Higher Education Equity Literature Database

Context: Comparison of students' transitions into undergraduate study in NSW via TAFE and enabling program at 'Westview University'
Theoretical frame: Mezirow - transformational learning theory; Bourdieu - social capital.
Methodology: Two qualitative studies using narrative inquiry. Study 1 with students from tertiary prep course or Diploma of Nursing at TAFE (n=7) - interviewed twice; Study 2 with enabling students at 'Westview' (n=10) - interviewed four times.
Findings: Main themes: disengagement, insecurity, transition, adversity, identity and future selves.
Resilience and persistence: financial barriers (and associated time pressures: 14/17 participants were also working) and long commutes. Students' commitment = example of resilience. Students spoke in terms of pressure. Several students had learning difficulties. Some students lived more than 50km from campus; one student had a 140km round trip. Authors argue that, "such findings suggest that successful transition involves a large measure of student ability to draw on inner resources to persevere" (p.43).
Transition and agency: All participants 'adopted self-responsibility' quickly.
Transition and identity: "findings from the two studies point to changes to the perspectives or habitus of the participants" (p.44) - described in terms of difference, increased confidence, 'getting there'. Authors also make connections to Mezirow's notion of transformation
Core Argument: Study "highlights the fact that while TAFE and enabling courses like the UAP can nurture the potential of students, they can simultaneously and inadvertently widen the perceptual divide of students' identity when they first enter higher education from such programs" (p.46)

Context: Sociology of time; author notes that some languages do not share the same modalities/ characterisations of time (more dichotic concepts; e.g. Swaheli or Nuer culture)
Aim: To argue for a categorisation of time based on four modalities: micro-, meso-, macro- and mega-time; to ask questions of time (what is it)
Theoretical frame: time as chronos (a "way of relating to an external order, which marks and places a whole
series of events in a linear and/or circular sequence", p.10 = temporal duration) and time as kairos ("a kind of time which is opportune, proper, right, in reference to an action to be accomplished, to a decision to be reached, or to an initiative to be undertaken", p.10 = contingent condition)
Methodology: Essay
Discussion:
"Time, then, becomes a social institution which clocks represent without themselves being 'time'" (p.14).
Time and ritual (p.20) - reference to Victor Turner's work on liminality = "A significant part of Turner's discussion consequently centres on two main points: first, on the relation existing in society between structure and anti-structure and, secondly, on 'liminality', the transitional stage from the former to the latter. The structural element appears to be stable and somewhat slow to change at action and interaction level. Antistructure, on the contrary, is more dynamic, more complex and devoid of spatial or temporal support" (p.20)
"'symbolic time' is highly discontinuous, centred as it is on a specific point with which every other point of calendar time is correlated. Dominant symbols are ritual actions performed within a given social group. They express the mythos of the group and an interpretation of its history; they carry an idiosyncratic interpretation of what that group considers as the principles of reality and the legitimate order of society, more specifically, they define the passage from disaggregation and conflict to social relationship. Symbolic periodicity, therefore, provides the paradigmatic form capable of bestowing sense and meaning on a social bond or, in theological terms, a covenant" ... "Symbolic time thus refers to the point of intersection between a plurality
of 'times'" (p.21).
Core argument:
Micro-time = "the direct experience of a reduced, minimal, easily controllable time-space, as it is literally associated with the instant, the fleeting moment that flows rapidly" (p.26)
Meso-time = "an entire existence, studded with experiences, whether cognisant or incognisant, with phases of wakefulness and sleep (and dreams), during which the possibility to wander is considerable" (p.26)
Macro-time = "is constituted by that sum total of periods, events, people, and things that precede contemporaneousness and/or follow it, eventually" (p.27).
Mega-time = "a kind of 'time without time', incommensurable, limitless, without any effective interruption or
beginning; a temporal (or a-temporal) infinite, capable, therefore, of overcoming, annihilating all and every space-time dimension" (p.27)
"If one wished to use a geometrical metaphor one might say that micro-time corresponds to a point, meso-time to a section, macro-time to a large segment of a straight line, mega-time to a straight line whose points of origin and conclusion are unknown" (p.28).

