Higher Education Equity Literature Database

Context: Higher education (Western in particular) 2 Neoliberal higher education = corporate time (see Giroux); yet, students persevere. Common understandings of time = based on astrological/physical time. Sociologists have explored the social notion of time; Lewis & Weigert (1981) suggest that time embeddedness (and its tightness) is gendered and classed - they argued that time = embedded, stratified and synchronized; "That is, social times are embedded within larger social life and facts, stratified by one's social role as a free individual, a follower of the state, and an agent of a social institution, and synchronized with the irreducible collectiveness of social order" (p.122). Moreover, Ylijoki and Mantyla's (2003) study of academics' understandings of social time identified four core time perspectives: scheduled time, timeless time (aka meanings of time), contracted time, personal time (aka ownership of time; see p.122)
Aim: To explore university students' social meanings of time
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Field observations, photography and interviews at a Midwestern university
Findings: Authors created an a-priori typology of six theoretically informed and empirically observable categories of time - scheduled time, compressed time, timeless time, endless time, wasted time, and time as goal. Categories = relationally linked by subjective time and physical time (see p.126). Categories can be embedded and can overlap.
- Scheduled time = "is about one's sense of time in the face of externally imposed structure such as enforced deadlines, stipulated hours, and preset agenda" (p.124)
- Timeless time = "about the loss of significance of physical time when one is immersed entirely in the task or activity at hand" (p.124) = in a liminal state
- Endless time = similar to timeless time but with limited relevance to astrological time; "endless time involves no personal internal immersion in an activity but some kind of external requirement", defined in corporate time - aka goes beyond 24/7 (see p.125)
- Compressed time = urgency; when "tasks are incomplete by (or near) the end of a stipulated time point or deadline" (p.125)
- Wasted time = "The normative base for wasted time due to waiting relates to one's (lack of) power, reflecting the scarcity of the goods and skills one possesses, and can be characterized by the relationship between a server and client in terms of organized dependency defined by power (Schwartz, 1974; see p.125)
- Time as goal = pursued objective is to shrink (or lengthen) the time spent on a given task (p.125).
Core argument: Life for the participants runs on clock time - better understood as corporate time. All kinds of time are always embedded within a larger framework of scheduled time

Context: Discusses social inclusion/ WP agenda - LSES students - addressing notion that both students and universities are in deficit
Theoretical frame: Bourdieu's habitus, cultural capital
Methodology: Essay
Discussion points: Notes the different understandings/ practices that HSES students bring with them to the academy: "Students from educationally well-resourced backgrounds naturally bring with them a bank of knowledge, an understanding of etiquette and self-confidence that they belong within a university and will successfully manage it" (p.307). Notes that literacies in particular are "mysterious" to many students, particularly LSES and 'other educationally disadvantaged backgrounds' (p.307).
Two sets of deficits (according to Devlin, 2011): students lacking or universities lacking ("are obliged to work harder to better meet [students'] needs" (p.309)) - but points to Go8 argument that standards will slip if students with lower entrance scores are 'let in'. Conflation of school entrance marks and ability is "at best naive" and a clear example of Bourdieu's misrecognition of role schools play in reproduction (p.309). Draws on Archer's (2007) classification of 'gold', 'silver' and 'bronze' universities (with bronze 'carrying most of the load' in terms of LSES students)
Core argument: "Universities were not designed for LSES students, but their opposite, and they perpetuate a comprehensive suite of discourses, manners, literacies, expectations and behavioural norms which unsurprisingly work to the benefit of the middle and upper classes" (p.307). Some universities [probably 'gold' but not made explicit] "appear to be using the discourses of social inclusion and offering greater ease of entry for 'diverse' students whilst not necessarily altering their teaching and learning practices" (p.310). 'Gold' universities need to do more unless they seek to preserve 3-tiered sector (which is essentially the opposite of social inclusivity)

