Conclusion: Assessing Progress and Priorities in Widening Participation

Abstract

This chapter draws on the insights provided by contributors throughout the volume to evaluate progress in widening participation (WP), including identifying key achievements and relative failures across the different dimensions of evaluation. This takes place alongside discussion of areas for future development and why such work remains necessary and will continue to become increasingly so. The diverse perspectives of the 22 commentators who have contributed to this volume represent a range of specific concerns in WP, from understanding historical developments (Berggren and Cliffordson in Chapter 12), charting contemporary progress (Padilla-Carmona in Chapter 14), or looking to predicting the future of higher education (HE) provision (Earl-Novell in Chapter 17). The book’s contributors bring to the discussion their own unique areas of expertise, encompassing issues focused around facets of experience including gender, race, class, age, subject area, higher education institution (HEI) type and mode of study. These contrasting national, disciplinary, theoretical and ideological perspectives, and the rich empirical research that has informed them, collectively provide a broad and solid base for understanding key contemporary issues in WP. Despite such apparent divergence, these scholars of HE are united in their attempt to understand the factors supporting and impeding participation amongst previously excluded groups.