Context: The invisibilising of motherhood ('the unmentionables' - see p.83) in context of patriarchal, dehumanising disciplinary technologies such as the Research Evaluation Framework (REF): "struggles to open the academy to people whose lives do not conform to hegemonic models of the bourgeois, entrepreneurial white, male scholar are ongoing" (p.84). Authors note literature that speaks of the division and conflict between different selves, and note that this is not universal; that some women are already devalued, invisibilised - which foregrounds necessity of intersectional analysis. Motherhood requires shift (rather than institutions shifting to accommodate mothers): "Mothers often face a choice of assimilation or denial in workplaces. The ideal-type mother cannot be an ideal-type neoliberal subject (careless, disembodied and disengaged from the messiness of non-economic life) or an autonomous, flexible 'entrepreneur' of the self" (p.85)
Aim: To "offer a critique of neoliberal power from the perspective of the gendered, sexualised, raced and classed politics of motherhood in English universities"; to "demonstrate how feminist academic praxis can not only help make the gendered workings of neoliberal power more visible, but also enable us to nurture and sustain alternative ways of being and working in, against and outside the university" (p.82)
Theoretical frame: Feminist academic praxis; critical pedagogy of discomfort
Methodology: Dialogical auto-ethnographic methods (see p.87), including transcription of mothering while discussing mothering
Findings: Including children's interjections = "not only visibilised how caring relations and responsibilities shape flows of knowledge in real time, but also how they can alter the value we ascribe to particular moments and ways of knowing. It illustrates why the audited, performative university cannot tolerate an ethic of care; why those who care for others cannot aspire to an individualised, self-determined, 'productive' and entrepreneurial subjectivity; and why socialising relations of care is necessary to advance critical thought which does not deny the multiplicity and wildness of our inter-related selves" (p.87-8).
Neoliberal time and motherhood: neoliberalism reduces temporality to immediate present; denies possibilities of collective imaginaries and pushes an institutional timescape/ neoliberal rhythm onto other parts of life, resulting in a "spatio-temporality also generates ontological and affective gendered violences in which 'feminised' caring relationships of recognition and solidarity are devalued or denied" (p.88). Author 2, as a single parent, describe feeling either 'out of time' or 'out of place' because of childcare constraints, describing her mother-self as deligitimised.
Neoliberal space and madness of splitting: Division of public and private space creates the necessity of splitting. Author 2 describes how bringing her children on campus created all sorts of perceptions of her (as unprofessional, as inefficient, as uncommitted)/ challenges for her:
"The careless culture of neoliberal university space is thus reproduced in part through a discourse of individualisation, in which relationships are impoverished and structural oppressions become defined as problems of individual failure, lack of consideration or selfishness. This undercuts possibilities of forming solidarities across difference through which we might come to know ourselves and each other and resist anti-ethical and dehumanising conditions. It also creates psychological, emotional and physical dis-ease when those who experience such acts of judgement and denial feel shame, guilt and anxiety for not being 'good enough' and not embodying 'the perfect'" (p.91). Spaces = also built with/ for middle-class norms (making assumptions about who come/ what they bring into academia); "this is particularly problematic when the academic-self colonises the spaces and times of the mother-self... [which] not only undercuts a woman's ability to mother meaningfully outside of hegemonic framings, but also limits possibilities to create more collective forms of care, intensifies experiences of social isolation and augments dependencies between partners which create pressures and anxieties in intimate life" (p.91).
Subjectivation: denial, humiliation, self-disciplining: Onto-epistemological violence = enacted through idealised neoliberal (flexible, care-free, mobile) subject: "Yet our subjectivities as academics can also imbricate smoothly with neoliberal rational- ities. Care, too, is infinitely flexible and on call. There is a temptation to engage in practices of care for students and colleagues, as well as those who depend on us, in conditions where such work requires individualised sacrifices or occupies what would otherwise be non-labour time. Our commitments to and ethics of education can be co-opted into logics of neoliberal time and space whilst being simultaneously misrecognised and deva- lued as 'non-academic', feminised activities" (p.92). Authors point to the ways that they have tacitly bought into ideas about academic identity and activity; self-disciplining around these notions of ideal subjectivities points to complicity throughout system to perpetuate the dominance of neoliberal modes of being, knowing and doing ('colonising one's sense of self', McRobbie, 2015). Demonstrations of resistance = categorised as 'whinging' (Phipps, 2006). Speaking out is an act of resistance, but comes with risks: "Embracing the otherness and marginality of the messiness that motherhood brings to the marketised university takes courage, for it involves emotional risk and exposure to uncertainty" (p.93).
Core argument: "When women appear in universities as mothers, single mothers and feminists, the demand to negate the needs of self-care and care for others can expose the invisible and unmentionable conditions that make ideal-type forms of neoliberal academic labour possible. Our presence as bodies and selves has the potential to reveal the tacit operations of power that order the dynamics of inclusion, exclusion, (mis)recognition and denial in the institution" (p.93).

Context: Summary of beginnings of Newstep (Newcastle University Second-chance Tertiary Entrance Programme) program at University of Newcastle. Newstep began in 1990 with 60 students - it went mainstream in 1993. Newstep followed the Open Foundation program which began in 1974. Newstep began with a government subsidy, for students aged 17-20. According to author, Open Foundation commanded a fee at the time of writing. Newstep students were subject to meeting criteria relating to academic potential and "proven disadvantage or disability" (p.116) and was fully subsidised by the university so free to students.
Aim: To describe positive and negative effects from changes to Newstep program over its first 5 years in operation
Methodology: Essay
Discussion: Newstep = designed to support students with numeracy, literacy and study skills (see p.117). The course roll out was delayed to wait for a government subsidy, meaning that the Newstep team only had 5 weeks to advertise and prepare the course for its first run. It began as a 30-week course, with students timetabled to study for 16 hours/week. Originally, the course had two streams: assessed core (English and maths) + and elective from Open Foundation, plus an unassessed core of study skills/ IT, and was a "smorgasbord of Higher School Certificate (BSC), TAFE and University ideas" (p.117). Newstep also "simulated" undergraduate teaching approaches (two-hour lecture/ two hour tutorial), which was purposeful to "familiarise students with university approaches to learning and therefore facilitate a smooth transition to undergraduate programs" (p.118).
However, the core English and maths courses were not designed with Newstep students in mind, as the designers made assumptions about students' note-taking practices, and students expected photocopies of lecture materials. Furthermore, students did not like the focus on grammar, and were bored by the maths units that were replications of HSC maths; other students found the maths too difficult/ too basic. Few of the Newstep lecturers had high school experience and "became quite frustrated" (p.118).
The second iteration of Newstep had significant changes: in staffing (more appropriate educators employed), in English (less focus on grammar, more on writing sessions linked to assignments), in Maths (new unit designed for students who didn't need advanced maths). Other later changes to Newstep included introduction of 'Australian Society' module, different levels of maths that aligned with Open Foundation.
Author notes importance of tutorial room used to offer individual support: "This centre became an important focus for gauging student opinion, strengthening group cohesion and lessening communication barriers between students and their instructors" (p.120).
Issues that remained with the program at the time of publication = a misunderstanding that completion of Newstep would not guarantee acceptance into undergraduate studies at UON. Also confusion between meeting attendance requirements and academic requirements is noted. Author also reports that students found it difficult to differentiate between HSC and Newstep, with students not understanding what was expected of them.
"The NEWSTEP course also maintains a delicate balance between the University's commitment to equity and access and the need to safeguard academic standards" (p.122). Author suggests that perhaps the idea of continuing to support ex-Newstep students was being considered ("As yet the University has not extended the
NEWSTEP program to include ongoing support for ex-NEWSTEP students enrolled in first year undergraduate courses" (p.123), which author argues may be linked to "somewhat erratic performances" of previous Newstep students.