Context: Academic capitalism has been theorized and empirically detailed as a new knowledge/learning regime in Slaughter & Rhoades' (2004) Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State and Higher Education.. However, students' roles were examined 'primarily as educational consumers rather than as students engaging the (in)formal curricula and as academic entrepreneurs' (p. 638).
Aim: To 'extend and modify the academic capitalist framework by theorizing and empirically developing the instructional dimension of the academic capitalism knowledge/learning regime, examining the new roles institutions are supporting for students educationally as entrepreneurs' (p. 638). RQs: 1. Do student entrepreneurship and associated market transactions reflect shifts in the boundaries among public, non-profit, and for- profit organizations, and if so, do universities aggressively pursue ownership of students' products? 2. Do student entrepreneurs intersect new circuits of knowledge that connect curricula and classroom experience to the market? 3. Does the entrepreneurial learning environment of the academic capitalist knowledge/learning regime promote the role of the state- sponsored student entrepreneur, and if so, how and with what implications for the student/faculty relationship?
Theoretical frame: Academic capitalism (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004).
Methodology: Case studies of two universities (University of Iowa (UI - large, selective, very high research activity) & University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP - moderate-sized, less selective, high research activity); Sampling strategy: Purposeful sampling; Guiding criteria for selection: '(a) the presence of a formalized, institutionally recognized entrepreneurship education center; and (b) the existence of or intended goal of establishing an entrepreneurial incubator accessible to students' (p. 645); Case 1: Covers undergraduate & graduate levels at UI: 'centers on the commercialization of bioinformatics software by students who worked as undergraduate assistants in the laboratory where the research supporting the software was conducted' (p. 646); software developed - Bio:Neos; Case 2: At graduate level (at UTEP):' involves the discovery of marketable, sustainable, and eco-friendly pigment' (p. 646); Resulting venture - Mayan Pigments, Inc; Data collection methods: Semi-structured interviews (n=28); Document analysis - 'documents specific to each university's entrepreneurship education model and curricular structure as well as institutional policies regarding market behaviors' (p. 647); Data analysis: Employed a structured coding framework (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
Findings: Case 1: Bio::Neos at the University of Iowa - Bio::Neos is a student-founded company born out of the UI's Coordinated Center for Computational Genomics (CLCG); created by three former undergraduate engineering students who had completed or were near completing master's degrees in electrical and computer engineering (all share equal positions in the venture); three students were first exposed to the scientific knowledge used in developing the software as undergraduate laboratory assistants in the CLCG; three faculty members have undisclosed amounts of equity in Bio::Neos; company contract is not available for public viewing. Q1: Shifting boundaries & market transactions - knowledge used in the creation of the company's software stemmed from the graduate thesis of one of the students (idea gained from experience as an undergraduate lab assistant); based on university policy - the university does not take a copyright on any information or materials related to student work required for the completion of a degree; 'Student rights to ownership of intellectual property linked to formal education as clarified through official university policy contributed to the student's capacity to act as a state-sponsored entrepreneur' (p. 649); However, despite apparent clarity of preceding UI policy, the student's initial exposure to the knowledge leading to his thesis while employed as a university research assistant complicates the ownership of the intellectual property linked to the software -, a case claiming the student work as "work-for-hire" could have been made (p. 649); Benefits for UI: No direct benefits, but several indirect benefits - a) market successes of state-sponsored student entrepreneurs contribute to a pro- business institutional climate, which is always important to regional industries and employers b) UI can claim a contribution to regional economic development and use the contribution to leverage state legislative support. c) entrepreneurial success plays a part in attracting possible donor support d) the entrepreneurial activities of students open possibilities for recruiting other like-minded students.; Q2: New circuits of knowledge - Bio::Neos is a new circuit of knowledge that is highly representative of the academic capitalist knowledge/learning regime in the new economy; the establishment of Bio::Neos and the commercialization of its software involved a "rewiring" of the university for such activity; The UI entrepreneurship education center played an essential role in the commercialization of the Bio::Neos software; Key private funders of UI entrepreneurship education center - John Pappajohn & Tom Bedell; The center provided the Bio::Neos students access to its entrepreneurial incubator under the agreement that at least one student from the team enrol and complete an entrepreneurship studies course, which benefited the center and university by producing student credit hours and tuition dollars; Bio::Neos students operated within a complex organizational environment constructed around internal and external networks and newly created knowledge circuits and supported by an amalgamation of public, not-for-profit, and for-profit individuals and groups; partitions separating public and private sectors were replaced with a structure that explicitly intersected the public university with those private markets, creating a 'fluid environment' (p. 652) that can produce and distribute subsidies to student entrepreneurs; Q3: Entrepreneurial learning environment - The Bio::Neos students were engaged in traditional curriculum centered on engineering principles and knowledge, but the curriculum also included intellectual property & other market-oriented topics; integration of entrepreneurial principles into the UI engineering curriculum was 'explicit and apparent' to students (p. 653); Bio::Neos students received formal training in the area of entrepreneurship that was beyond what was included in their engineering coursework; Examples of the course topics offered to students through the entrepreneurship center included 'technology applications for the entrepreneur, entrepreneurial marketing, strategic management of technology and innovation, entrepreneurial consulting, and advance business planning' (p. 653); entrepreneurial learning environment at UI has promoted the emergence of state-sponsored student entrepreneurs in a variety of ways - Bio::Neos - students were encouraged to be entrepreneurial by the faculty overseeing their past work within the research laboratory as undergraduate assistants; Overall conclusion- this case marks the emergence of a new role for students: 'university-sponsored student entrepreneur'. Case 2: Mayan Pigments, Inc. at UTEP - The Materials Research and Technology Institute (MRTI) at UTEP is an organization designed to create employment opportunities for UTEP graduates, develop intellectual property for the institute and university; The institute has developed collaborations with 8 research universities in the United States and 20 Mexican institutions; Mayan Pigments, Inc. is the first spin-off company to originate out of the MRTI and the university as a whole - centers on the pigment technology of ancient Mayan peoples, which was recently rediscovered within the labs of the MRTI; An MRTI graduate student (completed doctoral studies in materials science and engineering) played a primary role in the scientific discovery of the now patented pigment and the commercialisation of the product through the creation Mayan Pigments, Inc; The student is currently the co-owner and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Mayan Pigments, Inc; Faculty member who introduced the pigment to her is a co-owner; Q2: Shifting boundaries and market transactions - Both faculty member and graduate student researching the Mayan pigment determined the technology had significant market potential; the university will 'retain a 5% equity holding in the company if and when it becomes a publicly traded firm' (p. 656), pursuing a minimal financial profit; Q3: New circuits of knowledge: Being UTEP's first start-up company, Mayan Pigments, Inc. constitutes a 'new circuit of knowledge creation for the university' (p. 656); co-founders of the company received consultation from entrepreneurial experts, including students, within UTEP's well-established and rapidly expanding entrepreneurship education center- The Centers for Entrepreneurial Development, Advancement, Research, and Support (CEDARS) (comprised of nine programs and initiatives); The Kauffman funding has stimulated cross-disciplinary faculty participation in entrepreneurship education; company founders also received support from other interstitial units at UTEP; Q3: Entrepreneurial learning environment - The Mayan Pigments, Inc. case unfolded as a 'classic teaching-learning exchange' (p. 657); new step - faculty member offering a suggestion about commercializing the knowledge, which the student acted upon, in class; The MRTI was complemented by local, state, and federal government initiatives aimed at revitalizing the El Paso metroplex (see Mars, 2006); organizational initiatives and the administrators and business leaders associated with them provided an entrepreneurial learning environment that instructed faculty and students about the viability of commercial ventures linked to scientific knowledge and discovery; the informal but explicit lesson learned by the student was to approach research not just with curiosity but from an entrepreneurial standpoint of translating scientific inquiry into commercial endeavour.
Discussion: 1) Both cases indicate the 'emergence of a new student role - 'state-sponsored entrepreneur', which is consistent with & possible due to the 'development of an academic capitalist knowledge/learning regime that collapses the boundaries between public & private sectors and that constructs an organizational infrastructure for developing & pursuing new circuits of knowledge creation' (pp. 658 -659). The findings modify & extend the academic capitalist framework in the following ways: a) the cases 'recast students as potential entrepreneurs, active agents, and beneficiaries of academic capitalism, not simply as its commodities and/or victims' (p. 659); b) the cases suggest that 'at least in the early stages of promoting student entrepreneurship, universities are not aggressively pursuing their ownership claims to the property being created' (p. 659); c) the cases point towards 'examples of distinctive circuitry that involves external players promoting entrepreneurship's benefits more widely within the academy and some universities and units promoting more locally and even public good oriented commercial ventures'(p. 659); d) the cases enable identification of 'entrepreneurial learning environments that at least in some places are emerging within universities in ways that redefine the faculty/student relationship to include a dimension of entrepreneurial partners' (p. 659).
Core argument: 'The exploration of the emergent role of the state-sponsored student entrepreneur introduces a new dimension to the academic capitalist knowledge/learning regime: The position of the student as active agent of academic capitalism challenges Slaughter and Rhoades' (2004) view that students are marginalized within the capitalist academy. Consistent with the depiction of the traditional entrepreneur (Bygrave & Minniti, 2000, Drucker, 1993; Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001; Minniti & Bygrave, 1999; Shane & Venkataraman, 2000), the state-sponsored student entrepreneur recognizes and leverages the entrepreneurial environments, infrastructures, and resources of their university to their private, commercial advantage' (p. 664).

