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Presented by Professor Sue Webb, Faculty of Education, Monash University

Patchwork social inclusion: the case of vocational qualifications and transitions to higher education in England

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Overview

- Widening participation in UK - overview - Relevant literature - overview- An empirical case of F/HE transitions- Key issues and findings- Patchwork social inclusion?

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Widening participation in UK overview

• Until early 1990s – unplanned expansion• Regulated expansion by funding followed• By late 1990s = massified patchwork• From 1997 new expansion, fair access• 2010 policy turn…

What does this mean for widening participation and social inclusion?

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What do we know from literature…

Research about participation in HE tells us…• System massification, associates with

differentiation and stratification (Trow, 1999)

• Patterns of participation and equity are enduring (Bourdieu; Tomlinson, 2005)

• Institutional discourses & practices need to be a key focus of research (Burton Clark, 1966)

• Individual experiences – risky transitions need to be understood (Bourdieu; Reay et al 2001)

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Vocational transitions literature (1)

• Those entering UK universities through vocational qualification routes enter less prestigious institutions (Crozier et al. 2008; Connor & Little, 2007; Foster, 2009; Hoelscher et al., 2008; Purcell et al., 2009).

• This is an enduring pattern that replicates earlier system expansion in the 1980s- early 1990s (see Webb et al 1994)

• Vocational qualifications as hybrids (Davey & Fuller,2010) are weakly occupational and weak currency for academic transfer

• But expansion of the English system has continued in FE and middle and lower tariff universities where ‘hybrid’ vocational qualifications are most accepted (Purcell et al., 2009)

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Vocational transitions literature (2)

• This pattern of vocational qualifications with weak academic currency for tertiary education progression is found in other countries (Australia) with vocational- academic status divide in upper secondary & post compulsory education (Harris et al, 2005; Moodie & Wheelahan, 2009)

• Transfer from vocational to academic tertiary education is limited even in countries like Germany with high status VET (Hoeckel & Schwartz, 2010)

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The shift to ‘fair access’: role of lifelong learning networks…

• A 2004 initiative for WP under new Labour• Usually Further/Higher Education consortia• Most HEIs in England engaged• Focus on ‘hybrid’ vocational routes to HE• Changing demand/supply for skills & people• Focus on curricula in F/HE, cultures and

practices, expanding new sub-bachelors, the Foundation degree in FE

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‘Hybridity’ and vocational qualifications

• Hybrid qualifications can be used for multiple purposes – labour market or academic progression

• Assume exchange values: currencies such as UCAS points or guided learning hours

• Require system mechanisms regulating levels of learning e.g. credit or qualification framework

Example: BTEC National Diploma (level 3) in a vocational area, DDD grade

= A level benchmark, 3 AAA grades = 360 pts

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How are vocational qualification routes and the UK policy mechanism of Lifelong Learning Networks (LLNs) operating to widen participation to research intensive universities?

Are LLNs helping to create ‘fair access’?

The research questions

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The case study…

• Mainly qualitative study • Drawn from one regional LLN in England – a

network of 10 F/HE colleges and 3 HEIs• Focusing on the policies, practices & experiences

of staff in the research-led university in the LLN• Understanding experiences of the students who

entered this institution with vocational qualifications• Focused on Faculties of Medicine & Engineering

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The case study HEI…

• A global university• Mid range elite HEI• Tension between global & local• WP – a strong commitment, and extensive

historical institutional narrative• Yet WP – a ‘cream’ skimming activity• Bursaries to reward the highest achievers &

access given only to highest tariff students

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Findings (1)…

• Tensions heightened at faculty & departmental level closest to Learning & Teaching activities

• Department learning cultures premised on traditional A(cademic) level entrants’ characteristics

• Assumes students have high levels of social & cultural capital and the selection of the most able

• Characteristics of academics similarly very selective & prime focus of their role is on research activity rather than teaching

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Findings (2)…

Students report learning culture dissonance compared to Further Education as in…

• Large student cohorts• Intensification of workload• Lack of personalised support • Lack of specific knowledge (Maths)• Little experience of assessment modes• Support is voluntaristic, when available

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Findings (3)…

Staff report…• High commitment to WP• Developing institutional arrangements• Responsive behaviour to make it work• Frustration at the difficulties faced by

themselves and students• High transactional costs

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2010 the policy turn…

• ‘Students at the heart of the system’• UK Gov opens up competition in HE• More HE in FE, and private HE providers

“Our goal is a sector that is freed to respond in new ways to the needs of students” Willetts, UK Gov. 2012

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Current issues:

• Increased competition among students without the highest grades

• Increased competition between institutions• Tensions in the ’squeezed middle’ • Hybrid qualification students pushed to the

low tariff institutions

Patchwork social inclusion

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How to make sense of this…. Bourdieu on Distinction The struggle to keep up…

