents findings from research with students and staff, in a highly culturally diverse university with large numbers of 'home' students from minority ethnic groups and low socio-economic backgrounds as well as international students from over 115 countries as geographically and culturally divided as Norway, India, China and Australia. Our research explored common understandings of ethics, ethical principles and ethical behaviour and the knowledge, awareness, dispositions, and skills that it was expected that staff and students should develop - to enable them to behave ethically within the institution, develop as ethical researchers and understand and apply notions of professional ethics. Whilst there were commonalities across groups we also found significant variations between staff and students and across social and cultural groups. These differences not only challenge the notion of a consensual ethical identity but have left us wondering "whose ethical university is it anyway?" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugee1 young people are an educationally diverse group. However, unlike groups such as Gypsy/Roma and Travellers, in the UK they do not attract targeted educational funding. In addition, neither the UK integration or refugee educational strategies nor the Higher Education Funding Council for England's strategic plan refer to higher education as a progression route for young refugees, as distinct from other minority ethnic young people. Our research with young refugees has shown that many have specific issues affecting their educational achievements, including interrupted education, experience of trauma, concerns about status and English language difficulties. Our findings also show that that despite these multiple disadvantages many view higher education as a route out of poverty and discrimination and are highly aspirational and motivated. We argue that homogenizing the support needs of young refugees along with those of other minority ethnic students is both inappropriate and insufficient and the continued failure to focus on them as a specific widening participation group will perpetuate their continued absence from the UK higher education system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Refugee1 young people are an educationally diverse group. However, unlike groups such as Gypsy/Roma and Travellers, in the UK they do not attract targeted educational funding. In addition, neither the UK integration or refugee educational strategies nor the Higher Education Funding Council for England's strategic plan refer to higher education as a progression route for young refugees, as distinct from other minority ethnic young people. Our research with young refugees has shown that many have specific issues affecting their educational achievements, including interrupted education, experience of trauma, concerns about status and English language difficulties. Our findings also show that that despite these multiple disadvantages many view higher education as a route out of poverty and discrimination and are highly aspirational and motivated. We argue that homogenizing the support needs of young refugees along with those of other minority ethnic students is both inappropriate and insufficient and the continued failure to focus on them as a specific widening participation group will perpetuate their continued absence from the UK higher education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training programmes for unemployed people are often designed to meet the identified vocational skill needs of businesses. We describe research across a number of projects in Leeds (United Kingdom) providing training to unemployed and marginalised adults. The focus was on those with multiple barriers to accessing and sustaining training and employment (including disability, mental illness, homelessness, substance abuse, refugee or immigration status, language, religion and culture). We found substantial gender differences in attitudes towards (un)employment, training and education, including ‘employability’ skills training. Women in our study were more likely to explain their unemployment in terms of ‘self’ or intrinsic failures: inadequacy, weakness or lack of requisite skills. For men, unemployment was seen as a consequence of extrinsic circumstances: bad luck, the failure of others or lack of support. Women were more likely to cite their barriers to training as social, personal or attitudinal, compared with men who saw them predominantly as structural and practical. Men most valued the acquisition of ‘hard’ skills, while women valued gains in confidence, reflective learning and teamwork. These results have implications for the design and delivery of employability training, particularly the need to support women to develop the requisite self-competencies that create individual autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]