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Through historically oriented critical discourse analysis this article considers how the messages regarding the purpose of higher education, as presented in prospectuses of four case study institutions, have been impacted by massification and marketisation in England between 1977 and 2018. The prospectuses of four higher education institutions of different status were analysed to trace how discourses relating to the value of an undergraduate degree could be identified in the prospectuses. The findings suggest that while the prospectuses presented multiple rationales as to why students should undertake degrees, there was a significant increase in focus on graduate transitions to employment and a parallel hollowing-out of information relating to course content. The study found that over the period the vocabularies drawn on to present the value of a degree have become homogenised, yet the rationales given for undertaking tertiary study became more numerous and complex, making diversity of institutional offers difficult for prospective students to differentiate.

Purpose: The primary aim of this paper is to illuminate the critical issue of the degree awarding gap in the UK, which significantly impacts students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and minority groups. By conducting a systematic review of existing literature following the PRISMA protocol, this study seeks to uncover the complex web of explanatory factors that mediate the relationship between contextual indicators, institutional culture, and degree awarding disparities. Addressing this gap is vital for promoting social justice, enhancing the economy, safeguarding the reputation of UK universities, and adhering to legal responsibilities. This paper endeavours to provide a comprehensive understanding of the underlying causes of degree awarding gaps and offer evidence-based recommendations for the higher education sector to mitigate these disparities. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs a systematic review design, adhering to the PRISMA protocol, to meticulously analyse the existing body of literature concerning the degree awarding gap in UK higher education. By systematically gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing relevant studies, the review aims to identify and understand the multifaceted factors mediating the link between contextual indicators, institutional culture, and the disparities observed in degree awarding. This methodological approach ensures a rigorous and transparent examination of the literature, enabling the identification of both the breadth and depth of research on the topic. Through this design, the paper aspires to uncover nuanced insights into the mechanisms driving degree awarding gaps. Findings: The review's findings reveal that degree awarding gaps in UK universities are influenced by a constellation of factors, highlighting the complexity of this issue. Key among these are unconscious bias, limited student engagement opportunities with academic staff, institutional racism, inadequate support systems, and a scarcity of social and cultural capital. These factors collectively contribute to significant disparities in degree outcomes, disproportionately disadvantaging students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and minority groups. The evidence suggests that institutional practices and culture play a pivotal role in either exacerbating or alleviating these disparities, indicating the need for targeted interventions to address the root causes of degree awarding gaps. Research limitations/implications: One strength of conducting a systematic review is its rigorous and meticulous nature, which ensures that the process is carefully planned and executed. This comprehensive approach allows for the elimination of biases, as the review systematically gathers and analyses existing literature on the topic. By adhering to a structured methodology, the systematic review enhances the validity and reliability of the findings, providing a robust and unbiased synthesis of the available evidence. This strength lends credibility to the research and reinforces the confidence in the conclusions drawn from the review. Practical implications: The practical implications arising from this information indicate that universities need to address the identified issues directly by implementing supportive strategies and interventions. By doing so, they can create a learning environment that is more inclusive and equitable, allowing all students to unlock their full potential. This may involve measures such as raising awareness about unconscious bias, promoting engagement between academic staff and students, implementing anti-racist policies, establishing comprehensive support systems, and actively fostering social and cultural capital. Such practical actions will contribute to reducing the degree awarding gaps and promoting equal opportunities for all students, ultimately leading to a more equitable and successful educational experience. Social implications: The social implications derived from this information are significant. By implementing supportive strategies and interventions to address the identified issues, universities can contribute to creating a more inclusive and equitable learning environment. This has the potential to have a transformative impact on society by providing equal opportunities for all students to unlock their full potential. By raising awareness about unconscious bias and implementing anti-racist policies, universities can foster a more diverse and inclusive community. Promoting engagement between academic staff and students and establishing comprehensive support systems can enhance social cohesion and create a sense of belonging. Ultimately, these efforts can lead to reduced degree awarding gaps and contribute to a more equitable and successful educational experience, positively influencing broader social equality and cohesion. Originality/value: This paper contributes significantly to the literature by offering a comprehensive, systematic review of the factors contributing to the degree awarding gap in UK higher education, highlighting its originality and value. By focusing on the interplay between contextual indicators, institutional culture, and degree awarding disparities, the study provides novel insights into how these dynamics contribute to educational inequities. Furthermore, the evidence-based recommendations for institutional interventions presented in this paper furnish the higher education sector with actionable strategies to foster a more inclusive and equitable learning environment. This work not only advances academic understanding of degree awarding gaps but also offers practical value to policymakers and educational institutions aiming to enhance social justice in higher education.

