EXPANDING HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE U.K: FROM ‘SYSTEM SLOWDOWN’ TO ‘SYSTEM ACCELERATION’



Widening participation in higher education has constituted a strong strand of Government policy
since 1997 when New Labour came to power (Hodgson & Spours 1999), though widening
participation in higher education was also a policy of the previous administration (HEFCE 1996).
One of the first tasks facing the new Secretary of State for Education and Employment was to
respond to the recommendations in this area set out in the Report of the National Committee of
Inquiry into Higher Education (NCIHE 1997). The Higher Education Funding Council for
England (HEFCE) was thus given the task of devising funding mechanisms which would increase
the number of students from those groups which had traditionally been under-represented in
higher education entering and successfully completing this level of study. HEFCE’s response has
been a range of measures involving both changes to the funding formula for individual students,
as well as special funding programmes to support regional partnership and innovative
development work. This involves allocating an additional £9 millions between 1999-2001 for
providing pathways for disadvantaged groups (HEFCE 1999).

It is too early yet to estimate the exact effect this will have on participation levels in higher
education because the targeting of learners from disadvantaged backgrounds is likely to take time
to show results. Moreover, it will be difficult to quantify exactly which learners have entered
higher education as a result of specific measures to widen participation, particularly as the
funding relates to all age groups. In 1998, access provision accounted for only four per cent of
those accepted onto degree courses and two per cent of those accepted onto HND provision
(UCAS 1999). There will have to be a dramatic change in this situation if widening participation
measures are actively to contribute towards the new push for an increase in the numbers entering
higher education. Past evidence of this sort suggests that the effect of the initiatives may have to
be measured in single percentage points. However, the more recent measures in this area may
prove to be more effective in the longer term since they will encourage higher education
providers to reconsider all aspects of their publicity, access, learning, delivery and support
processes rather than simply to focus on specific initiatives or programmes.

Creating the conditions for ‘system acceleration’

Our analysis of current attainment and participation trends of 16-19 year olds and participation
patterns in higher education suggests that it will not be easy to reach the Government’s new
higher education target by 2005. There is an assumption that the main contribution will have to
come from those in work in the 20 to 30 year old age group and this is obviously the aim of the
new Foundation Degree initiative. However, this is demanding a great deal of this area of policy,
particularly in the light of recent downward participation trends in HNCs and HNDs. We would
argue that if the Government’s target is to be reached, it will have to undertake a more radical and
longer-term strategic examination of a range of provision across all five routes to higher
education, so that they all contribute to a new phase of system acceleration. In this final section,
we want to focus particularly on what this might mean in relation to three routeways - the
general, the broad vocational and the work-based route.

Expanding progression through the general route

Since the 1991 White Paper (DES/ED/WO 1991), the general policy assumption has been that
further expansion of participation and attainment cannot come through the general (academic)
route without risking a dilution of standards. The current Labour Administration, while wanting

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