Supporting University Entry in the Age of Widening Participation: Helping Talented Learners Overcome Adversity

161 Pages·2022·5.986 MB·English

by  John R. D. Blicharski

Supporting University Entry in the Age of
Widening Participation
Designed for those working with widening participation students, this key
guide provides all of the information needed to support learners from widen­
ing participation backgrounds to ensure that fair admission to university can
be effectively delivered.
Providing the reader with a theoretical and practical understanding of how to
reach non-traditional students, this book addresses the realities of the challenges
the modern university widening participation applicant faces. Each chapter offers
a fresh and engaging insight into widening participation and explores the fasci­
nating range of factors that determine whether students from non-traditional
backgrounds successfully access university and benefit from it. This book sys­
tematically considers the barriers, approaches and solutions required to reach
university and encourages a ‘best evidence’ approach that could enable the people
of tomorrow to have more equal access to learning and through that, a positive
and healthy future on a planet under severe challenge.
Ideal reading for all those working in widening participation or committed to
expanding the diversity of their student populations, this book offers the insights,
advice and considerations needed when deciding how best to help often highly
vulnerable and unsupported students transform their lives through learning.
John R. D. Blicharski has thirty years’ first-hand experience of widening
university participation policy and practice. His sector-leading work has
drawn individual, national and international praise. His most recent recogni­
tion was a Heist award for Best UK Widening Participation Initiative 2021,
becoming an Honorary Professor the same year.

Supporting University Entry in
the Age of Widening
Participation
Helping Talented Learners Overcome
Adversity
John R. D. Blicharski
Cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 John R. D. Blicharski
The right of John R. D. Blicharski to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Blicharski, John R. D., 1965-author.

Title: Supporting university entry in the age of widening participation :

helping talented learners overcome adversity / John R.D. Blicharski.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes

bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022009134 (print) | LCCN 2022009135 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781032076461 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032109596 (paperback) |

ISBN 9781003217916 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Nontraditional college students--Great Britain. |

Universities and colleges--Admission--Social aspects--Great Britain. |

Education, Higher--Social aspects--Great Britain.

Classification: LCC LC206.G7 B55 2023 (print) | LCC LC206.G7 (ebook) |

DDC 378.1/610941--dc23/eng/20220617

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022009134

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022009135

ISBN: 978-1-032-07646-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-10959-6 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-21791-6 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003217916

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Taylor & Francis Books
For Adam and Anna

Contents

List of tables viii

Preface ix

Acknowledgement xiv

About the author xvi

Autobiographical notes xx

1 Widening participation hits the headlines 1

2 A model of widening participation and how it leads to

undergraduate entry 8

3 Visualising Access to university 17

4 What factors contribute to successful Access to university? 31

5 Who are the key players in Access? 44

6 Examining the ‘racetrack’ of competitive degree entry –

opportunities and obstacles towards success 61

7 So who successfully crosses the line and enters university? 73

8 Contextual admissions 85

9 Exploring an Access course in detail 100

10 Reflections – and now for something completely different 118

Appendicies 130

References 136

Index 140
Tables
Example Contextual Flags - Category 1 130

Example Contextual Flags - Category 2 130
Preface

This book is about many things. It is the culmination of over a quarter century of
practitioners, friends and colleagues telling the author he really should
‘write a book about that’. My hope is that it allows readers to understand
the largely hidden complexity of entry into university and through this, helps
more candidates from diverse backgrounds to successfully achieve this.
During the twenty-five plus years this book covers, the widening participation
(WP) dynamic has changed from exclusion (individuals from some sectors of
society in a sense being unable to enter university) to the new dynamic of non-
inclusion (the doors now being open, but individuals themselves requiring to be
proactive to enter university). Whilst the birthplace of this book has largely been
the Scottish scene, much of the information and experiential enlightenment it
contains is truly international and hopefully of interest to all involved in WP, fair
admission to university, equality, equity and post-compulsory study. Please enjoy
it, challenge it and reflect upon it, as you learn your own lessons about university
entry in the age of WP.
The cast of characters behind the book span many institutions, agencies and
services and are too numerous to list here. However, the joy of WP (reaching out)
or Access (guiding in) – terms which are often used interchangeably – is shared
by them all. The author has regularly described what WP does as helping non­
traditional learners ‘turn their headlights on’ so that the potentially daunting
‘dark learner journey tunnel’ in front of them not only becomes clearer and safer
but also more meaningful and enjoyable. These learners each have headlights
available to them – they are ‘bright’ people that just need to be encouraged and
supported to use their talents. There is so much hidden ability out there, and
much of what you will read is not about deficits and disadvantage, but about
developing and enabling opportunity, unleashing the potential that so many
future students possess but may, until a critical point, simply not have been able
to switch on. Personal enlightenment in action.
In the WP world, early illumination of opportunity is vital in finding your
way, whichever side of the classroom desk you sit at. The innate human sense
of fairness – wanting to treat others as we would wish to be treated our­
selves – helpfully taunts us to deliver fairness in all that we do. Without out­
reach activity to light up opportunity, history seems likely to repeat itself,