Based on the life and educational histories of sixteen high-achieving, working-class girls applying to high-tariff universities, this paper rekindles debates about the role of agency within the decision-making process of young people who might not otherwise be expected to apply to such institutions. It draws on Margaret Archer's theorising to tease out the interplay between structure and agency in the form of reflexivity and show how this shapes the girls' educational trajectories, rather than pre-determining them. The paper highlights how social class powerfully influences working-class applicants' university plans, in the form of constraints and enablements, but also argues that the girls in this paper are not simply passive young women to whom things happen. As active agents, they are instead becoming increasingly skilled in reflexively navigating their own pathways through education and advance their applications to high-tariff universities in strategic and deliberative ways.

This study aims to identify the literacy skills of individuals whose highest level of education was in the field 'teacher training and educational sciences'. The study sample comprised 10,618 individuals in the field of teacher training and educational sciences, selected from 31 countries (participating in the International Adult Skills Assessment Programme during the 2014-2015 survey) using a multi-stage sampling method. The study employed multi-level latent class analysis and three-step analysis in order to determine both the number of multi-level latent classes of educators' literacy scores as well as the selected independent variables' success in predicting those latent classes. The analysis revealed that educators in Germany constituted the group with the highest literacy skills while educators from Singapore comprised the group with the lowest literacy skills. [This study was presented at the 9th International Congress of Educational Research. Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey.]

The disproportionately low degrees awarded to Ethnic Minority students are stark, representing an enduring challenge across the entire higher education sector including distance education. This paper reports on a study conducted in a distance learning university in the UK which employed a mixed-methods approach to explore the experiences of Ethnic Minority students. The paper draws on the concept of 'over-efforting' and research undertaken by Stevenson into personal educational histories. The methodology included quantitative analysis to provide a broad context with additional qualitative analysis of three case studies to provide rich, deep data. In combination, these data enable the authors to explore the significance of personal educational histories to understand the individual experiences of three students within the context of broader quantitative patterns. The paper offers some insights into these experiences in order to raise important questions about the impact of identities and personal educational histories on participating in tuition within the context of distance education.

Social and economic barriers that students face during their studies can impact severely on their attainment and can be due to many factors. This study investigated how different socio-economic factors, with a focus on digital poverty and workspace availability may have affected students' attainment (during October 2021-March 2022) at university post-COVID-19. Quantitative data collected during the first teaching block of the 2021-2022 academic year using specific questions in a paper-based questionnaire indicated that a good proportion of life science students did not have access to a home internet source (35%) or proper workspace facilities (34%) and had the requirement to work alongside their degree in order to fund their studies. In contrast to the lack of internet students experienced, many of the surveyed students did have access to a personal computer within their household. Possible reasons for some of the findings, and the implications of the findings, are discussed here.

Widening participation has been a vehicle to facilitate access and support towards the successful completion of university studies for underrepresented groups who are less likely to pursue higher education. Yet, despite its widely accepted importance and adoption across countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom, studies to date remain largely fragmented -- often employed through the lens of a single institution, or a particular priority group. Amidst this backdrop, universities and other higher education providers are increasingly probed as to their role in supporting social capital mobility, of which widening participation plays a vital component in delivering wider societal imperatives. In addition, the COVID-19 effect has worsened university participation and completion rates, as the global pandemic has placed vulnerable students (often those involved in widening participation initiatives) in more precocious conditions than ever before. Nevertheless, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review comprising 102 journal articles that derive 15 meta-themes to provide a timely introspection of widening participation, show key trends over time, and chart future areas of investigation for scholars and practitioners in this space.