Context: Strong emphasis on job readiness and so-called soft skills in higher education. Authors focus on professional writing skills as one area of employability, with calls to align writing skills taught/assessed in higher education with the kinds of genres/ textual practices of industry
Aim: To respond to these questions:
What are the specific concerns employers have about their graduates writing abilities? What expectations do they have of these abilities? How are perceived problems dealt with in the workplace? Do graduates in fact improve their writing over time, or do these abilities remain a permanent impediment both to their own careers and to the performance of the employing organisation? And finally, what do employers think can be done to best prepare graduates for the writing demands of their professional work? (p.592)
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Discourse-based interviews (looks like talk-around-text approach) with work supervisors/ employers of graduates (n=20) from a variety of professional areas. Interviews covered issues relating to writing abilities of graduates, nature of written communication for specific workplaces/ jobs, strategies for dealing with writing issues of graduates, ways to better prepare students for professional writing demands.
Findings:
Writing abilities of graduates: Some participants noted diminishing standards in graduates writing, particularly in terms of surface/ technical issues (relating to spelling, punctuation, grammar), and attributed to to a general lack of care and diligence (p.596); others were much more positive in their evaluations, but caveats offered in terms of selective recruitment strategies. Distinctions made between writing/ thinking and style/genre.
Perceived differences between academic and professional writing: Most common observation = communicative norms are different: graduates write in discursive long-hand, rather than bringing brevity and concision to their writing (p.598), or avoiding academic/ technical language (need for plain English).
Uniqueness of workplace writing: Expansive accounts of differences between academic and professional writing points to bespoke nature of the communicative styles and preferences of disciplines and individual workplaces; as a result, some participants did not think it appropriate to expect students to be able to write effectively when they begin work.
Workplace pedagogies: several different approaches to supporting graduates to adopt writing style/practices: training and mentoring (formal training mostly in larger organisations), modeling and scaffolding, monitoring/ reviewing documents written by new employees, graduating of tasks (mastery before moving to next genre).
Better preparation? Participants = sceptical about there being any systematic ways by which students could be prepared in advance for the quite specific communicative demands of their particular organization (p.602)
Core argument: Data do not support the public lament about graduates not being able to write; modes of communication differ significantly between academic and professional contexts, which could be a source for concerns abour graduates writing; it is difficult, if not in practice impossible, to identify writing requirements of
professional areas in any generic sense, and that these are often unique to specific professional areas, organisations, and workplace (p.603); graduates often need to be explicitly inculcated into workplace textual practices.
Éuniversities [need] to have a better understanding of the broad contexts of activity their graduates are bound for; but equally for industry and business in their recruitment and training activities to recognise from whence their graduates have come (p.606).

Context: Education has been powerfully affected by neoliberal agenda - while education cannot be commodified, access to education can be. Offers overview of neoliberalism: it "seeks to make existing markets wider, and to create new markets where they did not exist before" (p.100), thus education = positioned as market to be 'freed' to competition and profit-making. Welfare has been marketised through process of tendering for services, putting public agencies in competition for contracts. All based on principle of lower state cost, therefore lower taxes. Neoliberalism = began in Chile under Pinochet, brought to global north via Reagan and (facilitators of neoliberal takeover of World Bank and IMF) in the 1980s. Neoliberalism brings with it a new form of managerialism - seen in higher wages and bonuses for managers
Aim: To offer view on effects of neoliberalism on education system - but emphasis on flexible labour market means more short-term/casual contracts and a push back against unions.
Methodology: Essay
Findings:
In Australia, neoliberal cascade is evident in diminishment of manufacturing (with Australia unable to compete with other cheaper countries on wages), meaning that skilled trades have been undermined (links made to youth unemployment and impact of TAFE and schools). Neoliberal impact on education: "Increasingly, education has been defined as an industry, and educational institutions have been forced to conduct themselves more and more like profit-seeking firms" (p.102). In HE, reintroduction of fees (post-Whitlam reforms) and has been positioned as an export industry overseas; "as competition between university managements deepened, a new multi-tier system has emerged, certainly meaner and arguably as hierarchical as what had existed before" (p.102). Also, funding mechanisms continually shifted to make them competitive (funds and fees). Over half of academic workforce in HE = casual. Impact on TAFE = more profound as Australia has gone through process of de-industrialisation, which has impacted on apprenticeship model; also opening up of VET system to market = more entrepreneurs in sector/market. Also, restructure decimated public TAFE system, while trust in the private VET sector dropped after scandals. Discussion of school sector includes focus on Catholic sector (p.103). Also, pre-school education has been effected by neoliberalism/ market economics.
Dawkins reforms = "injected neoliberal logic into every sector of the education system" (p.104). Notes use of first person adjective 'my school' not 'our schools' (Gillard-introduced website).
Discussion of human capital theory and social reproduction. Connell foregrounds the importance of considering history alongside critical views of social reproduction: "Bringing history more centrally into the frame, we arrive at an understanding of education as the social process in which we nurture and develop capacities for practice" (p.104). Connell also notes how the market works when provision is restricted, and the rationing of education can be marketed.
Consequences for teachers = unstable workforce, weakening of unions. Casualisation has impacted heavily on university and TAFE; not so much with school teachers but schools are developing as businesses, needing business managers; thus a divide is growing between teachers and 'school executives'. Also the accountability and surveillance technology of NAPLAN has impact on teachers and schools (and students!).
Impact on knowledge: commodification, intellectual property. Also, has impacted on particular disciplines that do not have commodifiable results/ take time (e.g. philosophy)
Core argument: Educators need to be more aware of impact of/ insidious influence of neoliberalism and develop understandings of education "as a social process of nurturing capacities for practice" (abstract). Market agenda: "The education system as a whole comes to stand, not for the common interest and self-knowledge of the society, but for ways to extract private advantage at the expense of others" (p.106).
"Under neoliberal rule, education is displaced by competitive training, competition for privilege, social conformity, fear and corruption, while protest and rational alternatives are marginalized" (p.110)

Context: Set in context of Australian higher education/ massification/ diverse students, especially those who articulate into HE from VET (authors note issues, such as cultural differences). Based on Aus gov't-funded 'Deakin at Your Doorstop' project (offers Associate Degrees to R&R students)
Aim: To introduce new Associate Degree at Deakin as alternative pathway to respond to diversity and in the context of regionality in Victoria
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Mixed-methods exploratory study. Data = retention/ progression data, student evaluations of teaching, survey at 3 points (n=35, 35, 28), semi-structured interviews with students (n=26), teaching staff (n=4), project staff (n=3)
Findings: Describes the model (partnership with TAFE/ structure etc.) = p.709-12
Students said that they would not be at university if not for the Ass. Degree; brought in more traffic to TAFE sites (mostly mature age students; students on campus = more school leavers)
Students progression and perceptions of challenges = comparable to UG ('mainstream') students. 64/75 students remained enrolled at the end of the course.
Relationships emerged as important in the interviews
Technology did not get in the way
Multiple learning methods were effective
Core argument: Offers an account of a new model of alternative pathway