Context: The notion of the students as consumers (SAC) in England has recently been emphasised due to significant changes in HE funding: Students are now responsible for up to GBP9000 (triple the previous fees) annually for their tuition, and the government protects students under the Consumer Rights Act (2015). However, the effect of this change on student approaches to HE and effects on academic performance has received 'limited empirical attention' (p. 12) (Tomlinson, 2014).
Aim: To examine 'the predictive role of traditional factors (learner identity and grade goal) upon academic performance and potential predictors of consumer orientation (fee responsibility and subject studied) whilst concurrently looking at the mediating role of consumer orientation on academic performance' (p. 12).
Theoretical frame: Not specified in study. Key concepts: Learner identity - 'a broad set of attitudes and behaviours associated with intellectual engagement, approach to learning and identification with the social category, 'learner'' (p. 4); in study - 'a composite measure that took into account studying attitudes and behaviours including attending class, reading relevant sources, making an effort to study, self-identifying as a learner, enjoying learning, and the importance of being at university to learn' (p. 5); Grade goal - in current study: 'assessed by asking students to indicate the final degree classification with which they hoped to graduate. In line with the above research, we predicted that a higher grade goal would be associated with a higher level of academic performance' (p. 5).
Methodology: Large scale survey which assessed students' agreement/disagreement with statements evaluating consumer and learner orientations on a 7 point Likert-type scale (0=strongly disagree, 3=neutral, 6=strongly agree); Survey statements - adapted from Saunders (2014); 15 consumer statements & 20 learner statements; Participants: Undergraduates from a total of 35 universities in England (n=608); 81.4 % female (n=495) & 17.8 % (n=108) male; 0.3% transgender (n=2); and 0.3% who preferred not to answer (n=2); White majority (92% / n=558); Data analysis - mediation analysis to explore if consumer orientation mediated effects of learner identity, grade goal, fee responsibility & subject on academic performance; preliminary analyses to determine additional variables to include in model.
Findings: 1) General findings: No difference observed in consumer orientation for three variables: Work (being in paid employment or not), Year of Study (Year 1 or other) and Gender (female or other); Significant effects on consumer orientation observed for four variables: Extracurricular Involvement, Course Credit, Volunteering, and Age; a higher consumer orientation was evident among (a) students who did not have an extracurricular role (M = 2.59, SD = 0.81) compared to those who did (M = 2.38, SD = 0.93, t(606) = _2.715, p<.007); (b) students who received course credit (M=2.68, SD=0.81) compared to those who did not (M = 2.46, SD = 0.86, t(606) = 2.929, p < .004); (c) students who did not work as a volunteer (M = 2.57, SD = 0.84) compared to those who did (M=2.35, SD=0.86, t(606)=_2.558, p<.01) and (d) younger students (M= 2.25, SD = 0.91) compared to mature students (M = 2.58, SD = 0.83, t(606) = _3.347, p < .001). Therefore these four variables were entered as covariates in the analysis; 10 variables were included in the final model. The outcome variable was academic performance and the mediator was consumer orientation, both of which were measured on an interval scale. There were four predictors. The first was learner identity, which was measured on an interval scale. The other three predictors were categorical: Fee responsibility (1 = responsible, 0 = not responsible), grade goal (1 = first class, 0 = other), and subject type (1 = STEM, 0 = non-STEM); 2) Mediation of consumer orientation: A negative relationship was observed between consumer orientation and academic performance (higher consumer orientation was associated with lower academic performance); all predictors had a significant direct effect on consumer orientation; Learner identity had a negative association with consumer orientation (a lower learner identity was associated with a higher consumer orientation); grade goal, fee responsibility and subject were positively associated with consumer orientation (a first class grade goal, being responsible for paying fees, and studying a STEM subject were associated with a higher consumer orientation); direct effects on the predictors of academic performance - learner identity & grade goal were significant positive predictors of academic performance; indirect effects - consumer orientation was a significant mediator of all relationships between predictors & academic performance; contrary to predictions of authors - total indirect effect remained positive, although significantly reduced, suggesting that consumer orientation partially accounts for positive association between learner identity & recent academic performance.
Discussion: 1) Direct effects on consumer orientation - the effect of learner identity on consumer orientation supported the authors' hypothesis (a lower learner identity was associated with a higher consumer orientation); grade goal was positively associated with consumer orientation (a higher grade goal was related to a higher consumer orientation); fee responsibility & subject were also positively associated with consumer orientation. 2) Mediating role of consumer orientation on academic performance - consumer orientation was a significant mediator of all relationships between the predictors & academic performance; consumer orientation is partially responsible for the positive association between learner identity & recent academic performance; learner identity might 'compete' with consumer orientation (p. 14); there is also evidence of the mediating link of consumer orientation between grade goal & academic performance (a higher grade goal was associated with lower academic performance when consumer orientation was taken into account); evidence of consumer orientation as mediator for the link between fee responsibility & academic performance; evidence of significant mediating effect of consumer orientation on the relationship between subject & academic performance (studying STEM was related to a higher level of consumer orientation which caused poorer academic performance). Implications: 1)Universities should initiate a dialogue about the SAC approach & its consequences with students 2) Governments and universities should not conceptualise students as consumers in the first place 3)Universities should not implement changes based on feedback from students with a higher consumer orientation without thinking.
Core argument: 'The significant paths between learner identity, grade goal, fee responsibility, and subject underscore the need for further research to give direct attention to the SAC approach in HE to help mitigate its negative effects on academic performance' (p. 17).

Context: Asks what (greater) equity and quality mean in education - based on notion that their slipperiness in discourse and policy render them as 'sublime objects' that are base desires reflected in objects (Freudian notion, related in his work to sexual desire represented in art): "function as sites for the investment of desire, while simultaneously covering over and compensating for the ultimate impossibility of a complete and harmonious society" (p.584, abstract). As such, they hold ideological force through their opaqueness. Quality = synonymous with excellence. Who could possibly argue against more quality and more equity? Examines equity and quality in context of policy as 'joined up' (between related areas, local-trans-national trends) and imaginary dimensions of policy (Castoriadis, 1997). Reconstitution of education reflects economic concerns (knowledge economy/ competition) and political concerns (sustaining democratic ideals) and the disconnect (contradiction) between notion of 'winners and losers' and democratic open access, participation
Aim:
Theoretical frame: Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and theory of the sublime: "as things that are at once elevated and elusive, as untouchable objects of inestimable value that serve as ultimate horizons, fascinating and capturing us as ' policy subjects'", which are constantly under threat (p.585); Butler & Laclau (2004)'s argument that naming (policy) = hegemonic and empty because of 'transient stabilizations' (p.344; on p.585)
Methodology: Essay
Findings: Contradictory alignment of equity and quality/excellence = sublime (desires reflected in policy); impossible to achieve because the two together "posits a ' fantasmatically' complete and harmonious world... in which the tensions between equity and a quality agenda premised on notions of choice and accountability are occluded" (p.587).
Quality = vague: who sets the criteria for what counts as quality? Who is served by these constructions (see Biesta, 2010; p.588) - quality = typically constructed as improvements in test scores and measured against others (students, institutions, states, nations), leading to "largely utilitarian" views of education (p.589); "quality becomes a sublime object, as the constitutive uncertainties and ambiguities in knowledge and education are sacrificed to the desire for certainty and self-contained totality" (p.589). Issue 1: relationship between means and ends (assumption these can be separated; mutually constitutive relationships can be ignored) - teaching to the test. Issue 2 = blindness/ ignorance of exclusions and silences = all curricula choices mean that there were possibilities not chosen which signify a hierarchy of significance; thus privileging standardized tests means that time and resources are concentrated on those activities and thus are not spent elsewhere. Issue 3: quality education is premised on notion of scarcity = not all education can be 'quality' in a hierarchy. Tests are designed to be failed. Therefore, notions of quality centred on testing = "high-stakes testing programmes, are in effect technologies for ' devising inequality' (p.590). Policy as numbers approach (Lingard, 2007) = commodification of education.
Equity = no single accepted definition (Espinoza, 2007); generally connected to social justice/ fairness and often used (problematically) as interchangeable with equality. Explores OECD report 'Quality and equity in education' = equity = inclusion and fairness. No Child Left Behind (US/Bush policy which had punitive measures to ensure 'fairness' and equality' serves as reminder that "equity functions as a sublime object of desire, in this case a desire on the part of policy-makers for all to succeed, as part of a fantasmatic vision of an inclusive society" (p.592). Argues that equity policies (in context of increased neoliberal operations) = "rethought within the calculative frames of competitive individualism" (p.593), so that equity becomes commensurate with access (and thus amenable to 'policy as numbers' approach)
Core argument: Both quality and equity = problematic notions - complex and heavy with political contestations: "both discourses of quality and of equity are premised on a fundamental lack, on the inadequate provision of each entity in contemporary education" (p.594). Quality and equity = sublime objects, which "sustain their emptiness, while simultaneously promising fullness, by being linked to more concrete1 signifiers (Glynos, 2001 , p. 198), like ' tests' , ' results' , ' scores' , ' achievement' or ' evidence'" (p.595)