This paper makes the case for fairness as a driver towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of equitable quality education. We outline a dialogic fairness framework attending to the principles of relational justice in both the service of reducing educational inequalities and improving democratic qualities. The prominence of education as a theme in Fairness Commissions from many UK municipal councils afforded the opportunity to find out if and how fairness could be considered a driver of change towards greater equality in education. Our work with the Newcastle Fairness Commission generated a number of principles of fairness and education, as well as a framework to help operationalize these principles in schools, that we detail in this paper. The framework that was generated was one that recognizes fairness as a form of relational justice arising from a dialogic approach. It was based on a process that used multi-stakeholder interviews and a roundtable inquiry. Views arising from the process interviews and roundtable discussion were consistent with other research into young people's understandings of fairness and education. More research is needed to find out how fairness is understood and enacted by education stakeholders and how these conceptualizations, perspectives, and experiences might combine to improve educational equity and democratic qualities.

This paper examines the roles of parental social class and cultural capital in inequalities in English school qualifications. The analytical focus is the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). Integral to Bourdieu's theory of cultural reproduction is the conception that inequalities in cultural capital explain the unequal scholastic achievements of pupils from different social class backgrounds. This paper is a novel investigation using data from "Understanding Society" and linked administrative education records from the National Pupil Database. The central empirical findings do not support the Bourdiuesian position, and there is no evidence that the substantial parental social class inequalities that are observed in school GCSE outcomes can be explained by inequalities in cultural capital. Engagement in reading related activities are mildly influential, but engagement in highbrow cultural activities are not influential. This is an important finding as the concept of cultural capital has become more prominent in Government education policy.

Situated within the changing dynamics of international student mobility, this paper explores the meaning of transnational in-between identity. The empirical evidence is based on the key findings of a four-year qualitative study on Chinese students who returned from the UK after completing their university degrees. The paper argues that transnational in-between identity is a fluid and diverse process of self-formation through which agency interacts with the four key dimensions of intercultural competence, reconstruction of locality, diaspora consciousness and mixed senses of belonging. The conceptual contribution of this research is that it combines transnationalism, a theory normally confined to the field of migration studies, and the concept of in-betweenness, derived from intercultural adjustment, to investigate the identity changes experienced by student returnees.

Purpose: This paper aims to report on a project re-imagining of a Level 1 English-model broad vocational curriculum for low-attaining youth. The project, funded by Rothschild, has sought to develop a knowledge rich and engaging curriculum, which is more consistent with notions of social justice than contemporary low-level vocational curricula. Design/methodology/approach: The project utilised a participatory, action-research model of curriculum development informed by a theoretical framework drawing on concepts of social justice. Findings: The findings suggest that a broad, project-based curriculum, supported with a wide range of extra-curricular activities (enrichment) is effective in supporting secure and sustainable transitions into further education and/or meaningful employment for low attaining young people. Originality/value: This paper extends understandings about curricula approaches in low-level vocational education. There is a paucity of research into the curriculum at the lowest mainstream levels. Students engaging with education at that level are similarly under-researched. This paper seeks to fill that gap.

Anti-racist education within the Academy holds the potential to truly reflect the cultural hybridity of our diverse, multi-cultural society through the canons of knowledge that educators celebrate, proffer and embody. The centrality of Whiteness as an instrument of power and privilege ensures that particular types of knowledge continue to remain omitted from our curriculums. The monopoly and proliferation of dominant White European canons does comprise much of our existing curriculum; consequently, this does impact on aspects of engagement, inclusivity and belonging particularly for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) learners. This paper explores the impact of a dominant Eurocentric curriculum and the Decolonising the Curriculum agenda within higher education and its influence upon navigating factors such as BAME attainment, engagement and belonging within the Academy. This paper draws on a Critical Race Theory (CRT) theoretical framework to centralize the marginalized voices of fifteen BAME students and three academics of colour regarding this phenomena. Aspects examined consider the impact of a narrow and restrictive curriculum on BAME students and staff and how the omission of diverse histories and multi-cultural knowledge canons facilitates marginalization and discriminatory cultures.

