What is Widening Participation &

Why should we care?

WHAT is "WP"?

Widening participation or widening access is a set of policy and practice initiatives relating to who gets to go to, and to which university. Access to higher education is highly stratified by student background, with those from better-off socio-economic backgrounds being more likely to go to university AND attending institutions and degree programmes, that are considered more prestigious (and mean higher economic returns).

HOW? Policy context, stakeholders, and change in focus

WP researchers and practitioners tend to throw around several abbreviations that characterise the policy context, mostly starting with Aim Higher, and most recently being NCOPs (National Collaborative Outreach Partnerships). These programmes stem from the concern that the tuition fees introduced in 2006 in England and Wales could impede social mobility, and focus on outreach between universities, schools and colleges. Between 2004 and 2018 this work has been coordinated by the now defunct Office for Fair Access, which mandated institutions to set up their own Access and Participation Plans (APPs, e.g. Nottingham’s plan) – these have to set out how they will meet their targets to recruit and retain more WP students. From 2018 this role has been taken up by the Office for Students, with a lot of emphasis on effective practice and showing value for money in the WP work through evaluation of activities.

A key way of reaching these aims is via outreach work, aimed at certain groups of students, informing them about university entry and progression, providing taster days and mentoring to them, with some initiatives also adding tutoring. For example, the University of Nottingham offers sustained programmes for 2 years for post-16 students. Importantly, WP initiatives recognise that under-represented students are likely to have achieved lower school outcomes, and the grades do not represent their potential, hence contextualising admissions criteria for them, essentially dropping some of the grade requirements.

However, the policy focus shifted from university entry to the whole student lifecycle, looking at student success, retention, and progression. It's better to think about widening participation AND student success. Initiatives to support these aims include financial support for students, career and enrichment opportunities provided to the target group, and specific interventions supporting academic success and career progression.

Further, concerns around the awarding gap have been on the agenda across higher education, the fact that black and minority ethnic students entering our institutions are less likely to be awarded a First or a 2:1 at the end of their degree, regardless of their initial qualification that they arrived to university with.