Context: Characterisation of undergraduate experiences and outcomes by gender distinction i.e. the pursuit of different subject fields, different pay rates, vocal class participation, lecturers perceptions of writing ability and confidence. While the masculinist culture of academe in general has been well established (Acker and Piper 1984; Harding 1990, 1991; Leathwood and Read 2009), new concern grows over "the lower numbers of male students that achieve a 'good' degree (HEPI 2009; Woodfield 2011)" (2). All this suggests that gender matters in university experience, however, "Various researchers have demonstrated that young people increasingly reject the salience of structural identity variables such as gender, 'race' and class in their experiences" (2). Students seem to instead understand their experiences in terms of individuality and personal choice. This has resulted in both the scrutiny of the neoliberal sociopolitical environment that generates these individualised discourses (e.g. Rose 1999; Walkerdine 2003) as well as serious engagement with this new, 'super-diverse' terrain in which 'old' structural indicators are less salient to social identities (Rampton 1995, 2005; Vertovec 2007, 2009; Cousin 2012). There have also been calls "to develop alternative theoretical accounts which can simultaneously (a) articulate the profound diversity in human interaction that defies and subverts structural boundaries and (b) address how power, experiences and outcomes continue to be unequally distributed and patterned according to structural factors. In the case of gender, this demands alternative conceptualisations of gender that avoid essentialism while acknowledging the impact of the body, and social structures, in gender production" (2).
Aim: To investigate "the responses of undergraduate students concerning the impact or otherwise of structural identities in their experiences of higher education" with specific attention to the impact of gender on their experiences and relations with other students, lecturers, etc. (3). To theorise these experiences and relational constructions "through the lens of 'gender monglossia' and 'gender heteroglossia'...to use these concepts in order to articulate:
(i) the initial rejection of the impact of gender by many of the undergraduate respondents;
(ii) the way that monoglossic accounts of gender distinction continued to underpin various responses and reported experiences and (iii)
(iii) the heteroglossic diversity characterising respondents' gender constructions" (4).
Theoretical frame: Francis's transposition (2008, 2010, 2012) of Mikhail Bakhtin's concepts of 'monoglossia' ("dominant forms of language, representing the perspective and interests of dominant social groups, which are promulgated as unitary and total") and 'heteroglossia' (the shifting, diverse and inherently dialogic nature of language and the resulting resistance and contradiction to monoglossia) onto gender. Ie. "dominant, binarised model of gender, wherein femininity and masculinity are linked directly to the dualist construction of sexed bodies as male and female (see Butler 1990), can be seen as monoglossic" and the "plasticity, multiplicity and inconsistency in individual subjects' performances and constructions of gender" that disrupt dominant monoglossic and binaristic understandings of gender can be seen as heteroglossic (3).
Methodology: Qualitative case study; semi-structured interviews with 64 undergraduate students, across six different disciplinary/subject areas (Creative Writing, Business/Computing, History/Classics, Philosophy, Dance and Sports Science) at one university. Additional quantitative data concerning student social profiles were also gathered.
Findings: Overwhelming rejection of the notion of differences in behaviours according to structural variables, and assertion of the primacy of the individual as the unit of difference; an emerging discourse of 'Them and Us' often articulated as "an impassioned denouncement of 'feckless' students, the injustice experienced by other students having to endure the 'bad behaviours' of these irresponsible peers, and an appeal for meritocracy in treatment" (5). However, structural difference would often "bubble up" gradually, with students acknowledging markers of social structure. Several discourses comprising traditional, stereotypical (monoglossic) constructions of women including "bitchy" and "diligent" or "compliant" (7) and men as "self-assured" and "self-confident" (10). However there were also articulations of gender heteroglossia, acknowledging "embodiments of couter-expression" and "individual rejection of the dominant narratives" (8). Lecturers were often understood within the "heroic discourse" (12) but with slightly different variations depending on gender (ie "brilliant" for male lecturers and "carers/mothers" for female lecturers).
Core argument: Sociologists must acknowledge the strong investment of students in constructions of equality of opportunity and individual agency and attend more closely to such possibilities in future research. "Academics need to be attuned to, and value, students' positive investments in discourses of equality of opportunity and agency...[but also] be mindful of the way in which gender discourses continue to map across such narratives, producing gender-distinct practices and inequalities" (14). Academics must be aware of the ways that "performances of gender manifest in student interaction and undergraduate work, and to work to mediate such trends...It may also be productive to open up opportunities for students themselves to critically reflect and debate on the salience of gender and other structural factors" (14).

Context: Timescapes/ temporal gaze in social theory: "A thorough-going temporal gaze is important because a) such reconceptualization forms an integral part of rethinking the social sciences' relationship to nature and environmental matters; b) the implications at the level of theory tend to be glossed over and ignored; and c) it is central to changing practice at the level of public and personal action" (abstract). Many social theorists evidently find it difficult to sustain the temporal gaze at the theoretical level. Adam critiques the adoption of 'natural time' in much of this work: "the neutral, decontextualized, empty time of calendars and clocks remains the unquestioned medium and the parameter within which socio-environmental activities are experienced, constructed, recounted, recorded and commodied" (p.126). 'Natural time' = by-product of industrialization (cites Ermarth, 1998). Adam argues that in socio-environmental theory, 'natural' notions of time persist (the "qualitative time of difference tended to be projected onto the social realm whilst the neutral, invariant, empty quantity, symbolized by the clock, designated the time of nature") but this is "quite unacceptable given that the quantitative medium is the social invention and tool for socio-environmental control and, equally pertinently, its invariable neutrality exists nowhere in nature where time is marked instead by rhythmic repetition of the similar, by seasons and by contextual patterns of growth and decay" (p.127). This, she argues, is due to dualism between social and nature being sustained
Aim: Argues for pertinence of timescape perspective for social theory (in context of GM food): "The challenge
for social theory as I see it is to expand the temporal gaze to depths and breadths that had so far fallen outside its field of vision, to touch the deep structure of social and institutional relations and thus to reach 'parts' and processes that other social theories can't reach" (p.127(.
Theoretical frame: Starts article with reference to Gidden's (1979) call to abandon reductive binaries (need to view time and space as a continuum).
Methodology: Essay
Findings: Discusses time in context of GM food debates of late 1990s/ early 2000. Makes case that artificially harnessing nature/ time of nature has happened for millennia: "Time, of course, is a central factor in the industrial definition of efficient production. When time is money then speed becomes of the essence since the faster something moves through the system the shorter the time capital is tied up in production and the lower the labour costs and interest payments involved" (p.129).
Adam poses questions about different framings of time:
1) 'Add-on clock time' = add questions about space and quantity to debate (adding clock time) = results in shift in emphasis; unsettles 'science' (asking for predictions that cannot be answered disrupts the certainty of science's [aka GM promoters'] promises)
2) Importance of context: acknowledging "an appreciation that time and space constitute an indivisible unity where space always implicates time and vice versa" (p.133-4) = aka taking an ecological approach.
3) Profile multidimensionality of time (p.136):

- Time frames = can be natural/cosmic; cycles; sociocultural
- Temporality = time in things, events, processes = unidirectional and irreversible (e.g. aging) and renewal, regeneration, evolution, creativity ('the time of change')
- Tempo = speed or intensity
- Timing and synchronisation
- All located in past-present-future continuum
- Duration-instantaneity continuum (degree of expansion along the time frame/ on the past-present-f I suggest you let go of this question future axis)
- Sequence, simultaneity, repetition = ways of following, concurrently happening, creating pattern or rhythm
- Rhythmic continuum - all things have beginnings and endings, pauses and transitional periods
4) Timescape perspective = temporal equivalent of landscape; "understands the relational recursive interplay between all its features and locates it in the hegemonic social relations of power and value that tend to set the ground-rules and parameters of socio-environmental debates" (p.137)
Core argument: "a timescape analysis is not concerned to establish what time is but what we do with it and how time enters our system of values" (p.137).