Context: UK Widening Participation policy - official higher education discourse; 'disadvantaged young people' less likely to attend higher tariff institutions. Bravenboer argues that "a tacit 'deficit model' of widening participation in selective universities serves to position the lack of progress in widening access as principally an applicant issue" (p.123)
Methodology: Application of frame of 'constructive description' to 3 official texts (positioned as sociocultural objects/artefacts): the Schwartz Report (AHESG, 2004), Higher ambitions: The future of universities in a knowledge economy (BIS, 2009) and Higher education: Students at the heart of the system (BIS, 2011 - hereafter described as the 'White Paper'). Four steps were followed (p.125):
1. Localising and bounding of the text in the higher education field as an object of analysis
2. Identification of oppositions and alliances within a reading of object text
3. Construction of modes of action by recontextualising identified oppositions and alliances
4. Analysis of the dynamics of the strategic distribution and exclusion of textual objects in relation to the discursive space constructed as modes of action
Findings: Proposes two sets of conceptual tools for exploring fairness and merit/potential. Fairness constructed as binary: impartial/partial approaches to determining access (p.125): 4 possible modes of action: admissional, privileged, recognitional, excepted. Gatekeepers: Admissional: impartial/ participation is closed. Privileged: approaches to deciding access = partial/ participation is closed. Open Access: Recognitional: approaches to deciding access = impartial/ participation is open. Excepted: approaches to deciding access = partial/ participation is open. Merit/potential (considered synonymous) subject to binary variables of valid/non-valid and reliable/non-reliable. Valid but non-reliable = predictable but not replicable measurement of merit (e.g. references or personal statements). Non-valid/non-reliable = diametrically opposed to fair assessment (aka nepotistic). Reliable/ non-valid = systemic adoption of nepotistic practices would make them reliable/reproducable (but still non-valid) - e.g. automatically (not) selecting on basis of school attended or total exclusion of 'wider contextual factors'/ certain kinds of qualifications. "...the Schwartz Report's terms of
reference explicitly do not provide the discursive authority with which to establish a common currency for determining a candidate's merit and potential to benefit from higher education" (p.135). Professionalism in admissions is subject to assumptions; there are no explicit guidelines on what is reliable/valid.
Core argument: Focus/strong defence of institutional autonomy means that robust exploration of discourses that underpin concept of 'fairness' is difficult to undertake.

Context: Although online education provides an important opportunity to diversity the student population in HE, the Online Student Experience (OSE) and online student outcomes often remain ambiguous. The authors also argue that a student-centred perspective is often absent from the OE literature, where students' expectations, perceptions, experiences beyond the curriculum and the role of students' experiences in the educational outcomes of online students are often given limited consideration.
Aim: To offer a 'rich description of how first-year students at an Australian public university constructed their lived experiences of OE, and attributed meaning to these experiences' (abstract).
Theoretical frame: Constructivist Learning Theory (Lesgold, 2004; Richardson, 2003); Expectation-Confirmation Theory (Bhattacherjee, 2001); Longitudinal-process Model of Drop Out from Distance Education (Kember, 1989).
Methodology: Qualitative approach; Phenomenological case study methodology; Data collection method: Online interviews; Participants: First-year students at an Australian public university (n=43); Data analysis: Thematic analysis.
Findings: Six themes which describe students' lived experiences of OE: 'learner Motivation, Ability and Circumstances; and institutional Interaction, Curriculum and Environment, forming a Motivation, Ability, Circumstances - Interaction, Curriculum, Environment, or MAC-ICE, thematic structure of the OSE' (abstract); Varied student experiences are observed, without a consistent explanation of how all first-year students would experience OE; Each theme was perceived to inform students' outcomes (via direct contribution to their learning, performance, satisfaction or retention, or by facilitating their experiences conducive to these outcomes'; Interconnection in student outcomes is evident - retention is influenced by students' academic performance & satisfaction, while satisfaction is impacted by students' learning & academic performance.
Discussion: A quality OSE appears to be 'highly complex' (abstract), influenced by a range of experiences related to both learners & their institution; The findings combine a 'fragmented and piecemeal' comprehension of OE, and present a 'holistic & student-centered' description of a quality OSE.
Core argument: A deeper understanding of the OSE is crucial in ensuring the enrolment and retention of a diverse range of students in HE institutions. The findings from the study can enable propositions to clarify and enhance the OE theory, consequently contributing towards improved educational outcomes for online students.

Context: Examines research that has examined WP over 45 years (mostly UK-focused). Argued that at time of writing, contemporary research = driven by 'third way politics' (new right + new Labour) = balance social + economic concerns.
Aim: To "trace the origin, history and (dis)continuities of widening participation research" (p.334)
Theoretical frame: Historical literature review and analysis (not explicitly set out)
Methodology: Essay
Findings: Influence of critiques of HE structure, political context and sociological approaches have limited the debates/ discussion of barriers to participation: "Contemporary research is in danger of reinventing the wheel and replicating the errors of earlier approach" (p.334) - fails to recognise work that came before.

Offers historical overview of WP in UK HE (from 1825 onwards) and notes the enduring context of privilege and elitism due to private ('public') schooling; Scotland's HE system evolved differently because of less public schools. Discusses evolution of 'access' as concern/discourse (first focusing on daughters of higher classes. Early research into HE experience = three strands: "the desire to extend citizenship rights, the quantitative monitoring of participation rates and the qualitative exploration of student lifestyles" (p.335) = reflect scholarly divisions in sociology = limiting. Post 1945, discussion and critique = narrowed to 'structural functionalism' ("recreate value consensus and the division of labour") and class analysis (following Weberian traditions in sociology). In UK in 1944, secondary education = made free and compulsory to age 15 and 3 different streams depending on results of 11+ exam: grammar, secondary modern or technical schools. Research = focused on social class and schooling at this time: "Functionalists located the barriers to university participation in the value orientations of particular social classes" (p.336), whereas "Educability researchers located the barriers to HE in the structure of the family, rather than wider processes of cultural deprivation" (p.337).

Post 1970s = rise of "phenomenological, neo-marxist, feminist and ethno- graphic approaches to schooling" = paradigm shift in sociology of education which corresponded with policy changes (increased age of compulsory schooling/ expansion of HE. "Phenomenologists were primarily interested in the stratification of knowledge in education and society, neo-marxists with the relationship between schooling and capitalism, feminists with the reproduction of patriarchy and ethnographers with the exploration of student life" (p.338).