The many permutations of spoken English have called for an interrogation into the notions of 'standard English' and 'native accents'. Despite their problematic nature, these terms remain commonly used, and familiarity with 'standard', inner-circle varieties of English is typical among L2 English speakers, differences in education and language policy notwithstanding. This paper inquires into student language attitudes in Alsace, a region with a long and complex language tradition. A mixed-methods model was used to gather seven students' reactions towards four inner-circle Englishes (Received Pronunciation, Standard American English, Glaswegian English, African American English). Findings revealed student preference for the two American speakers as well as preferential ratings linked to comprehensibility of speakers and a range of past experiences. Other findings favour those of previous language attitude studies in which RP and SAE outperform other samples in areas of education and prestige. GE and AAE samples were associated with both positive human characteristics and a lack of education. Overall, results indicate the need for future empirical research of this population as well as the necessity for linguists, researchers and teachers to make room for the spectrum of speakers and Englishes that lie outside of traditional reference accents.

This paper posits that the foundations of the teaching of political theory at Makerere University College obtain from British and American hegemony. The hegemonic tendencies are exemplified by the content of what was taught as political theory, the nature of the teaching staff in the Department of Political Science -- the country of origin, the institution where they trained, and their research focus. It concludes that streamlining the teaching of political theory at Makerere University will require an understanding of its hegemonic past and its present context to which it is supposed to be aligned.

This paper draws on critical race theory to analyse testimonies from students that help explain why minoritised ethnic communities studying geography, planning, geology and environmental sciences in the UK, have a lesser chance of being awarded a 'good' degree (i.e. an upper second- or first-class), in comparison to White British people. There are very low levels of ethnic diversity across these subject areas. We conducted peer research, including student-led semi-structured interviews at one British university over a five-month period (involving 38 participants in total). Our analysis explores the processes of minoritisation owing to cultures of Whiteness. These relate to teaching and learning spaces, off-campus encounters, university societies, student representation/committees, social interactions, part-time employment and caring responsibilities. We conclude with a call for action to reframe and disassemble the 'degree awarding gap' through student and staff co-design of policies and actions that will not only confront, but also subvert exclusionary cultures of Whiteness in its various manifestations across university life.

This paper reports on the progress of a current PhD research study. The research study will evolve through four phases and eventually develop a conceptual framework for effective teaching and learning approaches that influence digital inclusion and exclusion of students from diverse backgrounds. It will also seek to identify differences in learner characteristics and how these characteristics impact on needs, experiences and engagement with technology for learning, specifically within a blended learning programme. The research will move away from traditional definitions of diversity and explore the differing characteristics of a varied learner population. The research adopts a critical realist perspective, using a qualitative multi-phase methodology that will evolve sequentially in the future. The focus of this paper is to outline the research to date. Phase 1 and Phase 2 have been completed and are reported in this paper. Findings suggest that digital exclusion cannot be predicted or dealt with by categorising students into groupings of: gender, age, ethnicity, geography, socio-economic status and educational background. Additionally, the findings indicate that digital exclusion is influenced by organisational factors, such as elements of the course content or navigation of the virtual learning environment rather than intrinsic factors such as individual technological skills.

This paper argues that the sociology of education would benefit from greater integration with social scientific research focused on morality. This body of research offers a rich set of resources that can illuminate and extend many of the sociology of education's intellectual concerns. In support of this argument, the paper draws on data from Millennium Cohort Study in the UK to empirically examine how a wide range of socio-demographic characteristics are related to young people's moral attitudes. The analysis focuses on the extent to which adolescents state that a range of actions are wrong. In doing so, the paper makes an important contribution to studying the moral lives of young people.