Context: 'The attitude-achievement gap' in students of colour/ marginalised groups; literature suggest that the aspiration to go to college is undermined by vague expectations, "suggesting that the goal of attending college is experienced as disconnected from their daily lives" (p.105). Author describes a 'higher education access initiative' in a high school (university outreach), which provides "exposure to college life through dual-credit coursework and shared activities on partnering campuses to make "college" a part of students' experiences grounded in the present" (p.105). Review of literature on poverty, stress and stigma with relation to educational aspirations. Author argues that literature suggests exposure to stresses associated with poverty impact on children's cognitive development and inhibit identity formation in adolescence. This is matched by teachers' attitudes/ beliefs about low-income students' abilities/ capabilities. However, teachers who are perceived caring = transformative + positive effect.
Early college high school = opportunity to earn college credit/ associate degree while at high school for first generation/ low-income students: "The overlap of high school and college matriculation is intended to ensure that high school course curricula meet the rigor required for college preparatory work, and to provide the incentives of a shorter time frame and lower expense in which to complete college" (p.107). Teachers = advisory approach
Aim:
Methodology: Qualitative study with 9th grade students (n=32) who were enrolled in the early college program at 'Decameron Academy' (DA), which is a public high school located on the grounds of a private university, and another school which was part of a broader study. 95% of DA students = African American; 60% = female; 75% qualified for free lunches. Students represented broad range of academic ability according to TerraNova assessment (see p.109-110). Interviews conducted with students (and with parents, teachers, higher education faculty and DA admin staff). Grounded theory = analytic approach
Findings: Three 'rudimentary' categories: (a) Past Experiences of School, (b) Experiences of Decameron Academy, and (c) Descriptions of Self and Learning.
Past Experiences of School: students described teachers as 'teaching for the paycheck' - with previous teachers more concerned with behaviour manangement - and having 'worksheet mentality', by which the students reported experiencing little learning that challenged them: "a focus on completion of short assignments disconnected from systematic, sequenced learning" (p.112). Therefore when they arrived in DA, students demonstrated high remediation needs, and underdeveloped study skills.
Experiences of DA: students described teachers in terms of going 'over and above', providing "an extraordinary level of academic support and encouragement" (p.113), with a "'roll-up-your-sleeves' demonstration of commitment" (p.113). Democratic engagement = facilitated by home visits by teachers, which was intended to subvert traditional power-modes of school-parent/family relations. The location of the academy on the university grounds (meaning that DA students ate alongside UG students) = seen as "most credible indicator of teachers' belief in [the students'] ability to attend college" (p.114).
Descriptions of Self and Learning: "the daily exposure to campus experienced in the context of a caring relationship with a teacher provided an opportunity to address the misconceptions reflected in a hope of attending college rather than an expectation" (p.116)
Core argument: The students at DA are supported to overcome and aspire through "the co-construction of a nontraditional, intense, and personalized relationship in which student and teacher embark on what is essentially a corrective experience of school, teacher, and education" (p.118).

Context: Draws on 'Degrees of Success' TLRP-funded project. Examines whether VET = 'successful' pathway into HE in the UK and examines effectiveness of policy (New Labour, third way, widening participation). Offers critique of neoliberal framing of education (self-marketers for flexible labour market) and the imagined VET-HE pathway (but doesn't necessarily play out as policy expects). VET qualifications = increasingly marketed as progression qualifications for HE
Aim: To examine the impact of prior educational attainment on students' transitions and pathways; to "analyse the distribution of students from different educational pathways across institutions and subjects" (p.142).
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Quantitative: draws on large-scale datasets (HESA 2003/4; UCAS applications dataset) + case studies of 5 HEIs (interviews with students - n=40 - from 3 subject areas. "The macro-level perspective of influences of student distribution across HE is thus combined with a student-level perspective on questions regarding institutional and subject choice" (p.140)
Findings: Distribution of students over institutions and subjects - decisions influenced by many factors
Detailed analysis of prior pathways of students in different types of HEIs (pre-1992, post-1992, other). VET-background and foundation and access students most likely to be in post-92 universities (75.6%, 71.4% respectively): "A partial explanation for this is that learners from VET backgrounds are tracked institutionally into less prestigious HEIs" (p.142)
Most common reason for choosing institution = location (same for all educational pathways). Second most common = perceived quality of institution + multiple reason combinations.
Location = highest factor for FE students; conversely, quality = least important for FE
Biggest differences in Medicine/ Dentistry and Veterinary Science (VET backgrounds students = 25 times less lower); VET students over-represented in Engineering and Technology, Business and Adminstration, Education, Combined Studies (by 1.5) and Creative Arts (by 2.4) and Agriculture/ Computer Science (by 4)
Decision making = highly individualised
Core argument: Data raises questions about redistributive logic of government policy for VET learners/articulants. No attempts to even out access have been successful because the "policy instruments underpinning these types of initiatives are too weak to achieve the desired system outcome" (p.150).

Context: Set in context of WP = increased participation of adult learners in HE - makes case that transition = relatively well researched but no so much for adult learners, who are "potentially more vulnerable to difficulties in the management of these transitions" (p.313)
Aim: To examine past experiences of adult learners (historical context) and current experiences in HE (present context) who were taking an access course; "to examine how adult students experience the transition to HE in terms of learning, participation in practices, and identity... to know about the extent to which they perceive themselves to have become participants in the community of HE, their thoughts on the practices which may serve to include and exclude them from participation, the ways in which they understand learning in the community, and reflections on participation, identity, and identity trajectories" (p.316)
Theoretical frame: Communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998; Lave, 1997): rather than individual activity, learning = "becomes a process distributed across person, time, place, and activity" (p.315) = pushes responsibility onto institution to attend to wider practices at play, as well as attending to students' prior experiences. Participation = "ontological imperative" (p.316)
Methodology: Qualitative: semi-structured interviews with 17 adults (12 = f, 5= m; aged 23-57) participating in alternative access course located in UK university (underpinned by epistemology = human beings = interpreters of own meaning). Data analysed using 'constant comparative technique' (see p.317)
Findings: Themes = informed by CoP theory
Peripheral participation: alternative/ adult access courses = by nature peripheral of mainstream = potential for contradiction (in uni but at arm's length) - physical location = set away from main campus (experienced as both a positive and negative by participants); unable to access central services (producing feelings of being 'lepers', see p.318) because not fully enrolled/ matriculated students of university
Learning by doing: students responded well to learning about studying at university through engagement with practices of HE (e.g. essay writing, note taking) = study skills (abstract, decontextualized) approach = not considered to be useful.
Preparation for undergraduate academic practices: developing independence and being 'eased in', learning a 'new language'. Authors note that language = key to learning in CoP and "talking about practices is not the same as talking within those practices" (p.322).
Belonging: most students experienced feeling of not belonging at first; perceptions/ expectations of 'who' a uni student is created sense of being 'outsiders'
Labelling and identity: some students wanted to take on the label of students (e.g. girl who preferred it to label of 'unemployed'; other girl who went to student bar, p.324) but brevity of course (2 hours a week) = prevented some from feeling like a 'proper' student. Age = significant
Core argument: Theory of CoP and peripheral participation = useful for understanding students' historical and current contexts as they transition into HE: "adults in this course were peripheral participants in the institution's HE community, that academic practices were an important part of their transition into HE and that learning of these occurred primarily through engagement in practice, and that identity changes were mediated by a sense of belonging" (p.326).
There is no shortcut to full participation in a community (p.327) - only happens through engagement in sociocultural practices