More recent research = "the resurgence of official, managerial and monitoring studies of widening participation; the extension of ethnographic, feminist and postmodern research related to access and non-traditional student life; and studies that have deconstructed access discourses"(p.339). Research trends again mirrored/reflected political shifts (declines in HE funding and enrolments in 1980s; New Labour in 1997. Findings of more modern research echo findings of previous work (e.g. higher numbers of privately educated students in most elite institutions; selective mechanisms of admission by social class): "recent access research often represents the re-emergence of old ideas in new guises" (p.340) - but 'new access' studies extended knowledge by focusing on over- and under-representation in HE
Core argument: Future research into WP needs to reconceptualise the field: "Future research must deploy an inclusive definition of the social processes shaping higher learning ranging from those that promote (bridges) to those that inhibit (barriers) differential participation in, progression through and outcomes from HE for certain individuals and social groups" (p.343) and avoid separating out cultural and material experiences. 5 criteria for future work:
1) must establish intellectual basis
2) provide simultaneous accounts of patterns and causes of differentiated participation/ progression/outcomes
3) provide holistic accounts of students' characteristics
4) more longitudinal research (to investigate impact of early education/ childhood)
5) explore both reproduction and transformative of bridges and barriers to HE (not distinct entities) = p.344

Context: Unpacks instantiations of social justice discourse in discussions about higher education and social change - has social justice "been appropriated into a neo-liberal strategy for growing competitive economies" (abstract)? Can an instrument of public management be used to advance social justice in HE?
Makes case that social justice does not have 'common set of understandings' "at the level of political ideology, normative principle, and social policy and strategy" (p.481), and as a result it gets reappropriated by different stakeholders with differing ideological/normative underpinnings (p.483). Social justice gets 'stretched in different directions", depending on how policy goals are characterised (p.482).
"The pursuit of social justice can be seen as the search for a fair (not necessarily equal) distribution of what is beneficial and valued as well as what is burdensome in a society" (p.482). Social justice is often discussed in terms of/ relationship to policy, philosophy and ethics, but structural material and cultural frames are also significant (p.482). Discusses social justice in HE in context of European Science Foundation foresight exercise on higher education in Europe beyond 2010.
Discussion of literature on knowledge societies and social justice; main points:
Some claim that knowledge societies have democratizing function (because of expanded access to information/ technology) - but see commodification of knowledge argument
Intensification of competition
HE is a public good (universally accessible but partially available) = confers private benefits and public gains but it also has potential to sustain/perpetuate inequality. What does social justice look like in low income countries? Discusses social justice in South Africa
Aim: To "to track what happens to social justice in making this transition from philosophical principle and normative aspiration to strategic goal and targeted intervention in the world of social policy" (p.483) and explore these RQs:
_ Has the notion of social justice in higher education been appropriated into a neo-liberal strategy for growing competitive economies?
_ Conversely, is it possible to deploy an instrument of new public management for advancing the purposes of social justice in higher education?
Findings: Appropriation of quality assurance = 'indispensable' and "ubiquitous imperative" (p.487) that has spread rapidly and been professionalised. Policy rationales = economic/ efficiency/ value for money = not necessarily educational improvement. Mostly positioned as negatively, as 'audit culture'. Predominant identity of QA = instrument of new public management. What are possibilities of reframing QA in a way that addresses social justice?
Describes how South Africa implemented a new QA system that included the social justice/transformation imperative in its definition of quality

Context: Responds to Morsy. Gulson & Clarke's discussion of school funding (specifically relating to 'sector-blindness' with regards to federal funding of public and 'non-government' schools) and their call for dissensual politics (Ranciere-ian disagreement in the sense the consensus is false and insincere)
Aim: To defend position take in original paper, to engage in 'debate redux' but from politics of disagreement
Methodology: Essay
Discussion: Correct Morsy, Gulson & Clarke, who argued against a position of harmonisation between equity and marketization; Sellar, Savage & Gorur highlight that equity and marketization are presented as harmonious. Offer example of how equity has replaced language of social justice and inequality in educational policy, so that "equity effectively becomes a ' market-enhancing mechanism' (Savage, 2011) and markets can ostensibly function as ' equity-enhancing mechanisms' (Gorur, 2013 ), on p.464.
Metaphor of 'blindness' connects with Ranciere's notion of 'the sensible'; there is a critical difference between notion of blindness as misrecognition and as "a rhetorical strategy that produces a particular distribution of the sensible" (p.465). Dissensus = gap in the sensible (where sensible relates to normative assumptions about groupings of society according to specific modes of doing, occupations and places). Authors are cautious of repeating the 'well worn groove' of critiques of neoliberalism because it has become a cliche in critical educational work. Authors agree that degrees of depoliticisation in education have closed down some debates
Core argument: We need new ways of being critical.

Context: Set in arguments for future-orientations/ shifts in policy and practice with regard to education (globally). Conceptualisations of future matter because they drive policy and funding, shape discussions between educators and students, and because we ask students to invest in the 'not yet' (Adam & Groves, 2007).
Aim: To respond to Q: "How best, then, might education research respond to such a proliferation of futures discourses in education?" (p.136); to argue that educational research lacks critical reflexivity about its own ideas about the future. To propose two strategies to focus on present: "the first is the use of play as a resource for making visible contingencies that might open up new possibilities; the second is the exploration of culturally diverse futures metaphors, in particular those which are premised upon reciprocity to guarantee the continuation of social relationships in the present" (p.136). To argue that "there is a need for much greater critical reflection on the ideas of the future that are produced through such research" (p.137)
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Essay
Discussion: Literature review points to how progressive education researchers have produced scholarly work that seeks to 'operationalise hope' - resisting hegemonic, normative futures (shaped by neoliberal, competitive logics and market-orientations). However, Facer argues that "In many progressive educational accounts, for example, 'the future' is often simply used as a synonym for 'better', as a repository for hopes and aspirations for change, as a site of resistance against the conditions of the present" (p.137), with the converse also true for more conservative thinkers (climate change, AI, poverty etc.). Facer argues these abstractions are unhelpful because these "mythic futures can become abstractions that lack the plausibility and urgency to act as a powerful rationale for change" (p.137).
"Rather than invoking the future as a set of inevitable trends, researchers might want instead to ask: 'when precisely is this future we need to prepare for? Is it tomorrow, the next three-five years, the next two decades, or the next century? What reversals might be envisaged? What obstacles might it hit?" (p.137; italics in original)
Asking for more concrete details of the projected future helps to critique and "enables a closer examination of the potential efficacy of the education strategies that are being proposed to respond to these ideas of the future" (p.138).
Author notes how foci on 'the future' are always partial and a process of selection (with some things foregrounded at the expense of other elements). A response to this could be to promote multiple futures, which requires a commitment to the "idea of futures as 'authored' and situated in their production and to exploring the implications of these diverse futures for action in the present" (p.138) = multiple 'latent futures' (Adam & Groves, 2007).
Author advocates for resisting deterministic/ taken-for-granted thinking about the future and instead argues for developing educational tools that help to prepare for uncertainty, which are based on contingency thinking and which utilize the present as an "abundant resource, a site of rich and powerful possibilities" (p.141).
Core argument: "Most importantly, however, education research needs to resist the lure of seeking ever more precise knowledge about the future and instead, to find ways to mobilise the present as a resource of powerful contingency and possibility" (p.142).