Aim/Purpose: As e-Learning becomes increasingly pervasive, students' engagement in online settings emerges as a central challenge, as it is often more demanding to ensure in this context. The core importance of engagement for e-Learning, places a focus on various instruments and strategies that can be deployed to foster its enhancement. Background: Gamification is often depicted as a significant instrument to drive engagement, behavior change, and loyalty, which can be of great significance to online learning. This paper aims to examine the relationship between the application of gamification tools and the level of engagement in e-Learning websites. Methodology: This research used two methods: the analysis of e-Learning websites and an online survey with a convenience and purposive sample of e-Learning and/or gamification experts. Contribution: This paper adds to the existing body of research by placing and emphasis on and examining the positive role of gamification as an engagement instrument with valuable potential for e-Learning. Findings: The results showed that the majority of the selected e-Learning websites use gamification and engagement elements and that the tools that are more commonly used were deemed as the most effective, by the experts. It became equally evident that the deployment of a larger number of gamification and engagement elements have positive repercussions in the enhancement of engagement, which can have constructive ramifications for the effectiveness of eLearning. Recommendations for Practitioners: From a practitioner's viewpoint the findings can assist both learning designers and teachers in the creation of gamification strategies to enhance students' engagement. As a central challenge of e-Learning courses, engagement requires a multifaceted approach to be addressed effectively and knowing the strategies that have positive outcomes is a step forward in ensuring that the students can enroll in online courses and not be compromised with respect to their engagement. Finally, the lack of engagement can have serious repercussions not only on the learning experience of the students, but also on their actual academic performance. Hence, it is important to guide educators towards good design practices that can maximize engagement in these settings. Recommendations for Researchers: From a research perspective, these findings add to a growing body of studies that focus on the benefits of gamification by highlighting its positive repercussions on engagement and identifying which elements are more effective. In addition, the use of different sources of data provided a wider illustration of what is currently the use of gamification elements by functioning e-Learning websites and how those who apply them in practice in their courses perceive these elements.

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.

Early career researchers' journey (i.e. doctoral researchers and post-PhDs) is increasingly challenging, but little is known about how they live and interpret their significant experiences, that is how they attribute meaning to these experiences and their associated feelings. Moreover, research about how doctoral researchers and post-PhDs deal differently with such experiences remains scarce, especially when accounting for the interpretation of significant experiences across countries. This paper explores how role (doctoral researchers or post-PhDs) and country (Spain, UK and Switzerland) can influence individuals' interpretation of significant events. It draws on the most significant events reported by 544 early career researchers in two open-ended questions. Analyses revealed differences between roles only regarding the sense-making, especially in the future implications, and across countries in both the sense-making and the associated feelings. This interaction between role and cultural/workplace practices, is the most compelling, especially given the high mobility expected of post-PhDs.

Since the 2000s, successive governments in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have embraced the idea of "raising aspiration" among young people as a solution to persisting educational and socio-economic inequalities. Previous analyses have argued that these policies tend to individualise structural disadvantage and promote a "deficit" view of working-class youth. This paper adopts a novel approach to analysing aspiration discourses combining Michel Foucault's four dimensions of "ethics" and Mitchell Dean's notion of "formation of identities". Applying Foucault's and Dean's work in this way provides a new lens that enables an examination of how policy encourages particular forms of subjectivation, and, therefore, seeks to govern individuals. The findings presented in the paper complicate previous research by showing that raising aspiration strategies portray disadvantaged youth both in terms of "deficit" and "potential", resulting in a requirement for inner transformation and mobility through attitudinal change. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for the identity formation of young people and for conceptualising contemporary forms of governmentality.

The attainment gap associated with socio-economic status is an international problem that is highly resistant to change. This conceptual paper critiques the drive by the Scottish Government to address the attainment gap through the Scottish Attainment Challenge and the National Improvement Framework. It draws upon a range of theoretical perspectives but principally examines the problem through the lens of Steiner-Khamsi's concepts of "reception" and "translation" of policy and through examination of the international and national (Scottish) policy contexts. The paper argues that, rather than focussing narrowly upon attainment outcomes, an holistic approach should be adopted which takes account of the economic, social and relational constraints which impact upon families in poverty, calling for a systems-level approach. "Schools cannot go it alone": there is a need to focus upon a wide range of public policy to redress inequalities in society. Whilst the Scottish Government has looked to the London/City/National Challenge as a potential solution to the problem, the complexities and limitations of policy borrowing need to be understood. Higher Education Institutions, government agencies, local authorities and schools need to work in partnership to develop research informed practice which will impact upon learning outcomes for all children and young people.