Context: Post-Bologna Process/ Portuguese higher education - one change in law = mature age students (23+ in Portuagal; 25+ in Spain) = special access (taking account of professional experience and other information). Thus = increased numbers of 'non-traditional' students. Within conceptualisations of tradition, authors argue that 'a traditional biography' exists and remains the norm. Moreover, globalisation "also contributes to a transition model centring on reflexivity, a mediating link between structure and agency" (p.68). Authors cite Ecclestone (2009), who argues that focusing on identity, structure and agency runs the risk of 'pathologising transitions' as risky, disruptive, fraught, as well as reifying 'the answer'
Aim: To "investigate the special circumstances of non-traditional students in our institutions and to provide recommendations that should improve their academic lives" (p.67). For Quinn (2010), transition is also a condition of our subjectivity (see p.69), making it an everyday phenomenon. Authors scope literature on mature students in HE (p,70-1). Describes Portuguese context on p.71
Theoretical frame: Alheit's (1995) vision of biographical learning and biographicity: "Biographicity means that
we can redesign the contours of life within specific familiar contexts and that we experience these contexts as malleable" (p.69). Draws on deep/surface approaches to learning in analysis.
Methodology: Survey (n=334; 60%m + 40%f; majority 46%=25-34 yo)/ focus groups/ life history and biographical interviews with students and staff (n=130 in total) across two universities in Portugal
Findings:
Decision to go to university = "a careful and rational decision taking into a count the family circumstances" (p.72) in the main. Gender = significant: "Usually it is the woman who waits until the 'right' conditions are achieved, although we have also cases of men in this situation" (p.72).
- Barrier 1: time management= balancing studies and life outside of university (family/ work) = meaning less time for study [compared to??]: "only 32 per cent committed to more than four hours per week, 14 per cent dedicated 3-4 hours, 19 per cent dedicated 2-3 hours, 19 per cent dedicated 1-2 hours and 16 per cent less than 1 hour" (p.73). Challenges resulting from time management = intensify according to distance to travel and children at home. Students = 'frustrated participants' in HE (see Bowl, 2001)
- Barrier 2: lack of self-confidence and preparedness (in Portugal mature students can apply whether they have completed high school or not): "Our data shows that only 46 per cent of mature students completed secondary education, 15 per cent did not complete the 12th grade, 24 per cent did not reach the 12th grade, 14 per cent completed the 9th grade but made no further, and one per cent did not reach the 9th grade" (p.73). 70% of participants reported they did not understand the content of their courses. Time away from formal education also presents barrier/ challenge to confidence levels. Authors argue the 70% figure must be understood as a failure of the system, not a failure of the individual.
- Barrier 3: guilt and 'double transitions' = while mature student experiences transitions, their children are experiencing their own transitions: "This transitional time requires more support from parents, thus feelings of guilt, despair and some family disorientation are always present in such cases, more often stressed by mothers than fathers during the focus group interviews" (p.74)
- Barrier 4: pedagogy and feedback, which was generally perceived as "unclear, deceptive and not contributing to their learning processes" (p.75).
- Factors that did not impact on transitions = discipline/ choice of degree, lack of motivation, lack of access to material resources and equipment.
- Factors that facilitate/ enable transition = relationships with other students (particularly inter-age groups); online platforms (Moodle) and social networking (Facebook)
Core argument: We need to challenge traditional views of transition (see Quinn, 2010): "We should look for the factors that influence transition away from well-defined linear events in time and space, and also
to consider that positive effects can arise from overcoming difficulties" (p.79). Impacts of transition flow to family

Context: Teacher-student relationships in higher education
Aims: To examine three 'uncomfortable teacherly moments' to "foreground the interrelatedness of what we know, how we know and who we are always becoming, with and through our entanglements with space, time and matter/bodies during the course of our daily teaching lives" (p.620).
Theoretical frame: Post-humanist: authors explore the tensions between the work of Sara Ahmed (cultural politics of emotion/ sociality of emotions/ emotions as performative) and Karen Barad (feminist new materialism/spacetimemattering): "interconnectedness of the socio-material-affective forces that are forever at work pre-configuring and re-configuring our histories, relationships, practices, identities and performances" (p.620). Authors argue that by bringing these two theories into dialogue, they can "explore the agency of the material-discursive- affective forces that are always already at work pre-configuring and re-configuring the relationships, practices and performances of the Higher Education classroom without getting side-tracked by nature/culture wars" (p.622; italics in original)
Methodology: Auto-reflective dialogue between uncomfortable teacher moments and three questions:
"'How does power get articulated, re-articulated and/or collapsed with and through such moments?' 'How do our biologies and biographies enmesh to pre-configure and re-configure our words, emotions, bodily productions, practices and identities?' and 'How is a diffractive analysis able to add to understandings around teacher-student relationships and encounters?'" (p.622).
Findings:
Example 1: student/ panic attack initiated by personal recognition of what author said in lecture, recounting problematic rural masculinities that she experienced in her youth. Student recognised what triggered the panic attack, which left author 'emotionally reeling' (p.624)
Example 2: author co-teaching on Indigenous course, discomfort = experienced by student who withdrew and was distressed (and who ordinarily contributed happily). Author = unsure of what to do (not wanting to make it worse for student); asked student if she was OK/ student replied that she felt she was being made to feel bad for being white. Author and student had discussion after class about white privilege and discomfort but left author feeling unsettled/ frustrated about her inability to address the issue in a more productive way. This left her feeling exhausted.
Example 3: Author recounts her response in a lecture on gender/ education to a question from a male student about essentialist assumptions about biological difference/ privileging of scientific knowledge over sociological knowledge, which reminded the author of the need to retain a safe space, but also reminded her of past injustices and derailed her feelings of satisfaction at being satisfied/ left her feeling underprepared for this question. All this left her feeling weighted down by the gendered issues at play.
Reflections on example 1 = emotional impacts of sharing and triggering trauma/ emotional outlet, resulting in author and student "re-inscribed through a congealing of shared histories and experiences bound up in rurality, masculine hegemony, female subjugation and an intensity of feelings" (p.624).
Reflections on example 2 = collision of identities/ values/ understandings, with student expecting recognition of her discomfort, but author taking an antiracist stance that rejected the premise of student's discomfort (but recognised where it had come from and why), creating 'agential cuts' (Barad, 2007); "wounds/agential cuts destabilise notions of the teaching academic as rational, reliable and remote from other objects and/or bodies through a reframing of teachers as affectively, historically, biologically and politically entangled in a process of always already becoming (Deleuze and Guattari 1983) with and through their encounters with other bodies - human and non-human" (p.624-5). Emotions have velocity move with speed.
Reflections on example 3 = exemplify Ahmed's contention that emotions have weightiness; in the example both the student's words and her own response = weighty and expose her vulnerabilities, weighed down by several possible responses. The one she chose led to silence, increasing the weight/ vulnerabilty
Core argument: Taking the approach they have, the authors have foregrounded the 'knotty work' of teaching in higher education, and as teachers (and their emotions) a constituent part of socio-material-affective phenomenon of teaching and learning: "Far from deligitimising and/or disregarding emotions as irrational, insignificant, unworthy of serious research and/or pathologically feminine, our posthumanist approach has allowed us to know them as agentic in the shaping and re-shaping of our gendered, classed and racialized performances" (p.629).