Context: Set within the context where despite the many documented benefits of satellite campuses in regional areas (Gunasekara, 2004; Ellis, Watkinson & Sawyer, 2010; Playford, Wheatland & Larson, 2010) the literature shows that satellite campuses face many challenges.
Aim: To report on a review of literature exploring the 'challenges faced by nurse academics on satellite campuses and they extent in which the influence education provision' (p. 2).
Theoretical frame: Not specified in study.
Methodology: Integrative literature review - allows for the review of various forms of evidence to develop an understanding of the issue; Search strategies - ; Search engines - Google scholar & CINAHL; Search terms - 'Nurse academics, Australian, regional university campus, lived experience & multi-campuses'; Process - first 10 pages showing results for each search were examined based on titles & relevant abstracts, an inclusion criterion (subjected to peer review & published in English between 1999 - 2015) was then applied to narrow the search, followed by review of the titles and abtsracts of the narrowest search; no restriction was placed on study design/geographical location; critical appraisal of the literature was undertaken using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP, 2013), a 10-item checklist to consider a paper's validity, results & trustworthiness (Krainovich-Miller, Haber, Yost & Jacobs, 2009); Final number of articles - 18 journal papers, 4 conference papers, 6 reports, 1 website (for supplementary information); Data extraction - followed an inductive strategy (generic themes identified across university sector & Australian regional sectors impacting the educational experiences on satellite campuses were identified from the literature).
Findings: 4 prominent themes - 1) challenges specific to regional satellite campuses; 2) student characteristics; 3) student experiences; 4) the academics' experiences; Theme 1: Challenges for regional satellite campuses - (Allison & Eversole, 2008; Croxon & Maginnis, 2007; Ebden, 2010; Fraser & Stott, 2015; Winchester & Sterk, 2006); Challenges identified: Ebden (2010) - generic programmes which failed to meet local needs, limited access to internet services & frequent technical failures with equipments for videoconferencing, varying staffing levels across campuses; Winchester & Sterk (2006) - imbalanced academic staff composition (mostly junior academics); Allison & Eversole (2008) - lack of status accorded to regional campuses (the term 'regional' provides implications of being 'second class')(p. 4), difficulties in recruitment & retention of staff, funding issues & low student numbers; Ellis et al (2010) - dispersal of regional populations resulting in low university participation rates cause HE centres to face 'diseconomies of scale' (p. 18), therefore often seen by main campuses as not being cost-effective; Fraser & Stott (2015) - governance arrangements between main campus & regional campus; Mills, Birks & Hegney (2010) - review of literature relating to status of rural nursing in Australia: identified need for 'support of rural undergraduate nurses in the rural workplace and the challenge of sustaining a rural health workforce in relation to the recruitment and retention of registered nurses' (p. 5); need for rural nurses to develop generalist skills, including 'interpersonal skills, management ability, knowledge of legal and ethical concepts, advanced clinical practice education and research' (p. 7); Theme 2: Satellite campus student characteristics - acknowledged by multiple sources to be different to their metropolitan peers (Bambrick, 2002; Croxon & Maginnis, 2007; DEST (Department of Education, Science and Training), 2006); higher concentrations of non-traditional students (low SES students, FinF students, mature-age females with family commitments, & students with low entrance scores/achieved entry via alternative pathway) in satellite campuses (Bambrick, 2002; Croxon & Maginnis, 2007; DEST (Department of Education, Science and Training), 2006); Bambrick (2002) - non-traditional students are often educationally disadvantaged, and require assistance from learning support; Croxon & Maginnis (2005) - reported on project with rural nursing students - learning needs of students were affected by diverse characteristics of the cohort, highlighting the need for targeted support; Alston & Kent (2003) - working long hours (reality for many low SES students) impact students' performance in their studies; Croxon & Maginnis (2007) - issues experienced by female students with families (if unsupported by partner who feels threatened with the educational achievements); Theme 3: Student experiences on a satellite campus ((Ballantyne, 2012; Ballantyne, Madden, & Todd, 2009; Bambrick, 2002; Croxon & Maginnis, 2007; Ellis et al., 2010; Todd & Ballantyne, 2007); Todd & Ballantyne (2007) - a commitment to studies, a desire to engage in dialogue & 'use versus them' competitiveness with main campus (p. 7); Ballantyne et al. (2009) - positive about studying at university & well-equipped to be successful, positive about relationship with academic staff, academically & socially invested in their university experience; Ballantyne (2012) - strong sense of ownership of the university, a desire to be a valued component of the university; Ebden (2010) & Ellis et al. (2010) - frustration among nursing students regarding outdated technological equipment; important factor in the experiences of both students & nurse academics - regional context; Theme 4: Academics' experiences at satellite campuses - no specific literature on the experiences of nurse academics on satellite campuses; limited literature on the experience of academics on satellite campuses (Dobos, 2011; Fallon, 2014; Smith, 2009); Smith (2009) - two major influences of academics' experiences: relationship with the main campus staff & impact of the local context, participants often felt isolated from main campus academics; Dobos (2011) - participants felt a 'sense of disconnection' and lacked a 'sense of belonging' from the main campus; participants described their relationship with the main campus as a 'master-slave' relationship (p. 8), where they felt unequal and unrecognised professionally. Discussion: The sense of rejection felt by Dobos' (2011) participants highlight the prevalence of 'horizontal violence' (bullying, blaming, dismissing, aggression & intimidation) experienced by nursing academics on satellite campuses (Davis, 2014); The challenges specific to regional satellite campuses also highlight the significance of the local context in influencing the experiences of regional nursing academics -Eg: Mills et al. (2010): nursing staff take on multiple roles in a small community (community member, healthcare consumer & the nurse), feel they have a 'high visibility with a lack of anonymity & a lack of privacy' (p. 11); Workload models employed in main campuses may also not be suitable for regional campuses due to varying availability of services & resources. Core argument: The academics & students in regional satellite campuses indeed have contrasting experiences to their metropolitan counterparts, highlighting the importance of considering the local context. Nursing academics in regional Australia should therefore be 'multi-skilled to not only address the heavy & diverse teaching workload & social inequity in service provision but also the horizontal violence they may be subject to' (p. 11).