“The overproduction of qualifications, and the consequent devaluation, tend to become a structural constant when theoretically equal chances of obtaining qualifications are offered to all the offspring of the bourgeoisie while the access of other classes also increases in absolute terms. The strategies which one group may employ to try to escape downclassing and return to their class trajectory, and those which another group employs to rebuild the interrupted path of a hoped-for trajectory, are now the most important factors in the transformation of social structures” 1979, p147

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Bourdieu’s struggle to keep up…

• Is played out by individuals & groups,• And by institutions where individuals and groups

engage in classifying practices,• And at State level in constructing the ‘taken for

granted’ meritocracy & the A level ’gold standard’

The result:• Institutional distinctions & the patchwork social

inclusion are made in ecology of everyday practices • Staff and students manage tensions between

equity, fair access and the ‘core business’

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So where next…? We have found that staff and students bear the brunt of

what Lunt (2008:746) calls

“the trade off between excellence and equity”

Globalisation of higher education plays out in tension between global, national and regional roles for universities creating patchwork social inclusion.

But how can we challenge the Emerging Global Model (aka elitism) of the top strata of universities (Mohrmam et al. 2010)?

If universities focus on third missions and their regions, drawing on Boyer’s (1990) concept of the ‘scholarship of engagement’, will it moderate the struggle for Distinction?

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References

Bourdieu, P., (1987) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press

Boyer, E., L., (1990) Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate Princeton NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Clark, B., R., (1960) The “Cooling-out” Function in Higher Education, The American Journal of Sociology, 65 (6), 569-576

Connor, H., & Little, B., (2007) When will diversity of higher education mean diversity of entry routes for young people?, Journal of Access Policy and Practice, 4 (2), 134-156

Crozier, G., Reay, D., Clayton, J., Colliander, L. & Grinstead, J. (2008) Different strokes for different folks: diverse students in diverse institutions - experiences of higher education Research Papers in Education, 23(2), pp. 167- 177.

Davey, G., & Fuller, A., (2010) Hybrid Qualifications - Increasing the Value of Vocational Education and Training in the Context of Lifelong Learning - Country Report, England, Southampton School of Education: University of Southampton http://eprints.soton.ac.uk

DIUS, Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills (2008) Higher Education at Work High Skills, High Value, London, The Stationery Office

Foster, T., (2009) Alternative Routes into and Pathways through Higher Education, London, Department for Business Innovation and Skills

Harris, R., Sumner, R., & Rainey, L., (2005) Student Traffic: Two way movement between vocational education and training and higher education, Australia: NCVER

HEFCE (2004) ‘Lifelong Learning Networks’ (Joint letter from HEFCE and the Learning & Skills Council) HEFCE circular letter 12/2004, dated 3 June 2004

Hoeckel, K., & Schwartz, R., (2011) Learning for Jobs OECD Review of Vocational Education and Training in Germany OECD

Hoelscher, M., Hayward, G., Ertl, H. & Dunbar-Goddet, H. (2008) The transition from vocational education and training to higher education: a successful pathway?, Research Papers in Education, 23(2), pp. 139-151.

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References

Leitch, (2006) Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills, Final Report, London, The Stationery Office

Lunt, I.,(2008): Beyond tuition fees? The legacy of Blair’’s government to higher education, Oxford Review of Education, 34:6, 741-752

Moodie, G., & Wheelahan, L., (2009) The Significance of Australian Vocational Education Institutions in Opening Access to Higher Education Higher Education Quarterly Special Issue: The College Contribution to English Higher Education: International and Contextual Commentaries, Volume 63 ( 4), 356–370

Mohrman, K., Ma, W., & Baker, D., (2008) The research university in transition: the emerging global model, Higher Education Policy 21 (1): 34-37

Purcell, K., Elias, P. and Atfield, G. (2009). Analysing the relationship between higher education participation and educational and career development patterns and outcomes, A new classification of higher education institutions, Coventry: IER University of Warwick.

Reay, D., Davies, J., David, M. & Ball, S.J. (2001) Choices of Degree or Degrees of Choice? Class, 'Race' and the Higher Education Choice Process, Sociology, 35(4), pp. 855-874.

Trow, M., (1999) From Mass Higher Education to Universal Access: The American Advantage, Minerva, 37,303-328

Tomlinson, S.,(2005) Education in a post welfare society, Maidenhead, Open University Press/McGraw Hill

Webb, S., Davies, P., Williams, J., Green, P., & Thompson, A., (1994) Access and Alternative entrants to higher education: routes, tacks, triggers and choices, Journal of Access Studies, 9(2) 197-214