Context: Part time foundation degree in Sunderland College, UK: exploring student experience and employment while studying in broader 'area of concern' of attrition, especially for non-traditional students in context of WP. Employment commitments = one main reason for attrition. Non-traditional = defined as "non-traditional circumstances include a range of factors including economic status, age, gender, ethnicity, disability, marital and family status and geographical location, that prevent access to HE" (p.55) and many = hold 'non-traditional vocational qualifications' and are working class. Employability = large reason for choosing p/t foundation degrees in FE colleges. Author cites Tett (2004) = non-traditional students place themselves outside HE and construct HE as alien place. Foundation Degrees (FD) = 'arguably most successful' widening participation strategy between HE and FE = 'integrated education code' (Bernstein, 1971), democratic, reflexive curricula, practical content (vocationally focused): "FDs are the 'curricula of employers' gives currency to the traditional FD learner: they choose the FD, as they are known to have currency in the job market and to prepare them for work and career progression" (p.57).
Aim: "to develop an understanding of the personal and demographic characteristics of [FD students]" (p.57)
Methodology: Case study (Sunderland College, School of Leadership and Management). Survey instrument used to collect demographic information, course title, social class (problematized and discussed on p.58) and how much they worked. Survey piloted on 14 students (quality of scales checked using Cronbach's alpha test). In total, 92 students took part in main survey: 70% = female, aged 19-56 (average age 35), 70% = married, 65% = had children (37% more than one child). One third had not studied for a while; just over a quarter had recently studied. 83% = self-identified as working class
Findings:
Half = prioritised work (more likely for working class students)
46% = gave equal importance to work and study
5% = prioritised study
97% = stated that working = experience relevant to study
50% = working helps to organise time
Having money (less stress) = positive for studying
Working = travelling = more hours per week (average 31-40 per week)
Students who work long hours = more likely to be late for classes/ miss deadline/ not feel well prepared for assignments
43% students found it difficult to balance work and study commitments
33% had considered dropping out
2% had no help from family, friends or colleagues
Most positive = when employers are supportive
"FD students certainly do not readily signify the 'time-rich', traditional experience of student life with ample opportunities for reflecting on learning, reading widely around the subject or engaging in leisurely discussion with peers" (p.62)
Core argument: Foundation Degree students = significantly different reasons for studying: less prepared, less time than needed, less productive study time. Balancing work and study = positive and negative. Employer support = fundamental. Employers "should understand that learning involves socialisation or integration of the individual, social roles and rewards" (p.65). Institutions should develop better understandings and respond better to needs of part time working students (e.g., greater flexibility, consider timing of classes, availability of staff)

Context: Examines impact of peer assessment on student experience in enabling program. Introduction notes that 50% of enabling students failed to finish secondary school (Whannell, Whannell & Lynch, 2010) and that peer relations are important (Whannell, 2013). Examined impact of a peer assessment task that was embedded into two units: 1) = compulsory computer skills course; 2) optional humanities course - presented via Blackboard: "The tool enabled the anonymous peer review of online submissions by two peers and a self-assessment" (p.75) with 2 stages: submission of responses to questions covering weeks 1-5; 2) students evaluated two peer submissions and their own, using co-created rubric (between students and teacher) - see p.75.
Aim: "to examine the impact of this assessment approach on student social relationships and the overall assessment experience... [and] whether peer assessment provided a valid and reliable method of assessment at the tertiary bridging level and whether students were equipped to be able to engage with this form of assessment" (abstract)
Methodology: 107 students from 2 enabling programs (1 university) participated in a custom-designed questionnaire (45% response rate): 67% female; 54% finished high school. Questionnaire explored: task experience, feedback, peer relationships and process understanding using a Likert-scale
Findings: Students did not report a particularly positive orientation to any of 4 dimensions of questionnaire: "The mean for the overall task experience (=13.7) indicates that the participants did not view the peer assessment task with great enthusiasm" (p.80) and participants suggested reservations about reliability of peer assessment results (45.6% did not feel peers are qualified to assess other students' work). Authors note challenges to trial could have affected results: timing of trial (in first half of semester = work given to students who subsequently dropped out meaning some students did not get feedback - if done in-class, anonymity could not be guaranteed). Collaborative creation of assessment rubric = useful and helped students to 'understand assessment' (p. 84) - but this was not explored in questionnaire.

Context: Widening participation agenda in England; Further Education (FE) to higher education pathways; educational decision making of FE students; inequitable rates of throughput to university between Business Technology Education Council (BTEC) and Advanced-Level (A-level) qualifications (3.5% compared to 20.1% respectively, according to 2016 UCAS statistics). Reviews literature on students' decision making, particularly reasons for non-participation, and identifies gap: less interest in decision making of FE students; also cites Hoelscher's research, which shows FE students are under-represented in Russell Group universities. Themes in literature = use of information/ belonging/ finances
Aim: To develop "understand[ings of] the reasons, influences, experiences and enabling and constraining factors that informed further education (FE) students' HE decision making and choices" (abstract)
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Longitudinal narrative inquiry (interviews, focus groups, audio diaries) over 18-months with FE students (n=13) studying on BTEC and A-level courses at two FE colleges in northern England. Demographic information on p.5. Three of the 13 participants (all A-level students) were involved in university outreach programs
Findings:
Financial restrictions: students cited open days as financial burden, especially for Performing Arts students because it impacted on their ability to go to auditions (so they felt they had to choose which to travel to, based on what they could afford). A-level students had "numerous opportunities to establish familiarity with and make judgments about the suitability of the HEIs they were considering" (p.7). A-level student Erin (who was involved in WP outreach) was able to visit universities because the WP outreach scheme supported travel costs before submitting her UCAS application; Bessy (BTEC perfoming arts) had to rely on 'cold' knowledge, thus limiting her options.
For BTEC/ performing arts students, there is also the financial cost of auditions (45-50GBP per audition) + additional application fees + travel to auditions, which informed the decisions some of the students made (e.g. participant 'May', who discarded two of options on her UCAS application on the basis of limiting costs - see p.8). Other challenges were presented for performing arts students who couldn't pay for overnight accommodation and who instead travelled through the day, which impacted on their performance in the audition.
Feelings of belonging: students described not fitting in/ finding the course 'too academic' in RG universities (e.g. case of Sofia), leading to "feeling inadequate alongside applicants with A-Levels" (p.9 = academic/ vocational divide; "Sofia's account conveys how the overwhelming presence of applicants studying A-Levels, and the academic alienation she felt as a result, led her to feel that this environment existed outside of the boundaries of her academic and social space" (p.9). In contrast, participating in the WP outreach schemes appeared to facilitate sense of familiarity and belonging with RG universities - e.g. case of Noel). Both Sofia and Noel shared a lot of characteristics, but significantly they took different pathways (A-levels/ BTEC)
Core argument: WP outreach schemes should be available for BTEC students as well as A-level students. Immediate costs of university (aka travelling to open days) = different from longer-term 'debt aversion' associated with doing a degree, and needs more exploration to help understand students' decision-making