Context: Landscape of higher education has changed under the hegemony of neoliberalism and re-oriented discourses of and widening access to and through HE away from social justice and towards economic imperatives. While much public money has been spent on WP initiatives, WP and neoliberalism have effected increased diversification and stratification in HE linked to discourses of excellence and quality. Despite the public money spent, under-representation of Free School Meals students in 'elite' institutions continues and the responsibility for WP programs has shifted away from a centralised model to the universities and colleges on to "a new professional body of WP professionals" (p. 108).
Aim: To "show that the level of power and authority of this professional body [WP professionals] is often tenuous and is implicated in gendered power relations and the politics of misrecognition" (p 108). And the consideration of "WP as an unstable project against a backdrop of aggressive neoliberal measures that place emphasis on competition and quality in relation to market-driven league tables [be]side the subjectivities, positions and experiences of those who engage in processes of decision-making, allocation of resources and development of WP strategies in English universities" (p 108).
Methodology: Feminist post-structuralist theoretical perspectives probe the "insidious workings of power and inequality across different higher education contexts, and to consider the politics of mis/recognition at play" (p 109) for WP policy and practice. Draws on small-scale study with WP managers and practitioners in 7 different institutions (detailed interviews + written reflections) to "shed light on the conceptual themes of identity, positioning, authority, representation and power)." (p. 116).
Core argument: "Gendered and classed subjectivities, as well as institutional status and location, have an important impact on the politics of representation of WP within institutions of higher education . . ." (p. 123). "Embedding WP across the institution through cross-boundary work [Whitchurch 2009], which mediates across discourses of quality and equality, is crucial in moving beyond neoliberal WP frameworks." (p. 123) "WP is a contested terrain of struggle over gendered positioning, representation, voice and authority, as well as material resources." (p. 123).

Context: NCSEHE-funded project. Works from understanding that reasonable adjustments can be made to enable participation of students with disabilities in higher education; however "these accommodations cannot themselves compromise the essential elements of a course that all students must meet" (p.2), especially with regard to inherent requirements that are designed to help identify what count as reasonable adjustments. Responds to dearth of research on "the prevalence, consistency and characteristics of inherent requirement statements across Australian institutions and fields of education" (p.2), particularly with regard to how students interact with them. Explores legislative, demographic and policy context, as well as exploring literature on students with disabilities in higher education. Authors refer to work of first author (Brett, 2014), who argued that increased participation of students with disabilities = clearly linked to disability legislations (especially the Disability Standards for Education 2004 (Cth)) - particularly Section 3.4. Discusses inherent requirements in context of regulation of higher education (e.g. TEQSA/ AQF), legislation such as Disability Standards for Education and professional accreditation. Particular focus on health throughout reviews
Aim: To analyse "the prevalence, accessibility, and form of inherent requirement statements within the Australian university sector" (p.2), with reference to examples from Curtin, Uni Melb and Western Sydney.
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Review of legislative, demographic and policy context, literature review, audit of existing inherent requirement statements (desktop audit/ analysis) for a "point_in_time sector_wide snapshot of inherent requirements statement practice" (p.3).
Findings:
Analysis = limited use of inherent requirement statements (From sample = 419 courses, 78 (only 18.6%) of courses audited) and substantial variation (terms used, length and nature of academic descriptors, which included, extent to which related to legislation, cross-referencing to other materials/documents, formats).
Implications = lack of cross-institutional coordination/ national direction, which "create information asymmetry" (p.3) which can disadvantage students - need to consider impact on equity and participation. Also, there are legal implications: "Differences in inherent requirement statements may influence the provision and denial of specific reasonable adjustments across the sector placing universities at heightened risk of complaint and litigation" (p.3)
Location of inherent requirement statements = 65% in course handbook or on school/ faculty website (35%)
65% = UG/ 35% = PG
Mostly found in health courses (46/180 health courses audited), then in Society & Culture (16/104 courses). None or only 1 found in Natural/Physical Sciences, IT, Hospitality, Mixed Field, Creative Arts, Agriculture, Engineering)
Only one statement of all 78 refers explicitly to professional standards of the field.
No case studies given
6 statements published by 2 universities refer to non-disabilities (i.e. diversity) requirements, albeit no explicit use of term diversity (see p.25): "Considering inclusion of people from diverse social, cultural and religious backgrounds, only 7 references to considerations of the student's social, cultural or religious background were found, and how reasonable adjustments can be made relating to these factors as well. However, we noted a tendency for such cultural inclusion statements to be paired with advice that adjustments cannot compromise the academic integrity of the course" (p.36 - see page for more examples)
Recommendations:
1) universities work together to better coordinate and improve consistency, transparency and clarity (across institutions and disciplines)
2) Stakeholders with responsibility for disabilities monitor inherent requirement statements
3) Further research needed on effects on students
4) "That universities ensure that descriptions of academic requirements and their use within processes of identifying reasonable adjustments are accessible to, and transparent for, students, and that these descriptions are consistent with the Higher Education Standards Framework and Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and Disability Standards for Education 2004 (Cth)" (p.4).
Core argument: More research needed
We found that under the skills and requirements category "Verbal and Non_Verbal" there was a common emphasis in inherent requirement statements on a student's capacity to understand and respond, to have effective English for communication and safety, to appreciate instructions and feedback, and to recognise non_verbal as well as verbal communication" (p.39)