Context: Mature WP students in UK/ English HE. Scopes participation of mature age students in English HE, noting decrease since mid 90s (perhaps due to increase in student contribution to costs) and ineligibility of mature age students to access student loans
Aim: To explore how care-giving responsibilities mediate/ interact with mature students' experiences of higher education; to examine how care is recognised in HE policy.
Theoretical frame: Fenminist conceptualisations of care - important lens because of gendered division of care. Notes shifting paradigms in terms of how care has been understood: from 'exploitation paradigm' in 1970s (unpaid care, domestic servitude), to the 'ethical/moral paradigm' in the 1980s (celebrating women's capacity to care), 'sociological notion of care' (care as embedded in social relations and shaped by normative structures), 'paradigam of difference' in the 1990s (difference in terms of power, sites, contexts and strategies of care), and 'universalistic paradigm' (values and meanings in care/ caring/ citizenship) = all see Williams, 2001; on p.625. Daly & Lewis (2000): care as multidimensional concept: care as labour, care as social and relational, care as an activity with costs. Definition offered by authors: "a physical and emotional practice, involving a moral orientation which, though not rooted in essentialist gender differences, is located within gendered (and racialised) normative frameworks around obligations and responsibilities, particularly in relation to the family.
Moreover, care involves costs that are similarly multidimensional, encompassing financial, temporal, emotional, and identity elements" (p.625).
Methodology: Draws on 2 studies with WP students at Uni of Hull: 1) quant study: baseline data on characterstics and experiences of non-traditional students (under-represented areas, disabilities, mature, p/t) + comparison with 'traditional' students = random sample from institutional student records in Health Studies (n=1000). Second study = qualitative approach with 24 face-to-face interviews with current or former students (mature, disable, minority ethnic, p/t)
Findings: Quant study
49% WP students had caring responsibilities (mostly mature and female; 6% caring for an adult)
Qual study:
Lack of time and money = main obstacles, particularly cost on emotional part of caring role (especially for females/ mothers)
Balancing time = difficult for both f/t and p/t students; flexibility from staff/ institution = crucial
Student-carers need to know timetables well in advance to organise care schedules
Accessibility of courses/ services (geographically/ temporally) = significant
Cost of transport = problematic, meaning that many students minimised journeys on campus. Mature age students = more likely to travel further and less likely to walk (parking = issue)
For p/t students, isolation and feeling disconnected = problematic, with both p/t and f/t student-carers prioritising formal academic activities over other activities
Gendered nature of care = plays out at home, with students suggesting that they had to do 'second shift' at home (female partners of male students appeared to be more receptive to changing their lives to accommodate partner's studies)
Policy review: care-giving responsibilities were acknowledged (at time of publication) but with limitations. For example, Childcare grant could only be used with particular childcare (no formal recognition of informal childcare arrangements with family/ friends), and part-time students = ineligible, and it was means-tested. This kind of support = complex to claim and stigmatising. Flexibility suggested in 2003 White Paper did not acknowledge the challengs these suggestions would place on care-givers (e.g. compressed courses running through summer term/ school holidays). All jostle with New Labour's policies on 'work-life balance'. Changes proposed to increase student contributions = more risky for mature age students
Core argument: Care-giving responsibilities = significant in shaping experiences of HE. When staff/ institution offeres flexibility ("creative and compassionate thinking") to student-carers = has a "hugely positive impact upon their ability to study successfully" (p.633), but lacking =overarching systemic commitment to acknowledging needs of student-carers. At macro/policy level, where care is recognized = financial level, but with limitations and prescriptions. Universities need to take up Williams' (2001) 'political ethics of care' - through production of good practice guidelines

Context: The evaluation of WP interventions has posed a major challenge for the HE sector. The call for greater evidence of impact has gathered momentum within government and among HE senior managers, and this has moved evaluation beyond logging number of participants engaged in WP activities. While research has elucidated some of the factors behind low participation and attainment among underrepresented groups, many interventions in the field are not overtly informed by theory or research evidence and thus there is often little rationale for their design, content and style of delivery. Demonstrating causal links between WP activities and increased participation in HE is challenging. However engaging and 'successful' an activity may be, it could only ever be one element contributing to increased attainment, for instance. Further, to claim greater impact would be to negate the hard work of teachers, schools and cultural factors.
Aim: To describe the development and use of a theoretical framework for evaluating WP interventions.
Theoretical frame: Bourdieu: Cultural, social and academic capital are important for educational 'success'.
Methodology: None
Findings: The framework was developed by the Network for Evaluating and Researching University Participation Interventions (NERUPI) and is a tool for designing and evaluating WP interventions aimed at developing student's cultural capital and habitus and fostering agency and a sense of belonging in HE settings. It is informed by a Bourdieusian approach, which recognises power differentials between social groups, thus allowing the authors to circumvent a deficit model, where individuals are deemed responsible for their perceived failure and lack of certain capacities.

The framework has 5 broad aims. The first two relate to the evidence that although students from low SES backgrounds may have aspirations to attend HE, they may not have access to accurate knowledge about HE in their social networks and thus may be unable to develop the navigational capacities to make informed choices about university; 1) develop students' knowledge and awareness of the benefits of higher education and graduate employment and 2) develop students' capacity to navigate higher education and graduate employment sectors and make informed choices. The third aim is theoretically underpinned by Bourdieu's concept of habitus and acknowledges the complex challenges that students from underrepresented backgrounds face when accessing and experiencing unfamiliar HE environments; 3) develop students' confidence and resilience to negotiate the challenge of university life and graduate progression. The fourth aim is theoretically underpinned by Bourdieu's notion of 'skills capital', which is developed through academic practice; 4) develop students' study skills and capacity for academic attainment and successful graduate progression. Finally, the fifth aim relates to developing students 'intellectual capital' and recognises that universities are well placed to contextualise students' subject knowledge and demonstrate the links between the school curriculum, research and careers; 5) develop students understanding by contextualising subject knowledge.

The framework also describes levels based on year groups (eg Level 0 is year 6 and below, Level 1 is years 8 and 9, and so on). Learning outcomes are assigned to each of the 5 aims for each level. The stratification of learning outcomes by level and aim provides a rationale for a more nuanced and meaningful evaluation process, which is attuned to the level of delivery and anticipated outcomes. For example, for the WP program at the University of Bath, the Level 3 (post-16) learning outcome for aim 1 was 'enable students to investigate course and placement options, and social and leisure opportunities at the University of Bath and other universities. The learning outcomes should be assessed through a mixed methods approach, including pre and post student questionnaires and post-event semi-structured reflective discussion with students.
Core argument: A framework was developed for designing and evaluating WP activities which aim to develop the capitals and capacities that students need to effectively negotiate the transition from school to HE. By integrating a clear theoretical approach with practical learning outcomes, this framework provides a comprehensive structure for the planning, delivery and evaluation of WP programs.

Opinion piece
Argument: Context = increased 'domestication of higher education' in relation to neoliberal regimes of truth and logics in contemporary academy. A resulting trend = towards 'enhancement' of learning because of of increased accountability. Approaches = risky; "Change can be, and arguably should be, troublesome" (p.175). Threshold concepts/ troublesome knowledge sometimes used: "A threshold concept can be seen as a crossing into new conceptual space where things formerly not within view are perceived, much like a portal opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something" (p.176). Transformations resulting from crossing threshold can be disconcerting: "There is often double trouble, in that the letting go of a prevailing familiar view frequently involves an uncomfortable ontological shift or a change in subjectivity, which, while advancing understanding, can paradoxically be experienced as a sense of loss" (p.176). Transformations can be protracted and partial.