Context: Burnout at work and in studies in disciplines of nursing, psychology, occupational therapy and social work who were followed from last year of university into 2nd year of work. Mental health/ burnout in university students = growing concern. Burnout definition = borrowed from Maslach, Jackson & Leiter (1996): a psychological syndrome related to prolonged stressors at work and characterised by three components exhaustion, cynicism and low professional efficacy (not a quote from Maslach et al.; on p.115, my highlighting). The disciplines studied also require working placements, which are likely to increase the stressors that lead to burnout. In medical students, burnout has correlated with negative effects, including lower exam
scores, erosion of moral behaviour and sub-optimal patient care, plus suicidal thoughts, less use of research knowledge in practice (see p.116). Gap in knowledge = little consideration of how study burnout relates to work burnout
Aim: To explore the transition from study to work, including exploring the impact of student burnout on work burnout (abstract); to explore whether burnout increases or decreases upon entering the workplace and whether the experience of student burnout impacts future work burnout, even when controlling for personality and mental health (p.116). Authors set out three hypotheses:
H1a. Exhaustion will be higher in the workplace (T2 and T3) than in study (T1).
H1b. Cynicism will be higher in the workplace (T2 and T3) than in study (T1).
H1c. Professional efficacy will be lower in the workplace (T2 and T3) than in study (T1) (p.116)
and
H2a. Student exhaustion (T1) will predict workplace exhaustion (T3) when controlling for neuroticism and mental health (T1).
H2b. Student cynicism (T1) will predict workplace cynicism (T3) when controlling for neuroticism and mental health (T1).
H2c. Student professional efficacy (T1) will predict workplace professional efficacy (T3) when controlling for neuroticism and mental health (T1) (p.117); and
H3a. Job demands and job resources (T2) will predict exhaustion (T3) when controlling for neuroticism, mental health and student exhaustion (T1)
H3b. Job demands and job resources (T2) will predict cynicism (T3) when controlling for neuroticism, mental health and student cynicism (T1).
H3c. Job demands and job resources (T2) will predict professional efficacy (T3) when controlling for neuroticism, mental health and student efficacy (T1) (p.1178).
Theoretical/ analytical frame:
1) Masslach Burnout Inventory
2) Conservation of resources (COR) theory = burnout happens because of inadequate resources, and when burnout happens as student, workers are less likely to cope with workplace demands;
3) Job Demands and Resources (JDR) theory = demands/ resources of job can predict burnout.
Methodology: Quantitative: online survey (including measures of exhaustion, cynicism, professional efficacy, mental health, neuroticism, study/job demands and resources) at 3 points across the data collection period (once every 3 years). Data controlled for using measures of neuroticism and mental health. Participants = 260 for T1, 86 for T2 (first year in work), and 57 in T3 (working) see p.1189 for detail
Findings: Burnout = higher rate in final year of study than in first year of work
Over half of students had high levels of burnout (52%)
Exhaustion and cynicism during the final year of study both predicted additional variance in corresponding exhaustion and cynicism in the third year in the workplace (p.125) = supporting existing finding (Dahlin et al. 2010) that study burnout predicts work burnout.
Core argument: Important to explore student/ study burnout because of relationship with work burnout

Context: Set within a research context supporting Martin Lohfink and Paulsen's (2005) argument that the experience of participating in post-secondary education is "a particularly formidable task for first- generation students ... [as they do not have access to] the intergenerational benefits of information about college" (p. 409).
Aim: To report on a study that explored 'the differences between expectations of first-in-family (FinF) students and students who have immediate family members' who have not attended university prior to them (p. 91).
Theoretical frame: Cultural capital (Bordieu, 1991) - 'related to cultural acquisitions and reflects the way in which knowledge, skills and qualifications are valued' (p. 92), with an emphasis on 'the ability to embody and reproduce culture as part of a personal style' (p. 92).
Methodology: Mixed-methods approach; Data collection methods: Surveys (with close- and open-ended questions); Document analysis - Australian University Alliance websites & Institutional Student Equity Performance Data 2007 (DEEWR, 2007); Participants: FinF students (first-year) (n=3091, 15% response rate) from three South Australian universities - University of Adelaide (UofA -52%), University of South Australia (UniSA -21%), Flinders University (Flinders -27%), all members of different alliances with the Australian university sector - UofA [Group of Eight], UniSA [Australian Technology Network], Flinders [Innovative Research Universities]; Sampling strategy: Self-identified participants; Data analysis: Survey data - SPSS v17 (descriptive data) & comparative analysis (using Chi-square/Anova), open-ended questions - thematic analysis, website data - explored using Bourdieu's (1992) concepts of 'game, field and capital' (p. 94).
Findings: 1)Factors influencing expectations of university: FinF students - heavy reliance on school counsellors & teachers, university recruiting materials & websites; Non FinF students - more reliance on parents, friends & siblings (parents: t=2.3, df=3,082, p<.01 d=.08; siblings: t=11.0, df=3,082, p<.001, d=.39; friends: t=3.3,
df=3,082, p<.001, d=.11); 2)Decision to enrol in university - FinF students more likely to make decisions closer towards the end of high school or after gaining some work experience compared to non FinF students; 3)Geographical location - FinF students more likely to enrol from rural backgrounds (Chi-square=18.5, df=1, p<0.001, __=.155), 48% of rural students identified in study were FinF to attend university; 4) Age - FinF student were 'slightly older' (22.06 years) (p. 94) than non FinF students (21.37) [however difference is minimal]; 5)University enrolment - FinF students were more likely to enroll in Flinders or UniSA than UofA (46% of FinF students in Flinders & UniSA, compared to 37% of students at UoA); 6)Subject enrolment - FinF students more often enrolled in education, economics & science, while non FinF students more frequently enrolled in law, medicine/dentistry & engineering.
Discussion: From conference presentation - High level of interest on the impact of cultural capital on students' university choices & selected degree programs; significant point of discussion: 'FinF students do not lack cultural capital per se, rather they have a "different" cultural capital and that the onus should be on the university sector to change in order to recognise and value this cultural capital' (p. 95).
Core argument: FinF students offer 'new forms of knowledge and ways of knowing that interact and challenge current dominant understandings & may provide us with opportunities to generate new ways of perceiving and understanding our physical and social world' (Gale, 2011) (p. 95). The university sector should therefore develop an enhanced understanding of the capital FinF students bring, to ensure that university experiences facilitate the success of all students, including an expanding cohort of FinF students.